''Django Shoots First'' ( it, Django spara per primo) is an Italian

Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

film directed by

Alberto De Martino Alberto De Martino (12 June 1929 – 2 June 2015) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Born in Rome, De Martino started as a child actor and later returned to the cinema where worked as a screenwriter, director and dubbing supervis ...

Plot

Ringo, a bounty hunter, has killed the father of Glenn Garvin (Glenn Saxson) to collect a bounty. Glenn kills Ringo and then takes his father's body to town to collect the bounty himself. There he befriends Gordon (

Fernando Sancho Fernando Sancho Les (7 January 1916 – 31 July 1990) was a Spanish actor. Biography He was born in Zaragoza, in Aragon, Spain on 7 January 1916 and died at Hospital Militar Gómez Ulla in Madrid on 31 July 1990 from a liver failure during o ...

in city clothes and a bowler hat instead of his usual Mexican bandit outfit), who tells Glenn that he stands to inherit half of everything in town, which his father had owned in partnership with Ken Cluster. Cluster's henchman Ward and his men try and fail to kill Glenn, so Cluster robs his own bank and frames Glenn for murder. Glenn escapes and is taken in by Cluster's wife, Jessica, who wants Glenn to kill her husband. However, it turns out that Jessica is also married to a stranger, Doc (

Alberto Lupo Alberto Lupo (byname of Alberto Zoboli; 19 December 1924 – 13 August 1984) was an Italian film and television actor best known for his roles in swash-buckling and actions films of the 1960s. Lupo starred in films such as ''A 008, operazione ...

), who had helped Glenn earlier. Jessica escapes to Ward, whom she convinces that Cluster wants him to stash the bank robbery loot in Mexico, in her name. Glenn, Doc, and Gordon ambush the convoy and kill Ward, while Jessica is arrested for the robbery, on the testimony of Cluster. Cluster and Glenn sign an agreement and there is a celebration. Doc leaves and liberates Jessica. She takes his gun and leaves with the money, despite Doc's warning that Cluster will kill her outside. The gun turns out to be unloaded, and Cluster fatally stabs her. Gordon and Glenn start a saloon brawl and sneak out unnoticed. At the cemetery, Glenn and Doc find Cluster. Glenn – who earlier, even before the partnership, learned that his father was framed and that Ringo was tracking him at Cluster's request – is offered part of the loot but chooses to avenge his father instead. He shoots Cluster's gun out of his hand and kills him when he draws a knife. He buries the corpse in the grave of Glenn's father. Glenn makes apologies to his father and posts a reward for Cluster, just as the latter had done for his father. Doc, Gordon, and Glenn leave, but the latter two decide to return when they discover that the gold in the saddlebag has been replaced with a note from the saloon girl Lucy, who Glenn had been reluctant to leave behind anyway. In the final scene we see Glenn, Gordon, and Lucy running the bank when Cluster's son appears to claim his half of the gold.

Cast

* Glenn Saxson as Glenn Garvin / Django *

as Gordon * Evelyn Stewart as Jessica Cluster *

Nando Gazzolo Ferdinando "Nando" Gazzolo (16 October 1928 – 16 November 2015) was an Italian actor and voice actor. Biography Born in Savona, the son of the actor and voice actor Lauro Gazzolo and EIAR radio announcer Aida Ottaviani Piccolo, Gazzolo debuted ...

as Ken Cluster *

Erika Blanc Enrica Bianchi Colombatto (born 23 July 1942), usually known by her stagename of Erika Blanc, is an Italian actress. Career Her most notable role was as the first fictional character Emmanuelle in '' Io, Emmanuelle'' (1969). Blanc starred in se ...

as Lucy *

as Doc *

José Manuel Martín José Manuel Martín Pérez (born 24 May 1924) is a Spanish retired film and television actor, radio broadcaster, and screenwriter. He was a popular character actor in Spanish cinema during the 1950s and 60s, best remembered for playing villainou ...

as Ringo (credited as José M. Martín) *

Guido Lollobrigida Guido Lollobrigida (1927–2013) was an Italian actor and race car driver, usually credited in movies as Lee Barton or Lee Burton. He was a cousin of actress Gina Lollobrigida. Life and career Born in Rome, after graduating as a technical engin ...

as Ward (credited as Lee Burton) *

George Eastman George Eastman (July 12, 1854March 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Kodak, Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. He was a major philanthropist, establishing the ...

as Jeff Cluster

Release

''Django Shoots First'' was released in 1966.

Reception

From a contemporary reviews, John Raisbeck reviewed a 95-minute dubbed language version of the film in the ''

Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...

''. Raisbeck found the film to be a "lifeless Italian Western" which "plods wearily through the required rituals, drawing ineffectually on the work of Leone: the black-caped stranger, Doc, is clearly a first cousin to the van Cleef character in the ''Dollar'' films, and the final shoot-out takes place, conveniently and derivatively, in a cemetery." In his investigation of narrative structures in

films, Bert Fridlund argues that ''Django Shoots First'' presents a complicated rendition of the partnership plot that was used in many Spaghetti Westerns following the success of ''

For a Few Dollars More ''For a Few Dollars More'' ( it, Per qualche dollaro in più) is a 1965 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone. It stars Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef as bounty hunters and Gian Maria Volonté as the primary villain. German actor K ...

'', where one of the bounty killer partners turns out to have a secret vengeance motive. Glenn is the protagonist who has a double motive. During the major part of the narrative, his inheritance is his primary concern, but eventually he manages to get his vengeance as well. Doc is the partner with a hidden motive – not concerning the malefactor Cluster, but getting back or punishing his bigamist wife. Their opposition, the Clusters, betray each other for money. Finally, Lucy betrays Glenn, stealing his money to secure his love.

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Django Shoots First 1966 films Django films Spaghetti Western films 1966 Western (genre) films Films directed by Alberto De Martino Films shot in Almería Films scored by Bruno Nicolai 1960s Italian films