Truly unusual western by COMBAT vet Vic Morrow

Shot in Spain and italy (check out all the italian names in the credits) with American stars and director, this is one unusual psychotronic Spaghetti western ! As an actor himself, Morrow can get the best performances out of his cast but his direction is sometimes great, sometimes surprisingly sloppy. He's way too fond of hand-held 360 degree shots (something he also used many times in the few COMBAT shows he directed). He also often disregard the old rule of "not crossing the axis" with the camera, which makes for startling camera positioning. Only western I know that goes from western, to men-in-prison film, to film noir (check out the nightime prison scene where all the prisoners suddenly start howling at the moon !! ) to a very nasty STRAW DOGS style revenge movie (with a Mexican Death Ceremony thrown in near the end) ! Soundtrack goes from efficient, to unusually jazzy to down right silly, the theme song being particularly atrocious ! A few years before he was to find a bloody horse head in his bed in THE GODFATHER, veteran actor John Marley (as the Old Man) shows us he can actually ride one for real ;) Finally, I don't care what the credits say, this is definitely NOT gorgeous italian beauty Laura Antonelli playing Ria (Sledge's girlfriend) ... I mean COME ON ! This girl is borderline ugly !