"Gatling Gun", or as it's called on video, "Damned Hot Day of Fire", might also be known as "Strange on the Range." It is really a conglomeration of scenes that are supposed to tell a historical Civil War story, yet the gayety that surrounds the tale fails to elicit any war-like substance. In fact in the middle of the film, a rodeo suddenly appears out of nowhere, that seems totally out of place. Another aspect of the movie that is bizarre, are unrelated scenes that somehow are trying to convey a vague social message about racial injustice. Overly dark shootouts in a house and a cemetery, only further add to the frustration. Finally the jazzy musical score seems like it is from the wrong film. Overall a disappointment. MERK.

This review is based on the American video release of this spaghetti western, inappropriately retitled Machine Gun Killers for the Stateside market. That makes it sound like a Roaring Twenties' gangster flick, but it's actually a fairly cerebral and artfully plotted oater about a loner (Robert Woods) on the trail of a villain (John Ireland) and the inventor he's kidnapped. Quel Caldo Maledotto Giorno di Fuoco has a good reputation amongst spaghetti fans, but the Meteor video release is absolutely abominable, featuring badly squeezed credits, lazy to nonexistent pan and scanning, and a washed out print. It also seems to be missing some scenes. Happily, Piero Piccioni's jazzy score blends Jimmy Smith-style Hammond organ riffs with a hint of country-western tang and is one of the few elements to successfully make the transition to home video. Nonetheless, this is a film crying out for a digital upgrade. There are hints of good photography, good editing, and thoughtful writing here, but the negatives far outweigh the positives at this point.

This film takes place during the American Civil War with several Pinkerton agents being assigned the task of escorting an inventor named "Richard Gatling" (Ennio Balbo) and his new type of machine gun from Las Cruses, New Mexico to Washington D. C. for mass distribution in the Union army. However, upon starting out both Mr. Gatling and his new weapon is seized by what they presume to be Rebel forces and all but one of the Pinkerton agents by the name of "Chris Tanner" (Robert Woods) is killed. So considering that only a handful of people were even aware of this mission Chris is subsequently court-martialed for treason and sentenced to death. Before that can happen, however, one of his superiors switches his identity to another prisoner and gives him 30 days to uncover what happened and bring either Richard Gatling or his new weapon back. What Chris doesn't know, however, is that one of the Pinkerton agents presumed to be killed is still alive and this presents a unique challenge to everyone involved. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film had an interesting premise but the director (Paolo Bianchini) seemed to lose his focus here and there which tended to lessen what could have been an excellent picture. On a similar note, while I liked having two attractive actresses like Evelyn Stewart (as "Belinda Boyd") and Claudia Lange ("Martha Simpson"), neither of them were used sufficiently enough to overcome the rather meandering plot and this movie suffered as a result. Be that as it may, although this film had its weaknesses here and there, it still managed to pass the time fairly well and I have rated it accordingly. Average.