In a Colt’s Shadow (1965)

Stephen Forsyth and Conrado San Martin play gunfighters Steve Blane and Duke, two men hired by Mexican villagers to free them from the bandits who rule their town.

Steve and Duke make short order of those bandits, but Duke is wounded in the process and has to stay behind as Steve rides north, in search of a new beginning.

He wants that new beginning to include a lovely woman named Susan (Ann Maria Polani), who happens to be Duke’s daughter.

Duke vows he won’t let Steve ruin his daughter’s life; he’s convinced a woman can never be safe or happy while living life with a gunslinger.

Unfortunately for Steve, he picks the town of Providence to begin that new life. The town might as well be called Jackson and Burns. After all, they own nearly all the land and businesses in the area.

They also want the farm Steve intends to buy, which pits the town fathers against the newcomer and his fiancee.

Then there’s Duke and his lover, Fabienne, both of whom wind up in Providence with different intentions.

Review:

Well done little film, with an excellent score and a couple gimmicks thrown in. Blane, for instance, likes to gun me down by shooting behind his back. And town father Burns is paranoid about being shot in his left hand; he’s already lost his right to a gunman’s bullet.

Of course, you have to get past the somewhat silly premise that Duke is hellbound to track down Steve Blane and put a bullet in his forehead to prevent him from marrying Duke’s daughter. Or as Duke puts it, to ensure that his daughter sheds her first and last tear at Steve’s funeral.

Directed by:
Giovanni Grimaldi

Cast:
Stephen Forsyth … Steve Blane
Conrado San Martin … Duke
Ann Maria Polani … Susan
(as Ann Sherman)
Helga Line … Fabienne
Franco Lantieri … Burns
Frank Ressel … Jackson
Jose Calvo … Sheriff
Andrea Scotti … Oliver
(as Andrew Scott)
Graham Sooty … Buck
Aldo Sambrell … Ramirez
Gino Cassani … Jim

aka:
All’Ombra di una Colt
Pistoleros

Score: Nic Fidenco / Willy Brezza

Memorable lines:

Steve Blane: “Is the bank safe?”
Sheriff: “As safe as death.”

Farmer, as he watches Steve bury his six-shooter: “Hey, what kind of agriculture do you call that? I ain’t never heard of planting pistols.”
Steve: “I’m just hoping that I’ll never have any more use for it. If any little ones begin to sprout, tear them up by their roots.”

Fabienne: “They love each other, Duke. They’re only children.”
Duke: “A pistolero’s an old man when he’s 20, because he’s already got one foot in the grave.”

Duke: “Why aren’t you wearing your gun anymore?”
Blane: “Because you can’t till the land by shooting at it.”

Trivia:

Regarded as the best of director Giovanni Grimaldi’s three Spaghetti Westerns. A couple years later, he would make “The Handsome, the Ugly and the Stupid.” It wasn’t nearly as successful as the 1966 Sergio Leone film it was intended to spoof.

Ann Maria Polani, the top-billed female here, appeared in 11 films and just this one Western. She made her debut in 1964’s “Hercules Against the Moon Men,” starring Alan Steel (Sergio Ciani).

Like Polani, Helga Line appeared in a number of sword and sandal flicks. But she has more than 140 screen credits on IMDb, including roles in seven Spaghetti Westerns beginning with 1963’s “Duel at the Rio Grande” and ending with 1978’s “China 9, Liberty 37.”

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