God’s Gun (1976)

Jack Palance plays Sam Clayton, vicious leader of a gang of outlaws who specialize in thievery and rape.

When they ride into Juno City, one man is willing to stand up against them, a priest named Father John (Lee Van Cleef).

When Father John is viciously gunned down in the middle of the street, a teenager named Johnny (Leif Garrett) whom he took under his wing journeys to Mexico to fetch the priest’s look-alike brother, a notorious gunfighter named Louis (also Van Cleef).

Of course, Louis returns to Juno City with Johnny to free the populace from Clayton’s rule.

But their return is complicated by the fact that Clayton has discovered that Johnny is his son, the product of an illicit affair with a pretty young woman (Sybil Danning) years earlier.

The owner of the Juno City saloon, she has raised Johnny, never revealing the identity of his father.

Review:

A double heaping of Lee Van Cleef. A starring role for Jack Palance. The presence of Richard Boone and a plot twist that has the young boy out to kill an outlaw turn out to be the outlaw’s son. What could go wrong?

Plenty, it turns out. For starters, Palance’s entire gang seems to have learned their trade at his school of over-the-top acting. Boone’s part is barely existent, that of a sheriff more anxious to sidestep than confront trouble.

Then there’s Louis’ return to Juno City. Out of respect of his brother’s peace-loving ways, Louis decides to confront the outlaws without his trusty six-gun. So he dons Father John’s robe and starts scaring them to death.

Sybil Danning looks alluring in her only Western role, but this isn’t the film for which Palance and Van Cleef should, or would want to be, remembered.

Directed by:
Gianfranco Parolini
(Frank Kramer)

Cast:
Lee Van Cleef … Father John
Lee Van Cleef … Louis
Jack Palance … Sam Clayton
Richard Boone … The Sheriff
Sybil Danning … Jenny
Leif Garrett … Johnny
Robert Lipton … Jess Clayton
Cody Palance … Zeke Clayton
Ian Sander … Red Clayton
Heinz Bernard … Judge Barrett
Prina Rosenblum … Chesty

aka:
Diamante lobo
A Bullet from God

Score: Sante Maria Romitelli

Runtime: 94 min.

Memorable lines:

Chesty, a saloon girl: “They call me Chesty.”
Sam Clayton, glancing at her cleavage: “No kidding. You know, Jess, I think I’m gonna like this place.”

Clayton Man #1: “I ain’t gonna swing.”
Clayton Man #2, laughing: “You ain’t gonna swing. You haven’t got a head on your shoulders.”

Trivia:

The Clayton gang includes Jack Palance’s son, Cody, in the role of Zeke. It was one of only four films he appeared in, including a bit part in 1988’s Young Guns.

This marked the only Western appearance by Sybil Danning, a queen of sexploitation films in the 1970s and 1980s. She flashed much more of her 36-24-36 figure in many of her other films, such as 1987’s “Warrior Queen.”

Leif Garrett was 15 when he made this film, one of two Spaghetti Westerns in which he’d star (Kid Vengeance being the other, also with Van Cleef). Garrett got his start in films, but also enjoyed some success a pop star in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

If the stars here seem a bit long in the tooth … well, they were. By the time the film was released in the U.S. in March 1977, Lee Van Cleef was 52, Jack Palance was 55 and Richard Boone was 59.

This marked one of just six film appearances for Israeli-born Prina Rosenblum, aka “Chesty,” who also worked as a business before starting her own cosmetics firm.