Gunfight at Red Sands

Great Western, Great Transfer
After several tries of getting this fantastic Richard Harrison western from 1963, the true masterplan for the "spaghetti Western," I wanted to report that the copy from Sinister Cinema is the best out there currently. It is clear, crisp, colorful and with no interruptions, blurry image or audio distortion. They have done well. The song "A Gringo Like Me" (sung by Dicky Jones) by Ennio Morricone (music is credited to Dan Savio) is a first for him, I believe, as I understand it. Director Richard Blasco and the director of photography, Jack Dalmas in Technicolor, although Sinister Cinema's print, too, is dubbed in English, the writing of this story is truly great. How truly historic this effort is is that it is over-shadowed by the Sergio Leone films which take claim to originating a genre that they popularized. For many off these of what has become known as "European Trash Cinema," at the very beginning, many actors and crew Americanized their names for the credits and are now...

EL GRINGO!
American muscleman Richard Harrison stars as El Gringo in Ricardo Blasco's pre-Leone Spaghetti Western GUNFIGHT AT RED SANDS(1963). It's the revenge theme as Gringo (a white man raised in a Mexican family) returns from fighting for independence in Mexico to his Mexican family living in an American border town. The town is rife with racism and upon Gringo's return his Mexican "father" is murdered for his gold and Gringo then finds himself set-up for murder as he goes after the three men responsible, who are trying to blame it all on Mexicans in general. Gringo teams up with his Mexican brother and sister, whom he's in love with (he's adopted, remember) and the three of them face down the badguy white guys in the final shootout.

This is a very interesting movie. Being pre-Leone/FISTFUL OF DOLLARS it's more in tune with looking like an American/Hollywood knockoff, yet it still reflects European sensibilities, mood and style and has a catchy score by Ennio Morricone. It's...



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