Jeff Cameron is Tom Carter and he’s a man on a mission to get revenge for his brother Jerry, who was gunned down after pulling his life savings out of the Rio Canyon town bank.
His search leads him to Green Waters, where he crosses paths with a traveling salesman who witnessed his brother’s death and says the man responsible was Ringo Brown.
He also crosses paths with a pretty saloon owner named Cora (Krista Nell). Tom Carter suspects she might have had something to do with the murder too.
Jerry was infatuated with Cora. So infatuated, he had pulled his savings out of the bank to help save her saloon from financial ruin.
Turns out, those who would gain if her saloon goes under include Shannon (Gianfranco Clerici) and his partner and fast gun Lee Rast (Donal O’Brien).
And they cook up what they think is the perfect ambush to do away with their new problem — have someone pretend to be Ringo Brown and challenge Carter to a showdown while their other henchmen fire away from hiding places to help finish him off.
After all, Rast is busy with his other dirty deeds of the moment, trying to steal a map to Jack “Mule” Buchanan’s gold mine and trying to cheat Mule’s daughter Julie and her husband Bill Joyce out of their ranch.
Review:
Give big kudos for efficiency and imagination to director Luigi Batzella. He managed to shoot one film and make two movies out of it.
Either that, or he magically reassembled the same cast and shot just a few new scenes for 1972’s “God is My Colt .45.”
Large chunks of this film wound up in that one, including entire shootouts. The climatic shootout in this film, for instance, winds up appearing in the middle of the later film.
Of the two, this one has a slightly more logical plot, a much larger role for pretty Kirsta Nell, and much less of villains Rast (O’Brien) and Shannon (Clerici).
But there are also plenty of unintentionally funny moments, including the catfight between Nell and saloon girl Zelda (Sofia Kammara).
Oh, and O’Brien plays a fast gun spooked by a old Indian fortune teller who recently told him he was merely a lucky shot when he outdrew the first 12 men he killed.
Jeff Cameron as Tom Carter in Paid in Blood (1971)
Donal O’Brien as Lee Rast in Paid in Blood (1971)
Directed by:
Luigi Batzella
as Paolo Solvay
Cast:
Jeff Cameron … Tom Carter
Donal O’Brien … Lee Rast
Alfredo Rizzo … Jack “Mule” Buchanan
Krista Nell … Cora
Edilio Kim … Doctor Lassiter
Sofia Kammara … Julie
Esmeralda Barros … Zelda
Gianfranco Clerici … Shannon
as Mark Davis
William Mayor … Bill Joyce
Attilio Dottesio … Sheriff
Franco Daddi … false Ringo
Gianclaudio Jabes … Ringo Brown
Laila Shed … Saloon girl
Lorenzo Piani … Jerry Carter
Runtime: 91 min.
aka:
Quelle sporche anime dannate
Music: Elsio Mancuso
Krista Nell as Cora in Paid in Blood (1971)
Sofia Kammara as Julie with Alfredo Rizzo as Jack (Mule) Buchanan in Paid in Blood (1971)
Memorable lines:
Tom Carter: “Tell me, you heard any shooting around these parts lately?”
Traveling salesman: “You bet I have. Folks around here can’t talk without guns.”
Tom Carter: “Do you always go around unarmed?”
Jack Buchanan: “Old grandpa used to say, ‘If you ain’t expert in knowin’ how to use a pistol, you do best not to pack one. It’s bound to get you in a mess of trouble.”
Doc Lassiter: “So you’re already acquainted with our Cora, it would appear?”
Tom Carter: “Tramps who work in saloons all look alike.”
Gianfranco Clerici (Mark Davis) as Shannon in Paid in Blood (1971)
Esmeralda Barros as Zelda in Paid in Blood (1971)
Cora, being accused of planning Jerry’s murder: “I’m not going to kill a man just for wanting to marry me.”
Tom Carter to Doc Lassiter: “You’re in the wrong business, mister. You would have made a good butcher.”
Tom Carter, after stopping Rast from raping Julie: “I know I should have given him a belly full of lead. But, for now, I need him well and alive.”
Tom Carter: “Turn around, Ringo Brown. I want a good look at your rotten face before I finish you off.”
Edilio Kim as Doc Lassiter in Paid in Blood (1971)
Franco Daddi as phony Ringo Brown in Paid in Blood (1971)
Trivia:
Among the repeated scenes in this film is one where Cameron visits a scantily clad Nell in her hotel room and begins slapping her around. Here, it’s because he suspects she was in on his brother’s murder. In “God Is My Colt .45,” it’s because he’s angry that his former lover has resorted to a life of whoredom. In that film, it turns out to be forced whoredom.
Sophia Kammara plays rancher’s wife Julie, and the object of Donal O’Brien’s unwanted desire in this film and also plays a prominent role in “God Is My Colt .45.” She appeared in just nine films, including two other Spaghettis, “Brother Outlaw” (1971) and “Sheriff of Rock Springs” (1971).
Speak Italian? Here’s an interview with director Luigi Batzella on the set of this film.
Gianfranco Clerici (Mark Davis) as Shannon, Attilio Dottesio as the sheriff and Donal O’Brien as Lee Rast in Paid in Blood (1971)
Alfredo Rizzo as Jack Buchanan with Jeff Cameron as Tom Carter in Paid in Blood (1971)
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