Vengeance (1968)

Richard Harrison plays Rocco, a gunman out for vengeance, determined to track down the five men who tortured and killed Richie, a young man who was a member of his gang.

The gang made off with a small fortune in gold. But the mastermind, Mendoza, was killed during a cave-in. Richie was drawn and quartered after a fourth gang member, Domingo, turned out to be a traitor.

Rocco evens the score with Domingo, but not until he fingers Laredo and Yuma as two of the others responsible for Richie’s death.

Rocco has four small pieces of rope left, one to place beside each responsible body. But he doesn’t know who the other two men are.

As for Laredo, Rocco figures the best way to get to him might be to capture his curvaceous red-headed fiance (Spela Rozin as Jane).

The works out better than he ever could have expected.

But another, less pleasant surprise awaits our hero.

Richard Harrison as Rocco Barret, raising a glass to revenge in Vengeance (1968)

Claudio Camaso as Mendoza, the mastermind before the robbery involving Rocco in Vengeance (1968)

Review:

Standard Spaghetti revenge tale, though a few scenes grab your attention. Like when Rocco grabs an overhanging beam during a barroom fight, swings from it and slashes a man to death with his spurs. And like when Rocco’s eyes are pinned open with sticks so he’ll be blinded while tied and left to bake in the sun.

Except he isn’t left to bake long enough, because he wins a well-staged barroom shootout with a young gunman confident because he figures his foe is half blind.

Other than those few scenes and the presence of Rozin, the film has little to offer.

Spela Rozin (Sheyla Rosin) as Jane, the saloon girl who finds herself falling for Rocco in Vengeance (1968)

Luciano Pigozzi (Larry Bona) as Domingo, the first victim of Rocco Barret’s revenge in Vengeance (1968)

Directed by:
Antonio Margheriti

Cast:
Richard Harrison … Rocco Barret
Spela Rozin … Jane
as Sheyla Rosin
Claudio Camaso … Mendoza
Paolo Gozlino … Detective Lester
as Paul Lino
Luciano Pigozzi … Domingo
as Alan Collins
Goffredo Unger … Yuma
as Fredi Unger
Lucio De Santis … Laredo
as Louis Santis
Werner Pochath … Kid
Alberto Dell’Acqua … Richie
as Albert Nova
Mariangela Giordano … Rosita
as Marian Dana

Also with: Aldo De Carellis as Albert Carl, Ivan Giovanni Scratuglia as Ivan G. Scott, Luciano Bonanni as Larry Bona, ] (Joe, New Laredo bartender), Lucio Zarini, Fulvio Pellegrino, Marco Morelli, Aysanoa Runachagua, Claudio Ruffini, Sergio Ukmar, Giglio Gigli, Renzo Pevarello, Alexander Allerson

aka
Roko’s Revenge
Joko invoca Dio … e muori

Score: Carlo Savina

Runtime: 101 min.

Goffredo Unger (Fredi Unger) as Yuma, the gambler who turns on Rocco in Vengeance (1968)

Lucio De Santis (Louis Santis) as Laredo, the man determined to free Jane from Rocco’s grip in Vengeance (1968)

Memorable lines:

Jane, spying Rocco’s badge: “Well, I’ll be damned.”
Rocco: “That could very well happen if you don’t keep your pretty mouth shut.”

Jane: “Where is he (Yuma)?”
Rocco: “Right now, he’s riding the devil in hell.”

Rocco: “He’s right. I am a half-breed. I lived with the Cheyenne up until they kicked me out for being disgusting white. But then all the white folks spat in my face. But most of them are dead now.”

Rocco of Mendosa: “He’s just a mad dog. And there’s only one thing to do with a mad dog: Kill it.”

Werner Pochath as the Kid, who tortures Rocco before a showdow with him in Vengeance (1968)

Alberto Dell’Acqua (Albert Nova) as Richie, the young man whose death Rocco is avenging in Vengeance (1968)

Trivia:

Claudio Camaso’s birth name was Claudio Volonte; he was the brother of Spaghetti star Gian Maria Volonte. In 1977, he fatally stabbed a man during a brawl in Rome. While awaiting trial later that year, he committed suicide by hanging. He was 37.

In Germany and France, this became yet another Django film.

A graduate of a pair of Hercules films from the 1960s, curvy Spela Rozin appeared in one other Spaghetti, 1969’s “Tails You Lose,” starring John Ericson.

Paolo Gozlino (Paul Lino) as Detective Lester, the Pinkerton man determined to recover the stolen loot in Vengeance (1968)

Mariangela Giordano (Marian Dana) as Rosita, the woman Mendoza calls his own in Vengeance (1968)

Spela Rozin (Sheyla Rosin) as Jane at the poker table with Yuma (Goffredo Unger) in Vengeance (1968)

Richard Harrison as Rocco Barret spies one of the men he’s been seeking in Vengeance (1968)

Claudio Camaso as Mendoza, offering up Rosita (Mariangela Giordano) to another man in Vengeance (1968)

Richard Harrison as Rocco Barret and Spela Rozin (Sheyla Rosin) as Jane, hoping for a brighter future in Vengeance (1968)