Now, here is a genuine Western Giallo! During a bank robbery, three robbers get away with quite a lot of cash but slaughter a vast amount of people to get it. We see the faces of two of these guys, but third is kept a secret, and shortly after the other two are killed by extremely fake looking snakes, we find out why - the murderer has assumed a different identity and is hiding out in a frontier town, and it's up to George Hilton lookalike Robert Woods to find them.
Robert is playing a man called Jonathan Pinkerton, send for Lloyds Bank London to find the missing money. He is immediately given the name Mr London as he goes around the town trying to figure out what's going on...a town which seems to be suffering from a plague of snakes. Suspects include a snake studying doctor who claims the snakes tell him things, sheriff Frank Bana who is equally suspicious of Pinkerton, shifty ranch owner Clinton, the guys who owns the bar and his sneaky girlfriend Susan Scott.
The killer of course twigs that someone is looking for him and leaves snake-related traps for Pinkerton while taking the odd pot-shot at him too (with this being a Western and all). Pinkerton also has an on-going feud with the staff of the local bar which leads to various shoot-outs and punch ups, plus we get a healthy dose of Giallo-style investigation and red herrings.
While it could have done with a little more suspect murdering, things do pick up in the last half hour when Pinkerton starts to unravel the mystery and people start dropping like flies. I did manage to guess the killer but didn't guess all the twists the film had for me. This does lean more towards the giallo than the Western but should satisfy fans of both, surely?
Robert is playing a man called Jonathan Pinkerton, send for Lloyds Bank London to find the missing money. He is immediately given the name Mr London as he goes around the town trying to figure out what's going on...a town which seems to be suffering from a plague of snakes. Suspects include a snake studying doctor who claims the snakes tell him things, sheriff Frank Bana who is equally suspicious of Pinkerton, shifty ranch owner Clinton, the guys who owns the bar and his sneaky girlfriend Susan Scott.
The killer of course twigs that someone is looking for him and leaves snake-related traps for Pinkerton while taking the odd pot-shot at him too (with this being a Western and all). Pinkerton also has an on-going feud with the staff of the local bar which leads to various shoot-outs and punch ups, plus we get a healthy dose of Giallo-style investigation and red herrings.
While it could have done with a little more suspect murdering, things do pick up in the last half hour when Pinkerton starts to unravel the mystery and people start dropping like flies. I did manage to guess the killer but didn't guess all the twists the film had for me. This does lean more towards the giallo than the Western but should satisfy fans of both, surely?