Rik Van Nutter plays Bill Cody, famed Pony Express rider turned wagon guide, who finds himself facing a couple perplexing problems, not all of which longtime friend and mentor Bill Hickok can help him with.
Someone has been smuggling guns to the Indians, and Red Cloud has gone on the warpath.
Hickok (Adrian Hoven) might be able to help out on that front, if he can stay sober long enough. So might Frank North, a white man who has become a chief of the friendly Pawnee tribe.
But Bill alone will need to figure out how to deal with Ethel (Helga Sommerfield), a lovely redhead he met while guiding a wagon train West.
She doesn’t understand his fascination with a life of danger, or his willingness to kill so readily. She wants him to settle down to a peaceful existence — with her, of course.
But peace doesn’t come easily, Cody tries to tell her.
She soon finds that out when Red Cloud and his rampaging warriors kill her uncle (Father Norman) and torch the settlement she’s been staying in.
Rik Van Nutter (Clyde Rogers) as Buffalo Bill Cody in Seven Hours of Gunfire (1965)
Adrian Hoven as Wild Bill Hickok in Seven Hours of Gunfire (1965)
Review:
One of those early Spaghettis that throws lots of action at the viewer with none of the special ingredients that set Italian Westerns apart from their U.S. counterparts. In fact, this is more of an imitation of an American Western, and not a great imitation at that.
There’s lots of silly philosophizing, a plot that stresses that not all Indians are bad — Ethel’s uncle has taken in an Indian named William (Raf Baldassarre) as part of the family — and a portrayal of Hickok as a reckless drunk.
Some of the action sequences are surprising large and well-staged. The attempts at comic relief generally don’t come off nearly as well.
Helga Sommerfield as Ethel Norman, who falls for Buffalo Bill in Seven Hours of Gunfire (1965)
Gloria Milland as Calamity Jane, jealous of Wild Bill in Seven Hours of Gunfire (1965)
Directed by:
Joaquin Lius Romero Marchent
Cast:
Rik Van Nutter … Buffalo Bill
as Clyde Rogers
Adrian Hoven … Bill Hickok
Helga Sommerfield … Ethel
Gloria Milland … Calamity Jane
Alfonso Rojos … Col. Carr
Ricardo Rodriguez … Red Cloud
Marino Vidal Molina … Frank North
Raf Baldassarre … William
Francisco Sanz … Father Norman
Kurt Grobkurth … August Mai
Maria Leiva .. Anges Mai
as Mery Leiva
Alejandra Nilo… Luisa
as Alejandra Kasan
Carlos Romero Marchent … Ted
as Robert Johnson Jr.
Chris Huerta … Steve
Lorenzo Robledo … Charlie
Alvaro de Luna … Uter
Antonio Molino Rojo … Deatle
aka:
Aventura del Oeste
Seven Hours Under Fire
Score: Angelo Francesco Lavagnino,
and Fred Strittmatter
Runtime: 92 min.
Ricardo Rodriguez as Red Cloud, who leads his tribe in battle in Seven Hours of Gunfire (1965)
Antonio Molino Rojo as Deatle (second from left) with his fellow gunrunners in Seven Hours of Gunfire (1965)
Memorable lines:
Father Norman: “My children, I’m afraid the beer has had a bad effect on me too. I’m getting wicked ideas. I have a terrible desire to bash in the head of anyone who doesn’t believe in God.”
Drunk: “Is that a woman in flesh and blood? Or am I a lot drunker than I think I am?”
Hickok: “She’s an angel, and you throw dirt all over her just by looking at her.”
Hickok to Ethel as she balks at his violent ways: “Someday, we’ll have that peace you want. But the only ones who will live to see it are those who knew how to defend themselves.”
Alfonso Rojas as Col. Carr, post commander in Seven Hours of Gunfire (1965)
Marino Vilad Molina as Frank North, white chief of the Pawnee in Seven Hours of Gunfire (1964)
Trivia:
This was one of two Spaghetti Westerns for Rik Van Nutter, best known for being the third actor to take on the role of CIA agent Felix Leiter in the James Bond series, in his case for the film “Thunderball” (1965). He was married to sex siren Anita Eckberg from 1963 to 1975. He died in 2005 at age 76.
Helga Sommerfield lights up the screen in this film as the peace-loving Ethel who falls for Bill Cody. She appeared in one other Euro-Western, “Black Eagle of Sante Fe” (1965) and retired from film to a career in German theater. She died in Berlin in 1991 at age 50.
Like many of the early Euro-Western, there’s lots of silliness here. That includes an “adios note” Wild Bill sends to Calamity because he thinks he’s about to be plugged in the back. A sign on a Pony Express station that spells it Poney. And Chief Red Cloud lecturing gun runners on punctuality.
Raf Baldassarre as William, Father Norman’s Indian helper in Seven Hours of Gunfire (1965)
Helga Sommerfield as Ethel with her dad, Father Norman (Francisco Sanz) in Seven Hours of Gunfire (1965)
Carlos Romero Marchent as Ted and Alejandra Nilo (Alejandra Kasan) as Louisa, settlers in Seven Hours of Gunfire (1965)
Gloria Milland as Calamity Jane and Adrian Hoven as Wild Bill Hickok, quarrelling again in Seven Hours of Gunfire (1965)
Francisco Sanz as Father Norman, badly wounded and accompanied by Ethel (Helga Sommerfield), William (Raf Baldassarre) and Ted (Carolos Romero Marchent) in Seven Hours of Gunfire (1965)
Rik Van Nutter (Clyde Rogers) as Buffalo Bill, wondering about Wild Bill’s motivation in Seven Hours of Gunfire (1965)
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