Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die (1967)

Brett Halsey plays Bill Kiowa, a man serving a five-year sentence for a crime he didn’t commit and a man with one thing on his mind — getting even with the person who framed him and killed his wife.

He’s even carved a pistol from wood while in jail and practices with it day and night, preparing for the day when he can wreak vengeance.

But he also realizes he’ll need help in tracking down and killing James Elfego (Tatsuya Nakadai). That’s because these days Elfego leads a large band of comancheros.

So Bill sets out to find four killers to join him on his journey, bribing each to help out with $5,000 up front and the promise of another $5,000 once the job is complete.

His small band eventually includes a strong man named O’Bannion (Bud Spencer), a former sheriff named Milton (Wayde Preston), a young gun named Bunny Fox (Franco Borelli) and an ill-tempered gambler known as Francis “Colt” Moran (William Berger).

They set out to find Elfego, though once they have, Bill decides the best strategy might be to let the hunted become the hunter.

And it isn’t long before he and his hired killers begin to even the odds.

Review:

Well-done Spaghetti revenge flick filmed with flair by Tonino Cervi. For example, check out the scene where “Colt” Moran flings his knife blindly under a card table, pinning a foe’s cheat card to the chair.

There are “Magnificent Seven” overtones as Bill recruits his band of killers, but we never learn much about the other four. They’re proficient at killing: end of story.

For a long time, we also don’t know exactly what Bill is getting even for. Then we’re filled in on that, via a flashback scene filmed in black-and-white.

With his black overcoat, Brett Halsey’s Bill Kiowa is likely to remind you a bit of Django. And Bud Spencer is up to his old tricks, breaking free after being tied to a chair with brute strength, and taking the entire meal when offered a bite to eat by his new boss.

Helping make the film unique is the performance by Tatsuya Nakadai as the villain, a man proficient with a machete and an actor who can clue you into his madness with a single gaze. Jeff Cameron is Moreno, his right-hand man.

Directed by:
Tonino Cervi

Cast:
Brett Halsey …. Bill Kiowa
as Montgomery Ford
Bud Spencer … O’Bannion
William Berger … Francis “Colt” Moran
Wayde Preston … Jeff Milton
Franco Borelli … Bunny Fox
as Stanley Gordon
Tatsuya Nakadai … James Elfego
Jeff Cameron … Moreno
Dana Ghia … Mirana Kiowa
as Diana Madigan
Teodoro Corra … Gun Seller
as Doro Corra
Victoriano Gazzara … Gambler
Aldo Marianecci … Barber

Runtime: 95 min.

aka …
Oggi a me… domani a te!
Today It’s Me
Today It’s Me … Tomorrow It’s You

Score: Angelo Francesco Lavagnino

Memorable lines:

Prison guard: “Sergeant,! Hey, sergeant, who’s in (cell) number 14? He’s got himself a gun.”
Sergeant: “Well, don’t worry about it. Piece of wood sure ain’t going to hurt anyone. And that’s all it is. Spent over a year carvin’ it. It wasn’t easy, but he did it well. Three years in his cell, just drawin’ that gun. Yeah, he practices all day and night. I wouldn’t want to be the man he’s after. And, tomorrow, he’s out.”

Bill Kiowa, to prison warden as he’s released: “I don’t have any feelings. Except maybe hate.”

Bill Kiowa: “Here’s $5,000. There’s $5,000 more when the job’s done.”
Sheriff: “Too much. It means only two things — either it’s something very dangerous. Or something bad.”
Bill: “Dangerous maybe. But not so bad.”

Bill Kiowa, upon recruiting Bunny Fox: “Wanna know what you have to do?”
Bunny Fox: “Ten thousand dollars don’t need any explanation.”

Hotel clerk: “I think you better get out of here, ma’am.”
The woman: “Why?”
Hotel clerk: “The atmosphere is getting that heavy leaden feeling.”

James Elfego: “You don’t marry Indian girls. You take them, then kill them!”

Bill Kiowa: “There’s two ways to track game. Either you follow it. Or you get it to follow you. The second way’s the safest. That way you know when and where you’re gonna meet.”

James Elfego, upon realizing he’s missing three men: “You’ll die hard, Kiowa. Hard!”

Bill Kiowa: “Don’t talk. Shoot. And shoot to kill.”

Trivia:

* Before heading to Europe to star in films there, Wayde Preston played the lead role of Christopher Colt in the TV series Colt .45, which ran for three seasons. He pretended to be a traveling gun salesman, he was realy an undercover federal agent. Future Batman Adam West played Doc Holliday in three episodes.

* Because of the popularity from the Trinity films, this eventually was marketed as a Bud Spencer movie under the name “Today It’s Me, Tomorrow It’s You” for some video and DVD releases.

* This marked Tonino Cervi’s directorial debut and wound up being the only Spaghetti he helmed.

* This was also the only Spaghetti Western for Tatsuya Nakadai, a leading man from Japan who made his film debut as an extra in 1954’s “Seven Samurai.”

* Brett Halsey changed his name to Montgomery Ford for this film “for no good reason” other than being “ornery,” he admitted in an interview with the Once Upon a Time in Spaghetti Westerns podcast. The film wound up being the 2nd highest grossing that year in Italy; Montgomery Ford was suddenly a movie star and impossible to kill off. Halsey wound up using the name in his next two Spaghettis as well, “Wrath of God” (1968) and “Twenty Thousand Dollars for the Seven” (aka “Kidnapping” 1969). Check out the full interview here.