*** This review may contain spoilers ***

*Plot and ending analyzed*

Fury of Johnny Kid (1967)

A predictably dull Western that seems to borrow plenty of ideas from American Westerns, but has no idea on how to make it all work together. It is an absolutely ridiculous and dumb movie.

Two warring ranch families have long feuded with each other, and the Mexican Campos ranch family got the upper hand by putting explosives into the ground and shooting at them while the Anglo-Saxon Mounter ranch family was passing through. Implausible scenes ahead.

Johnny Mounter (the eminently uninteresting German actor Peter Lee Lawrence) is captured and then breaks away with some other guy that was captured by the Mexican Campos ranch family, in one of the most unbelievable scenes ever. The bloke's nickname is "Lefty" because he is wearing a hook for a hand. He supposedly teaches Johnny Mounter (the eminently uninteresting German actor Peter Lee Lawrence) how to shoot in a five minute sequence. Now Johnny Mounter is an expert. (?). Lefty definitely becomes the movie's most annoying character, next to the sheriff, and about everyone else.

The dubbed voices are horrible, attempting to sound like American country folks. The corny dubbing is in that Italian horror movie vein from the 1960's whereby some ridiculous 'dubbers' overexaggerate and ruin any sense of tension or urgency in the script. The movie also overuses the insipidly drab theme music throughout. You can probably guess how it all ends. No mystery there.

What to look out for:

"Lefty" teaching Johnny Mounter (the eminently uninteresting German actor Peter Lee Lawrence) how to shoot by putting pieces of bread on his hook and having him shoot them.

Two men arm wrestling in a cantina with nails on each side of their hands/arms. Loser gets nailed.

A woman stagecoach passenger who shoots the bandana off of Johnny Mounter's (the eminently uninteresting German actor Peter Lee Lawrence) face.

The ridiculously stupid ending.

The Campos and Mounter family have been fighting for years. Then Senor Campos (Rufino Ingles) and Bill Mounters (Luis Induni) come to an understanding. Both families will fight in the open and a judge will decide who wins. The losers must leave California.

Rodrigo Campos (Peter Martell) and the rest of the family spring a trap and kill nearly all of the Mounters except for Bill and his son Johnny (Peter Lee Lawrence), who is captured by the Campos family and kept in jail with Lefty (Andres Mejuto), a man with a hook for a hand.

The Campos want them to fight to the death but Johnny gets them away alive. Lefty then teaches him how to survive: "Shoot first, shoot to kill. Keep an eye on the allegedly dead. Beware of spare guns. Never turn your back to another colt. Keep your eye and your hand steady if you want to live long and healthy. Always get even."

Johnny comes back for revenge and falls for Giulietta Campos (Cristina Galbo), which should let you know that he's the Italian Western Romeo and she's Juliet. There's also a saloon girl named Rosalind (Maria Cuadra) who falls for him and like all fallen women who redeem themselves in these movies, she dies to help save him. There's also Sheriff Cooper (Piero Lulli), who is in love with Giulietta and she in no way returns his ardor.

In real life, Lawrence and Galbo fell in love and were married. Sadly, he died of brain cancer at the age of thirty, but before that, he would be in Pistol for a Hundred Coffins and she would appear in The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, The House That Screamed and What Have You Done ro Solange?

This was directed by Gianni Puccini, who mainly worked as a writer. His assistant director was Paul Naschy, who also appears in a bar scene where his character loses an arm wrestling match and has his hand impaled.

I really enjoyed this movie. It takes the basics of Shakespeare and becomes its own movie. It ends - spoiler warning - with death itself killing everyone else except our young lovers, which is quite different than the classic.

It was shot by Mario Montuori, who was the cameraman on Bicycle Thieves. I also love the soundtrack, which is Gino Peguri. He also did the music for Bloody Pit of Horror and Supersonic Man.