Ballata per un pistolero

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Ballata per un pistolero (Italy, West Germany 1967 / Director: Alfio Caltabiano)

  • Runtime: 97 min
  • Release Date: 19.4.1967
  • Filming Locations: Yugoslavia

Also known as

Rocco - der Einzelgänger von Alamo (Germany) | Balada para um pistoleiro (Portugal) | Pistoleros (U.S.A.) | Pisotla nelle polvere (Italy) | Balada de un pistolero (Spain) | Ballade d'un pistolero (France) | Tva mot alla (Sweden) | Ofthalmon anti ofthalmou (Greece) | Ringo, Pray to Your God and Die | Ballad of a Gunman | The Loner of the Alamo | Meu Lugar é No Inferno (Brazil) | 拳銃のバラード (Japan)

Cast and crew

  • Cast: Dragomir Bojanic [as Anthony Ghidra](Rocco / Blackie), Angelo Infanti (Hud/Kud Nigros), Mario Novelli [as Anthony Freeman](Chiuchi / Chinchi), Alfio Caltabiano [as Al Northon](El Bedoja), Dante Maggio [as Dan May](Explosion / Knallgrosch), Monica Teuber (Maruja), Ivan Scratuglia, Lanfranco Ceccarelli (Allentown sheriff), Hermann Nelson (banker), Peter Jacob, Ellen Schwiers (Maruja's mother), Pietro Ceccarelli (Toro), Dragomir Stanojevic (Wheeler, Bedoja bandit), Fernando Sanchez Polack, Giovanni Cianfriglia, Nicola Balini
  • Story: Alfio Catlabiano
  • Screenplay: Alfio Caltabiano, Ernest R. von Theumer
  • Cinematography: Guglielmo Mancori [Eastmancolor - Ultrascope 2,35:1]
  • Music: Marcello Giombini
  • Song: "Ballata per un pistolero" sung by Peppino Gagliardi
  • Producers: Alfredo Nicolai, Ernest R. von Theumer

The Film

Two bounty hunters are on the track of a notorious bandit, one is after the reward, the other one has a personal score to settle. The younger of the two (Infante) proposes a partnership, but the older one (Ghidra) refuses, because he hates bounty hunters. Infante nevertheless stays on Ghidra’s track, even saving his life a few times and finally Ghidra explains why he hates bounty hunters so much.

Comment

At first this only seems a more violent retelling of For a few dollars More, but director Alfio Caltabiano surprises with a thoughtful, even religious movie, that is at the same time a comment on Leone’s masterpiece: he shows that bounty hunting was a dirty job and that the people doing it, couldn’t keep their hands clean. Ghidra and Infanti are a nice couple of bounty killers and obviously they have practiced quite a lot with the gun: especially Ghidra’s trick of ‘shooting behind his back’ is impressive. No wonder if you know that Caltabiano was one of the greatest ‘maestro d’armi’ (master of arms) of the Italian film industry of the sixties, along with Benito Stefanelli: those guys showed numerous actors how to handle a gun. - Scherpschutter

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