The Longest Hunt (1968)

Brian Kelly is Chad Stark, quick with a gun, quick with a whip and hired to bring a young man named Fidel (Fabrizio Moroni) back home to Mexico.

Fidel has taken up with Maj. Charlie Doneghan, who robbed for a cause during the Civil War and now robs for himself.

Stark makes up a tale about a $2 million gold shipment to get Fidel away from the major, then starts the long trek to Mexico.

He thinks he’s rescuing Fidel from the life of an outlaw. What he doesn’t know is that Fidel is his mother’s bastard son. His mother’s husband wants him returned so he can kill him and wipe out a stain on the family name.

As the trek progresses Stark and Fidel strike up an uncanny friendship, even though Fidel keeps trying to give Stark the slip and Stark is doing his best to hold onto the young man for the $5,000 he’s been offered to complete the job.

Brian Kelly as Chad Stark, as quick with a whip as he is with a gun in The Longest Hunt (1968)

Fabrizio Moroni as Fidel, the son who doesn’t want to return home in The Longest Hunt (1968)

Review:

The film boils down to a prolonged game of cat and mouse between hired gun Stark and the young man he’s sent to bring home — a young man, by the way, who seems far too kind-hearted to be a bandit.

Some of the twists during their long journey are clever. Most clever of all is the twist once Stark completes his mission. But then the filmmakers go and spoil it for the sake of the most unlikely of happy endings given what has just transpired.

The presence of Keenan Wynn and his gang of not-so-dastardly outlaws doesn’t help matters. They come across as more goofy than cutthroat.

Keenan Wynn as Maj. Charlie Doneghan, determined to bring Fidel back into the fold in The Longest Hunt (1968)

Folco Lulli as Don Hernando Gutiierrez, determined to have his son return home in The Longest Hunt (1968)

Directed by:
Bruno Corbucci

Cast:
Brian Kelly … Chad Stark
Fabrizio Moroni … Fidel
as Fred Munroe
Keenan Wynn … Maj. Charlie Doneghan
Luigi Bonos … Sgt. Washington Peck
Folco Lulli … Don Hernando Gutierrez
Linda Sini … Dona Sol Gutierrez
as Virginia Field
Rik Battaglia … Maj. Norton
as Fred Austin
Giovanni Pallavicino … York, banker
Erika Blanc .. Sally
Lino Desmond … Londonberry

Also with: Enzo Andronico, Furio Meniconi, Krista Nell, Ignazio Leone as Clive Stancon, Manuel Muñiz as Pajarito, Roland Bartrop, Lina Franchi as Bonnie Miles, Osiride Pevarello, Bruno Arié, Arlene Saunders

aka:
Spara, Gringo, Spara
Shoot, Gringo, Shoot
Rainbow
Shoot, Django, Shoot

Score:
Richard Ira Silver

Runtime: 88 min.

Erika Blanc as Sally, rescuer of two men stranded in the desert in The Longest Hunt (1968)

Luigi Bonos as Sgt. Washington Peck, one of the major’s men in The Longest Hunt (1968)

Memorable lines:

Chad Stark, who was about to be hanged before Don Hernando orders his men to cut the ropes: “You’ve changed your mind?”
Don Hernando: “Often providence alters destiny.”

Don Hernando to Stark: “You prefer whiskey or tequila?”
Stark: “What are you having?”
Don Hernando: “Tequila.”
Stark: “Whiskey.”

Maj. Doneghan, explaining his post-war enterprise: “I’m a born soldier, but that drunken Grant wouldn’t even promote me to corporal. I fought one war to make funds for the government. Now I’m fighting another one to make funds for me.”

Sheriff: “Hold your fire, numskulls. You aren’t going to scare a madman.”

Fidel, after Stark shoots holes in their water bag in the middle of the desert: “You’ve gone crazy. Now we’re both going to die.”
Stark: “Well, it’s nice to have the company.”

Rik Battaglia as Maj. Norton. an old acquaintance of Chard Stark in “The Longest Hunt” (1968)

Giovanni Pallavicinio as York, a banker victimized by the major’s gang in The Longest Hunt (1968)

Trivia:

A couple different names appear in the credits as director of this Spaghetti — Frank Corlish and Billy Michaels. They are pseudonyms for Bruno Corbucci, brother of prolific Spaghetti director Sergio Corbucci.

Brian Kelly, the star here, gained famed as the perfect dad in the Flipper TV series in the mid-1960s. His film career ended a year after this film was released as his right arm and leg were paralyzed in a motorcycle crash.

Brian Kelly as Chad Stark and Fabrizio Moroni (Fred Munroe) as Fidel, two young gunmen about to become inseparable in The Longest Hunt (1968)

Linda Sini as Dona Sol Gutierrez, reluctantly going along with her husband’s plan in The Longest Hunt (1968)

Krista Nell as Sheila, a saloon girl found on the lap of Fidel (Fabrizio Moroni) when a jealous lover shows up in The Longest Hunt (1968)

Keenan Wynn as Maj. Charlie Doneghan with one of his men during a bank robbery in The Longest Hunt (1968)

Fabrizio Moroni as Fidel, on a long journey through the desert in The Longest Hunt (1968)

Brian Kelly as Chad Stark, paid to retrieve a son from an outlaw gang in The Longest Hunt (1968)