Adios Gringo Review: Difference between revisions

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While Gemma shows little of the cynical attitude of the spaghetti western hero, the violence is more graphic than in his previous movies. A man is nailed to a wall by piercing his hand and the traditional fistfight between Gemma and Pazzafini is remarkably crude. Adios Gringo offers a nice mix of American and Italian influences; it was based on an American pulp novel (by the author Henry Whittington) and it's therefore no wonder that thematically it still relies on American genre examples, emphasysing redemption rather than revenge, but the presentation of both action and dialogue is already typically Italian. The characters are clichéd, but Cressoy is nevertheless quite convincing as the patriarch, authoritarian, despotic, but not without a consciousness. Righi is well-cast as the piece of vermin: he looks as trustworthy as a ferret near a rabbit hole. There’s a good Roberto Carmadiel too, cast against type as a wise doctor instead of the usual comical sidekick. Benedetto Ghiglia’s score is both lively and lovely, but the cheesy theme song (Gringo, Gringo, pom, pom, pom) is nearly hilarious.
Gemma shows little of the cynical attitude of the spaghetti western hero, but the violence is a bit more graphic than in his previous movies. A man is nailed to a wall by piercing his hand and the traditional fistfight between Gemma and Pazzafini is remarkably crude. Adios Gringo offers a nice mix of American and Italian influences; the credits tell us that it was based on an American pulp novel (by the author Henry Whittington) and the story material - emphasysing redemption rather than revenge - feels indeed American, but both the action scenes and the style of acting are typically Italian. Characterizations are clichéd, but Cressoy is nevertheless quite convincing as the patriarch, authoritarian, despotic, but not without a conscious. Righi is well-cast as the piece of vermin: he looks as trustworthy as a ferret near a rabbit hole. There’s a good Roberto Carmadiel too, cast against type as a wise doctor instead of the usual comical sidekick. Benedetto Ghiglia’s score is both lively and lovely, but the cheesy theme song (Gringo, Gringo, pom, pom, pom) is nearly hilarious.


Notes:
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Revision as of 21:23, 14 November 2019


Adios Gringo review
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This was the fourth Gemma western of 1965, and the fourth hit. Adios Gringo even beat the two Ringo movies at the box office, ending third on the list of most successful westerns of the year, behind For a Few Dollars More and that other Gemma vehicle, One Silver Dollar. With four movies in the box-office Top 5, 1965 was definitely Gemma's year.

In Adios Gringo he is Brett Landers, a cowboy falsely accused of stealing cattle. He is forced to shoot a man in self-defence but promises to come back in order to prove that he is an honest man. His only lead is the name of the man who sold him the cattle in the first place, Gil Clawson, a former acquaintance turned bandit. While following the man’s footsteps, he saves the life of a woman who was raped after a stagecoach robbery and left behind, tied naked to four poles, to die from thirst and sun-glare. It turns out that one of the rapists – and stagecoach robbers – is the son of the mightiest man in the region, who’ll do everything to protect the perverted young man. One of the good-for-nothings teaming up with the pervert, is of course Gil Clawson.

This was director Stegani's first of three spaghetti westerns. He had been assistent-director on Ferroni's One Silver Dollar and had also worked as assistent-director (to Gérard Oury) on the immensely successful French-Italian co-production Le Corniaud, starring Bourvil and Louis de Funès (*1). For the first time Gemma used his Italian name (instead of the Americanized pseudonym Montgomery Wood) and the whole publicity campaign was built around his personality; it was as much his movie as Stegani's. This seems to have led to an excess of fistfights (giving Gemma the opportunity to show all physical and athletic abilities) and an extended role for Gemma's good friend Nello Pazzafini, who gets more screen time than main villain Righi. Although the actual rape is not shown and Stewart’s naked body is hidden from view by Gemma’s stature when he approaches her, the sequence is quite nasty. In some other spaghetti westerns the suggestion is made that women might like these things ('deserve it'), here rape and torture are used to underline how bad the villains are. There’s never any suggestion made that it can be excused, quite on the contrary: a few hints are made at the hypocrisy of men, who tend to blame the victim of a rape rather than the rapists.


Adios8.jpg Adios6.jpg Adios5.jpg

Gemma shows little of the cynical attitude of the spaghetti western hero, but the violence is a bit more graphic than in his previous movies. A man is nailed to a wall by piercing his hand and the traditional fistfight between Gemma and Pazzafini is remarkably crude. Adios Gringo offers a nice mix of American and Italian influences; the credits tell us that it was based on an American pulp novel (by the author Henry Whittington) and the story material - emphasysing redemption rather than revenge - feels indeed American, but both the action scenes and the style of acting are typically Italian. Characterizations are clichéd, but Cressoy is nevertheless quite convincing as the patriarch, authoritarian, despotic, but not without a conscious. Righi is well-cast as the piece of vermin: he looks as trustworthy as a ferret near a rabbit hole. There’s a good Roberto Carmadiel too, cast against type as a wise doctor instead of the usual comical sidekick. Benedetto Ghiglia’s score is both lively and lovely, but the cheesy theme song (Gringo, Gringo, pom, pom, pom) is nearly hilarious.

Notes:

  • (1) Marco Giusti, Dizionario del western all'italiana
Trennlinie01.jpg BRIEF REVIEW Trennlinie01.jpg

Gemma is falsely accused of being a cattle thief; while looking for the man who can proof his innocence he saves the life of a woman who was raped and left for dead in the desert. One of the more americanized spaghs from the early days

Cast: Giuliano Gemma, Ida Galli (Evelyn Stewart), Nello Pazzafini, Pierre Cressoy (Peter Cross), Roberto Camardiel, Massimo Righi (Max Dean), Jesus Puente, Germano Longo - Director: Giorgio Stegani - Music: Benedetto Ghiglia

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Simon Gelten
Simon Gelten is a long time contributor to the SWDb. "I'm not as old as Tom B. but I'm working on it. I hope to catch up with him by the end of the next decade.", he says. Simon saw all movies by Sergio Leone and several by Sergio Corbucci in cinema, most of the time in Eindhoven, the city where he was born. Currently, Simon is living in Turnhout, Belgium. Simon is active within the database as both Scherpschutter and his alter ego Tiratore Scelto.
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