Ringo and His Golden Pistol (1966)

Mark Damon is Ringo, a bounty hunter who does much of his work south of the border.

He’s already collected rewards on six members of the Perez family. He refuses to kill the seventh, young Juanito, because there isn’t a bounty on his head yet.

Ringo then travels to the town of Coldstone, where he has two old friends, a sheriff named Norton and a saloon girl named Margie.

The sheriff is hoping to step down and retire to a job as a newspaper reporter in Boston. His wife dreams of using his “star” to top a Christmas tree. She wants their son to be raised somewhere safer.

Well, Coldstone is about to become very dangerous. Juanito wants revenge for his siblings’ deaths.

Ahen his own men fail to kill Ringo, he joins forces with a local band of Apache to get the job done.

Back in Coldstone, Norton has locked Ringo up for using explosives within town limits, where all weapons are forbidden. And he’s not about to give him up to Juanito, at least not without a fight.

Review:

Coming after “Minnesota Clay” and before “Django,” this is perhaps Corbucci’s most straight-forward Western. And, though enjoyable in spots, it’s also probably his weakest.

Mark Damon plays the lead as a bounty hunter with a sense of humor. Franco De Rosa isn’t very convincing for a villain, but Valeria Fabrizzi is around to lead a touch of lovely to the proceedings.

And, yep, Johnny wears a golden pistol. And golden stars on his spurs. A gold cannon in the middle of Coldstone plays a part in the plot as well.

Directed by:
Sergio Corbucci

Cast:
Mark Damon … Ringo
Ettore Manni … Sheriff Norton
Valeria Fabrizi … Margie
Franco De Rosa … Juanito Perez
Andrea Aureli … Gilmore
Lori Loddi … Stan Norton
Giulia Rubini … Joan Norton
Pippo Starnazza … Matt
John Bartha … Alcalde Benal
Giovanni Cianfriglia … Sebastian
as Ken Wood

Also with: Nino Vingelli, Vittorio Bonos, Bruno Scipioni, Silvana Bacci, Giulio Maculani, Evaristo Signorini, Amerigo Castrighella, Figlia Francesco, Ivan Basta, Lucio De Santis, Mauro Mannatrizio, Fortunato Arena, Paolo Figlia, Ferdinando Poggi, Fulvio Mingozzi, Giovanni Cariffi, Walter Peraso, Nicola Di Gioia

aka:
Johnny Oro

Score: Carlo Savia
“Johnny Ringo” performed by Don Powell
“Band of Gold” performed by Valeria Fabrizzi

Runtime: 88 min.

Memorable lines:

Margie: “But that’s the truth. I wouldn’t lie.”
Ringo: “Nope, honey, and that’s the color or your hair and you’re singing’s right on key, too.”
Margie: “That will cost you a whiskey.”
Ringo: “Hmm, your price has come way down.”

Benal: “You always kill for gold, heh?”
Ringo: “Well, Benal, I once killed a man for some Dallas bank notes, but they turned out to be worthless.”

Benal: “What’s this? I see you without that colt pistola of yours. Don’t tell me it has melted away from all the firing you have done.”
Ringo: “No, Benal, the more I shoot it, the prettier it gets. Like when you stroke a horse. Or a woman.”

Ringo: “You’re not stubborn, sheriff. You’re crazy.”
Sheriff: “Could be. You do crazy things to collect gold. I do crazy things for my principles. Do you know what principles are?”
Ringo: “Yeah, that’s a word that you see on tombstones. Here lies a man of solid principles.”

Trivia:

The film was called “Johnny Oro” in Italy, but the name was changed for U.S. audiences, or for some foreign markets, because of the commercial success of the earlier Ringo films starring Giuliano Gemma.

Lovely Valeria Fabrizi, who co-stars as Ringo’s saloon singer girlfriend, was Miss Italy in 1957 and was a semifinalist in the Miss Universe pageant. She had already appeared in a couple of films by that point and was still active as a TV actress in 2013. in 1976, at age 38, she posed nude for the Italian version of Playboy.