Ty Hardin plays Jack “Sacramento” Thompson, a prize fighter still involved in the sport well past him prime and well past the age where his children consider it safe.
It becomes more unsafe when outlaw Tom Murdock (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) blames Sacramento for his gambling losses, claiming he’s paying off opponents to throw matches.
He’s determined to recover his losses, at the point of the gun by need be, or by robbing the bank where Sacramento keeps his cash.
Then he comes up with a more dastardly plan.
While Sacramento is engaged in a match at the local saloon with a much younger fighter named Dynamite, Murdock has his pretty daughter Maggie (Jenny Atkins) kidnapped.
In return for her safe return, he wants $20,000. He also wants Sacramento’s hide, though he’s going to keep that secret until his arch enemy shows up to pay up.
Using a combination of his six-gun skills and fighting skills, Sacramento is able to infiltrate Murdock’s hideout.
But he’s going to need some help from a his son Jim and an old friend named Doc to make it out alive with Maggie.
A rather light-hearted romp through the West in which the highlights are a ridiculously catchy score and a horse named Ringo that does tricks, like nudging a wagon filled with fireworks into a saloon.
There’s plenty of boxing going on to flush out the runtime, including one scene in which Sacramento prods his son Jim (Christian Hay) into acting more like a man by forcing him to fight ranch foreman Ike (Stelvio Rosi).
Meanwhile, there’s lots of romance in the air. Serving girl Evelyn (Krista Nell) is determined to seduce Jim, the boss’s son. Ike has his eyes on the tomboyish Maggie. And saloon owner Rosie (Dana Ghia) has a soft spot for Sacramento.
When it comes to Spaghettis from the 1970s with a comic bent, you could do much, much worse.
Directed by:
Giorgio Cristallini
Cast:
Ty Hardin … Jack “Sacramento” Thompson
Christian Hay … Jim Thompson
Jenny Atkins … Maggie Thompson
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart … Tom Murdock
Krista Nell … Evelyn
Stelvio Rosi … Ike
as Stan Cooper
Dana Ghia … Rosie
Silvano Tranquilli … Doc O’Donnell
Also with: Kathrin Asimus, Enrico Casadei, Domenico Cianfriglia, Giovanni Cianfriglia, Gianni Fanelli, Raffaele Fanelli, Roberto Fizz, Salvatore Furnari, Milla Johansson, Rocco Lerro, Carla Mancini, Martina Orlop, Alessandro Perrella, Renato Pietrini, Ferdinando Poggi, Virgilio Ponti, Pietro Torrisi, Clemente Ukmar
Runtime: 101 min.
aka:
Sei jellato amico, hai incontrato Sacramento
Music: Franco Micalizzi
Songs: “Jesus We Love You” by David King
“The Story of a Girl” by Dana Ghia
Memorable lines:
Maggie Thompson: “It just doesn’t look right, pappa, fighting at your age. Now this is the last time? Promise?”
Jack “Sacramento” Thompson, asking to see his son’s drawing after a saucy dance by Evelyn: “I thought it was Evelyn’s portrait.”
Jim Thompson: “I like horses better.”
Sacramento: “Are you sure you really are my son?”
Evelyn, after an initial tussle in the hay with Jim: “We’ll be married?”
Jim Thompson: “Not if I can help it.”
Evelyn: “I might have known it, I’m just the boss’s son’s little friend. But … I’m not … objecting. You can play with me as much as you like. Because I really and truly love to be your friend.”
Jim Thompson to Ike, as she heads off riding by herself: “Don’t worry about my sister. I’m damn sure she could beat up the devil by herself.”
Ike: “I see your relations with Evelyn are coming along.”
Jim Thompson: “So is winter. The nights are getting longer and colder.”
Ike: “I get ya. You’ve provided yourself with a stove.”
Tom Murdock to Sacramento: “You believe lifting (stealing) money ain’t a difficult way to get it?”
Trivia:
* In an odd bit of casting, Jenny Atkins plays the daughter of Hardin’s character. In truth, they were married at the time the film was released. She also appeared with him in 1971’s Day of Judgment, playing a circus girl. Atkins was the fifth of Hardin’s eight wives; they divorced in 1974.
This also marked the last of several Spaghetti Westerns for Hardin. He’d return to the genre in a TV remake of “Red River” (1988) starring James Arness and the horrific 1990 Western “Bad Jim,” starring James Brolin, Richard Roundtree and John Clark Gable.
After his acting career ended, Hardin became an evangelistic preacher and led a radical right-wing group called The Arizona Patriots.