Available on Blu-ray Mon 26 Mar 2018
Released at the peak of the Spaghetti Western era, Duccio Tessari’s Ringo duology was a shameless, and not entirely unsuccessful, attempt to cash in by taking the genre’s key thematic elements and stretching them to near ridiculous extremes. Zero subtlety, a shaky narrative, gun battles to defy physics, Mexican stereotyping to make Donald Trump shudder – it’s preposterous, but easy to watch, with an Ennio Morricone soundtrack to boot.
They made the titular hero (Giuliano Gemma, or Montgomery Wood to American audiences) a clean-cut smooth-talker, the antithesis of Clint Eastwood’s brooding, laconic Man With No Name. For the first film, they even gave him something of a rubbish catchphrase (“It’s a matter of principle”). It’s clear what they wanted to create – a perfect, unblemished hero, James Bond in a stetson. But while Eastwood’s character is timeless, Ringo is a cheesy, one-dimensional creation that serves his purpose, but with little resonance beyond this setting.
The plots of both films are almost incidental to the shoot-outs. In the first, A Pistol For Ringo, Fernando Sancho leads a gang of Mexican bank robbers who have holed themselves up in an out-of-town ranch with their booty. They take the owner (Antonio Casas) hostage, along with his daughter Ruby (Hally Hammond), who happens to be engaged to the local sheriff (George Martin). Short of options, the sheriff frees gunslinger Ringo from gaol to help out. He does so by infiltrating the gang claiming he can help them for a share of the wonga.
The second is an odd sort of sequel. Tessari didn’t plan it as such, and the continuation of name was more marketing ploy than story arc. An almost identical cast play similar roles, but in an entirely different setting and storyline. Watching the two consecutively is confusing. Gemma is still Ringo, but Ringo is now a returning civil war army officer whose fiancee (Hammond) has decided to marry a Mexican bandit (Martin). Ringo goes undercover, quite unconvincingly, as a Mexican, to rectify the situation. This time his signature is a visual tick, and somehow he manages to circulate round the town without anyone but his fiancee and town eccentric Morning Glory (Manuel Muñiz) guessing who he is. Different ranch, different gang, slightly different Ringo, same shoot-em-up.
It’s classic goodies v baddies in both films, with fine genre performances, especially from grizzly, tubby Sancho as trademark bandito, Manuel Muñiz as weird sidekick and Nieves Navarro in full-on seductress mode. Gemma is actually a weaker element, his good looks obviously winning him leeway in the role that his acting wouldn’t have.
Both plots rely on some top drawer stupidity on both sides for Ringo to get away with the stunts he pulls. In fine tradition, Mexican bullets seem to skirt round him and his companions, while his aim is dead straight for picking Mexicans off roof-tops. The closing shoot-out in The Return… is particularly ridiculous, Martin managing to limp round the entire entrance lobby of the ranch as bullet after bullet is pumped into his torso.
It’s all jolly good fun though, with the ensemble cast making this the Carry On… of the Spaghetti Western genre.
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