The Boldest Job in the West (1972)

The bank is Sun Valley has gotten the reputation of being one of the safest in a West.

As a results, its deposits have grown, also making it one of the richest.

Michigan (Mark Edwards) has hatched a plan for a bloodless robbery of that bank that includes all sorts of diversions, including setting off dynamite at the town’s school on a Saturday morning and blowing up the water tower.

To help him pull off the job, he’s enlisted the help of two cavalry deserters, Little Steve (Fernando Bilbao) and Jess Calloway (Frank Barana), a shy dynamite man (Yvan Veralla as Budd), an affable Mexican (Fernando Sancho as Reyes), the vicious Jeremiah (Piero Lulli) and the conniving Poldo (Carlos Bravo).

The heist isn’t quite as bloodless as Michigan hoped, but the tunnel mined under the bank works perfectly.

Problem is, the wagon carrying the bank vault never makes it back to the rendevous point where the gang has gathered to split the loot.

Review:

An odd Spaghetti that never quite lives up to the potential the complex plot seemed to present.

Director Jose Antonio de la Loma does give us a different looking Western. Here, the dusty, wind-blown streets of Spaghetti’s southwest are replaced by mud-clogged streets and snow-capped mountains.

There’s an odd subplot that finds Poldo bedding feuding sisters Sophie, who works at the local saloon, and Marion, the local school teacher. He also promises to run off with both.

Naturally, that does not improve their relationship, but the sisters disappear midway through the film.

More odd is the affection pretty young Lupe (Patty Shepard) feels toward El Reyes, who nearly rapes her at one point.

Directed by:
Jose Antonio de la Loma

Cast:
Mark Edwards … Michigan
Fernando Sancho … El Reyes
Carmen Sevilla … Marion
Carlos Bravo … Poldo
as Charly Bravo
Patty Shepard … Lupe
Piero Lulli … Jeremiah
Barbara Carroll … Sophie
Frank Brana … Sgt. Jess Calloway
Yvan Verella … Budd
Jaume Picas … Sheriff
as Jamie Picas
Poldo Bendandi … Deputy Ronny
Mercedes Molinar … Marion’s maid
Fernando Bilbao … Little Steve
Juanito Santiago … Changito

Runtime: 100 min.

aka:
El más fabuloso golpe del Far-West
Nevada
Hold Up in Sun Valley

Music: Steve Cipriani
Song: “They Call it Gold” sung by Don Powell

Memorable lines:

Lupe, as El Reyes lifts his eye patch: “But you can see with two eyes?”
El Reyes: “Even four when it comes to looking at you.”

Jeremiah: “Hey, what’s the matter with you, Mex? Why the long face?”
El Reyes: “Because inside I feel like a rotten cactus.”

El Reyes to Paldo: “When you threw me the candlesticks (dynamite) in the jailhouse, did you try to rescue me? Or murder me?”

Jeremiah, when he finds out El Reyes survived his wounds: “I couldn’t have failed. I’ve been a great shot all my life. I put that lead where it counts.”

Trivia:

This marked the only Spaghetti outing for Australian-born Edwards, who did most of his acting on TV and in low-budget horror films, including Terror in the Wax Museum (1973).

Carmen Sevilla, who runs the school house in this film, was better known for as a singer and dancer than as an actress. She played Marry Magdelene in King of Kings (1962) and while this marked her lone Euro-Western, she starred in the 1967-Mexican made “La guerrillera de Villa.”

American born Patty Shepherd is probably best remembered by Spaghetti fans for her role as villainous Peg Cullane in “The Man Called Noon” (1973). Her final acting credit came in 1988, but a couple year later she and Terence Hill were pitched as co-stars in a proposed TV series “The Ghost of Jesse James” that never came to fruition. Shepherd died in Madrid in 2013 at age 67.