The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This little-known Spaghetti Western turned out to be a routine effort all round, but one that is mildly enjoyable nevertheless. It features a nice score and is enlivened by the intermittent appearances of a 'phantom gunman' figure (curiously, also to be found in MATALO! [1970], which followed this viewing) and the numerous plot twists at the end. The most renowned actor in the cast is, of course, Akim Tamiroff - playing a tramp/town drunk called Pigsty (although his Italian moniker is literally "Stench"); actually, many of the characters have been given colorful names: Amen, Solitaire, Dean Light, Johnny Siringo, etc. Comedy relief is also present in the form of some over-the-top hard-boiled dialogue (one character is referred to as "mountain of filth", for instance) and the antics (usually subservient but, on occasion, assertive) of the chief villain's meek and long-suffering barber. The only other Zurli film I had watched was the admittedly dismal poliziottesco TARGET (1979); still, one effort of his I'd like to catch is the horror film THE MAD BUTCHER (1971) - starring Victor Buono.