Hole in the Forehead (1968)

Anthony Ghidra plays the Stranger (aka Bill Blood), a bounty hunter on the trail of the Sierra bandits. He arrives at a monastery, proclaiming he knows what he’s looking for. Soon after, a badly wounded Mexican arrives and mutters the name Munguya.

As it turns out, around the time of the Alamo, three soldiers deserted from Santana (or so the name is pronounced repeatedly in the film) and made off with an army payroll. They were separated, the money was hidden, the man who knew were it was hidden was killed.

But the secret to its location is spelled out on three playing cards. Munguya and Garrincha, two of the deserters, each have a card. Now the Stranger has found the third, on the Mexican at the monastery.

So he sets off to find Munguya and soon encounters a blood thirsty bandit who calls himself general and has a small army of mercenaries under his command. But with the help of a handmade grenade and a machine gun, the Stranger outsmarts and outshoots them.

After that, the race to find the hidden loot — and the cards with the clues — is on. And Garrincha is out there somewhere, waiting for his chance at revenge against Munguya, who thinks he is dead.

Review:

The film features a circular plot, beginning and ending in the same monastery, and an oft-used polt device, a map with multiple parts in the hands of rivals.

It also features a couple of shockingly violent scenes.In one, Munguya drowns a wayward whore in a basin of wine. In another, two men arm wrestle. The loser will have his hand embedded on a bed of nails.

But a tediously slow opening and the general predictability of what follows keeps this Spaghetti from being one you’ll want to watch repeatedly.

To make matters worse, the dubbing on Munguya’s dialogue is often unintelligble, though Claudio Undari (Robert Hundar) clearly relished playing a bad guy with an evil streak.

As for the title? We’re treated to closeups of the men the Stranger guns down. Almost every time, it’s with a bullet between the eyes.

Directed by:
Guiseppe Vari

Cast
Anthony Ghidra … Stranger / Bill Blood
Claudio Undari … Gen. Munguya
as Robert Hundar
Gino Marturano … Garrincha
as Luigi Marturano
Giorgio Gargiullo .. Tedder
Gianni Brezza … Mitchell
John Bryan
Rosy Zichel … Adelita
Corinne Fontanne … Encarnacion
Elsa Janet Waterston … Placida
Mario Dardanelli … Epifan
as Mario Darnell
Giuseppe Addobbati … Father Blasco
as John MacDouglas
Brunno Cattaneo … Murienda

Runtime: 87 min.

aka
Un buco in fronte
A Hole Between the Eyes

Score by:
Roberto Pregadio

Memorable lines:

Padre: “Are you looking for something, brother?”
Bill Blood: “Isn’t everybody? That’s how I spend my time. We’ll all looking for something, padre.”
Padre: “But it’s a misuse of the time on earth if a man doesn’t know what he’s looking for.”

Munguya’s man, in the cemetery at the monastery: “Let’s get out of here. I don’t like this place.”
Stranger, gun pulled: “Pity. Cause you’re going to rest here til judgment day.”

Bill Blood as he tries to get information from Tedder: “If you’re not talking, I’m shooting. Which one is it?”

Bill Blood to the two women who rescued him from Munguya: “How is it you forgot my hat when you were picking up all these things?”
Encarnacion: “Hat? Say thanks to God you’ve got a head to put it on.”
Stranger: “I was real fond of that ol’ hat. More than I figured.” (Of course, he doesn’t tell them two cards with clues to where the gold is hidden were in the hatband.)

Trivia:

Corinne Fontiane, who plays one of the three whores here, also had a small role in the 1968 cult classic, “Barbarella.”

Guiseppe Vari directed this film and other Spaghettis under the pseudonym Joseph Warren. Among those, “Shoot the Living, Pray for the Dead” and “Degueyo.”