This one comes very late in the Spaghetti Western timeline, is directed by an American, and plays out like a love story. It's different to say the least.

Fabio Testi is Clayton, a condemned man who is reprieved at the last minute, as long as he tracks down Warren Oates and kills him. Oates used to work for the Railroad and they don't like loose ends, so Clayton has to take him out. A problem arises in the form of Jenny Agutter, Warren's much younger, hot wife whom Clayton first spies skinny dipping. Clayton shacks up at the Oates/Agutter household under the pretence that he's passing through, but Oates is no fool, and Agutter starts making goo-goo eyes at the hunky Clayton.

Not a shot is fired in anger for the first fifty minutes of this film, as Clayton decides he can't kill Oates by he can get it on with Agutter, which leads to Oates attacked her and Agutter retaliating in a surprisingly violent way (she stabs him in the back and brains him with a rolling pin). Clayton and Agutter think Oates is dead and they can be a couple, but Oates wakes up and gathers his numerous brothers for some revenge...as does the Railroad when they find out Oates isn't dead...

As this is a late era Spaghetti Western, the pacing isn't exactly full throttle, but I was surprised to see that the violence was very realistic - people get shot and fall over instead of clutching themselves and spinning around the place, and the violence is very abrupt and sudden, like the accidental shooting of a hooker through a window or two corpses being shot over and over again.

Plus, Testi stands out as the lightening fast Clayton, made weak through his love for Agutter. Apart from her dodgy Irish accent, Agutter does well too and spends a lot of time naked with Testi (I actually gave birth to Testi's child just by watching this film!). Warren Oates stands out too, with his mumbly, tired character.

This must be one of the very last Spaghetti Westerns, and it's worth tracking down if you can find an uncut version of it. Sam Peckinpah makes a surreal cameo too, just to add to the sense of weirdness.

This moves at an unhurried pace, and you may feel as if you've seen much of it before, especially if you're a spaghetti western fan. But it's worth seeing for the character played by Warren Oates, a former gunfighter whose behavior swings from the sympathetic to the unforgivable and almost back again. In a modest Western like this, it's a pleasant surprise to see ambiguous characters. So that his conflict with Fabio Testi, a younger gunfighter who steals Oates' wife, is full of uncertainty. For all the familiar trappings, you're uncertain how it will end; and that should keep you watching. As the object of desire, Jenny Agutter is constrained by a mumbling Irish brogue and an under-written part. But you can see why Testi is smitten with her. Bottom line: see this for Oates, a great actor in a worthy role.

This is a Western that, as another poster mentioned, has sex as its driving force.

Spoilers

It's basic Western cliché story line is hired gun Clayton Jones (Fabio Testi) is about to hang for some offense in the town of China, Texas. We see him in a jail cell and out in the town square we see a hanging platform with three nooses, a Chinaman and a China woman are bound and lined up below it we cut back to Clayton who is removed from his cell apparently to join the condemned. We cut to Clayton in the offices of a railroad company where some officials hand him a pardon with the stipulation that he is to go kill Matthew Sebanek, who won't sell out his land at the cheap price offered to the RR. He has become a small obstacle to the tracks. We see two corpses hanging from the gallows as Clayton rides out of town.

Matthew Sebenek (Warren Oates) is sort of a hardscrabble squatter/homesteader, he is sitting upon land that has oil beneath it and knows it, oldest of the Sebenek brothers he looks to be between 45-55 years old, his comparatively child bride wife Catherine (Jenny Agutter) looks between 20-25, Matthew treats Catherine more like a slave than a partner, she is unhappy and shows it. There are no children present that, in most Hollywood Westerns, that depicted these types of May-December relationships would cement the couple together with a common cause.

Into this situation rides reluctant hired gun Clayton Jones and he gets his first eyeful of Catherine as she is bathing in the stream near the road to the homestead, she doesn't hear him coming while she reclines in the water and is surprised when Clayton's voice asks which way to the Sebenek's but not embarrassed and she does not try to cover up in any way. In subsequent scenes we learn that Matthew who was a former hired gun of the railroad has Clayton pretty much pegged for what he truly is, but that sort of binds him into a wary friendship with him that blossoms. We also see that love starved Catherine is attracted to Clayton by her demeanor and it is she who makes the first move to consummate an affair. Clayton who has come to like Matthew decides not to kill him and that he best get away from the dicey situation but Catherine gives it away on the day Clayton leaves and she and Matthew come to blows in the kitchen and she stabs Matthew and leaves him for dead.

Catherine rides away to follow Clayton, and Matthew and his brothers take off after them.

Now this is an adult treatment of situations that are real, I've know real life stories that have played out exactly so and have had similar ends. It's refreshing to see a Western with more mature themes that still has enough Western elements to keep it in Genre and interesting enough to keep you watching.

There are some nice stylistic camera shot touches in a later whorehouse confrontation. If I have any complaint about the film it would be the overly intrusive soundtrack that in some scenes plays annoyingly over the dialog, it doesn't help that it has a 70's sound to it. Other music is provided by the actors themselves and gratefully its recorded live (not sound studio looping) and sounds very realistic.

Sam Peckinpah has a nice cameo as a seedy pulp novelist.

Check it out if you can find it. The version I saw was almost full wide screen though it still had some side cropping where you could tell so when the credits were rolling. For the most part you wouldn't notice it however there is one scene where when Catherine is coming on to Clayton, she stands in a open doorway in a nightgown back lit by a kerosene lantern and you can see she is plainly naked, she is half cut off by the cropping which makes me suspect that there may be a few more scenes where we are not seeing the full potential of the cinematography.