Gunmen of the Rio Grande (1964)

Guy Madison plays famed lawman Wyatt Earp, summoned to a border town by pretty saloon owner Jennie Lee (Madeleine Lebeau) because the town is under the thumb of businessmen Zach Williams (Gerard Tichy) and his henchmen.

But he winds of being of more assistance to mine owner Clementine Hewitt (Carolyn Davis), who is ready to sell her property to Williams and flee the area because she can’t ship her silver to Tucson. Every time she tries, the shipment is held up by bandits.

Problem is, Wyatt — assuming the name Laramie — is just one man against Williams’ hoard of henchmen. And he might not be able to count on much help in the town where everyone cowers under Williams’ thumb, including a sheriff named Leo (Massimon Serato), who spends more time in Jennie Lee’s saloon than he does upholding the law.

But Wyatt’s resolve might help Leo regain the backbone he once had. After all, he’s in love with Jennie Lee, and eager to impress. Wyatt has already impressed the lovely mine owner he’s trying to help.

Review:

An early effort from Madison after he headed to Europe to make films there, this resembles a Hollywood Western far more than a Spaghetti Western. In fact, the echoes of John Wayne’s “Rio Bravo” are evident — a lone man takes on an evil town boss, hoping for help from an old acquaintance who’s become a drunken sheriff.

Of course, Madison is pretty much invincible as a gunman or anything else. But it’s going to take a strong hand to put the strong-willed Clementine Hewitt in her place. Carolyn Davys is reluctant as first, but quickly bends to Wyatt’s ways in what IMDb says was her only film role.

Fernando Sancho plays the Mexican bandit who would like to team up with Madison to form an all-star bandit duo. Of course, he doesn’t know his real identity. That’s one of the film’s mysteries — why Wyatt feels the need to change his name when his reputation alone might help dampen the enthusiasm of some of the men he’s up against.

Directed by:
Tulio Demicheli

Cast:
Guy Madison … Wyatt Earp / Laramie
Fernando Sancho … Pancho Bogan
Madeleine Lebeau … Jennie Lee
Gerard Tichy … Zack Williams
Carolyn Davys … Clementine Hewitt
Beni Deus … Burton Spencer Carroll
Olivier Hussenot … Judge
Massimo Serato … Leo (Sheriff)

aka:
Desafio en Rio Bravo
Duel at Rio Gravo

Score: Angelo Francesco Lavagnino

Runtime: 85 min.

Memorable lines:

Laramie: “There’s no hurry, sheriff. Dead men don’t run.”

Laramie: “Sheriff, why don’t you tell these men what happens when you shoot someone in the back.
Sheriff: “Well, the world drops out from under you. There’s a real tight feeling in the throat. But if they do the job right, hanging doesn’t hurt much.”

Pancho: “After all the nice shooting, you need a little tequila.”

Trivia:

One of Madeleine Lebeau’s earliest film roles was as Yvonne in “Casablanca.” She played the girlfriend of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart). At least she was his girlfriend until Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) showed up at his nightclub. In real life, Lebeau and her husband were forced to flee the Germans in WWII, eventually winding up in the U.S. She went on to appear in more than 30 films. This was her lone Spaghetti outing.

This marked the first Italian Western for Guy Madison, a major star in the early 1950s who then played Wild Bill Hickok in a popular TV series. His first European Western was the German-made Winnetou film “Shatterhand” earlier the same year.