Three Bullets for a Long Gun (1970)

Keith Van Der Wat plays Lucky, a Mexican who’s about to be shot by a firing squad when a stranger with a fast gun intervenes.

The stranger is The Major (Beau Brummel) and his motive is simple: He has half the information about where to find a fortune; Lucky has the other half.

And so an uneasy alliance is formed, one that will be tested when The Major and Lucky meet up with gold-hungry and revenge-minded Hawk-Eye.

You see, The Major and Hawk-Eye met before. That’s how Hawk-Eye lost his right eye. He’s determined to see that The Major loses both of his.

And Moses, his lieutenant, soon has a reason to want to get even with the Major as well.

Review:

Offbeat, violent Western that has Spaghetti overtones, but was filmed in South Africa.

Oh, and it’s clear director Peter Henkel had studied his Sergio Leone. Just check out that opening duel between Lucky and the Mexican officer who was about to execute him. Straight out of “For a Few Dollars More.”

And what would an offbeat film be without offbeat characters. Half-Eye is a madmen. There’s also a pretty senorita who had her tongue cut out by our villain.

The film suffers from a weak ending that tries to be a bit too cute and a couple of illogical plot twists. Like why in the world would Lucky and the Major think the treasure is still where it was hidden 15 years earlier?

In 1973, director Peter Henkel and star Keith Van Der Wat teamed up for a loose sequel, “They Call Me Lucky.”

Keith Vn Der Wat as Lucky in Three Bullets for a Long Gun (1970)

Cast:
Beau Brummel … Major
Keith Van Der Wat … Lucky
Patrick Mynhardt … Hawk-Eye
Tullio Moneta … Moses
Don McCorkindale
Gaby Getz
Jose DeSousa
Butch Stoltz
John Barroso
Umberto Adaggi
Celia Brummell
Janis Reinhardt
Joaquim Gomez

Runtime: 85 min.

Music: Keith Mansfield

Memorable lines:

Lucky: “Hey, Major, for a moment I thought you were talking about Hawk-Eye.”
Major: “I was.”
Lucky: ‘I’ve heard of him. Some people say he’s a bastardo, a madman.”
Major: “He is.”

Hawk-Eye, of the Major: “Last time we met, he left me with one eye. I don’t want him killed. I want to give him the same chance he gave me. Except, he won’t be left with one eye. The vultures will take both.”

Lucky to the Major: “Hey, amigo, are you sure this is a mine and not a volcano?”