This spaghetti Western has a dizzying number of alternate titles. I saw it under the title "The Artist is a Gunfighter",although the actual opening credits called it "Revenge of the Resurrected". It's ALSO known,however, as "Prey of the Vultures" and the original Spanish title roughly translates to "A One Dollar Reward". An artistically inclined young gunfighter (Peter Lee Lawrence) survives a stagecoach robbery and subsequent massacre that claims the life of his father. He draws details of what all of the masked killers were wearing and comes to work as a stable-hand in a town where all of the villains are leading double lives as the towns most respectable citizens. He turns them against each other by posting "wanted" posters (with a one dollar reward) accusing them of their crimes. Unfortunately, he has to confront them more directly when he finds out that the sheriff,and the father of his sweetheart (Orchidea DeSantis), is apparently one of the gang.
This is a very decent story and pretty entertaining film. It really keeps you guessing who the last member of the gang is. The idea of the town's most respectable citizens being secret cut-throat bandits is the kind of cynical touch that marks the 60's and 70's Italian films and makes them somewhat different from their earlier American inspirations (well, that and the inept dubbing). Peter Lee Lawrence is pretty good here, but he has kind of cruel-looking features that make him much better as a villain or a very ambiguous anti-hero than as the kind of true-blue character he plays here (I liked him better, for instance, as ambitious low-level mafioso in "Long Arm of the Godfather"). Orchidea DeSantis was not well-suited for spaghetti Westerns since she looks too Latin to be very believable as a 19th century gringa (which is what she plays here), but on the other hand, she is too fair-skinned to believably portray a Mexican woman. (She also, unfortunately, has to conceal her voluptuous body under prim 19th century garments--talk about hiding your light under a bushel!).
The only serious gripe I had about this though is that it has not (yet) been released on legitimate DVD. I hope somebody gets around to releasing some of these more obscure pasta oater someday very soon. Many of these are pretty worthwhile flicks.
This is a very decent story and pretty entertaining film. It really keeps you guessing who the last member of the gang is. The idea of the town's most respectable citizens being secret cut-throat bandits is the kind of cynical touch that marks the 60's and 70's Italian films and makes them somewhat different from their earlier American inspirations (well, that and the inept dubbing). Peter Lee Lawrence is pretty good here, but he has kind of cruel-looking features that make him much better as a villain or a very ambiguous anti-hero than as the kind of true-blue character he plays here (I liked him better, for instance, as ambitious low-level mafioso in "Long Arm of the Godfather"). Orchidea DeSantis was not well-suited for spaghetti Westerns since she looks too Latin to be very believable as a 19th century gringa (which is what she plays here), but on the other hand, she is too fair-skinned to believably portray a Mexican woman. (She also, unfortunately, has to conceal her voluptuous body under prim 19th century garments--talk about hiding your light under a bushel!).
The only serious gripe I had about this though is that it has not (yet) been released on legitimate DVD. I hope somebody gets around to releasing some of these more obscure pasta oater someday very soon. Many of these are pretty worthwhile flicks.