''Sugar Colt'' is a 1966 Italian and Spanish

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 ...

directed by

Franco Giraldi Franco Giraldi (11 July 1931 – 2 December 2020) was an Italian director and screenwriter. Life and career Born in Komen, Giraldi spent his childhood and adolescence between the Carso, Trieste and Gorizia. During the Second World War, still ...

, produced by Franco Cittadini and Stenio Fiorentini, written by

Sandro Continenza Sandro Continenza (13 July 1920 – 21 November 1996) was an Italian screenwriter. He wrote for 142 films between 1949 and 1982. He was born in Rome, Italy. Selected filmography * ''Toto Looks for a Wife'' (1950) * '' Appointment for Murd ...

, Augusto Finocchi, Giuseppe Mangione and

Fernando Di Leo Fernando Di Leo (11 January 1932 – 2 December 2003) was an Italian film director and screenwriter, script writer. He made 17 films as a director and about 50 scripts from 1964 to 1985. Biography Fernando Di Leo was born on 11 January 1932 in ...

, composed by

Luis Enríquez Bacalov Luis Enríquez Bacalov (30 August 1933 – 15 November 2017) was an Argentine-born film composer. He learned music from Enrique Barenboim, father of Daniel Barenboim the conductor of the Berlin, and Chicago orchestras, and also Berta Sujovolsk ...

, filmed by

Alejandro Ulloa Alejandro Ulloa (22 October 1910 – 27 April 2004) was a Spanish actor. He was born in Madrid on 22 October 1910. He owned a theater company and in 1943, while working as a voice actor, he was the director of Metro Goldwin Mayer in Barcelona. Hi ...

and starred by

Jack Betts Jack Fillmore Betts, also credited as Hunt Powers, is an American character actor and playwright. He has acted in film, on stage, and on television. Career Betts portrayed Chris Devlin in the CBS mystery series '' Checkmate'' (1960-1962). He ...

, Joaquín Parra,

Soledad Miranda Soledad Rendón Bueno (9 July 1943 – 18 August 1970), better known by her stage names Soledad Miranda or Susann Korda (or sometimes Susan Korday), was an actress and pop singer who was born in Seville, Spain. She starred in several erotic th ...

Georges Rigaud Pedro Jorge Rigato Delissetche,George Rigaud

, Antonio Padilla, Giuliano Raffaelli and Hunt Powers. It is the Giraldi's second film after ''

Seven Guns for the MacGregors ''Seven Guns for the MacGregors'' ( it, Sette pistole per i MacGregor) is a Technicolor 1966 Spaghetti Western. It is the directorial debut film of Franco Giraldi (here credited as Frank Garfield), who was Sergio Leone's assistant in ''A Fistfu ...

''. The film represents the cinematographical debut for

, here credited as Hunt Powers, and it is also

Erno Crisa Erno Crisa (10 March 1914 – 4 April 1968) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 50 films between 1944 and 1968. His last film was the spaghetti western '' Sugar Colt''. Partial filmography * ''Croisières sidérales'' (1942) ...

's last film.

Plot

Rocco – also called the man with two faces – is visited by Pinkerton, who wants him to investigate the disappearance, and possible kidnapping, of some soldiers. Rocco declines, as he has a good life teaching women self-defence. When Pinkerton is assassinated, Rocco changes his mind and goes to Snake Valley disguised as a doctor. He uses narcotic gas to loosen the tongues, and gets help from a sidekick and two women at the saloon. He is disclosed and heavily beaten, but eventually frees the hostages, while the responsible big boss gets killed.

Cast

Production

Filming

It was filmed in

Tabernas Tabernas is a municipality of Almería province, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain, as well as the name of the principal town of the municipality. It is located on the edge of the famous Tabernas Desert, the filming location of many ...

, in the town of El Fraile, in the lodge Los Arcos and in

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city gr ...

Music

With his

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses List of musical symbols, musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chord (music), chords of a song or instrumental Musical composition, musical piece. Like ...

Luis Bacalov Luis Enríquez Bacalov (30 August 1933 – 15 November 2017) was an Argentine-born film composer. He learned music from Enrique Barenboim, father of Daniel Barenboim the conductor of the Berlin, and Chicago orchestras, and also Berta Sujovolsky ...

created the characters of ''Sugar Colt'', '' Django'', '' I quattro del pater noster'', '' Chapaqua'', '' Lo chiamavano King'' and ''

The Man Called Noon ''The Man Called Noon'' is a 1973 film directed by Peter Collinson. It stars Richard Crenna and Stephen Boyd. It is based on a 1970 Louis L'Amour novel of the same name. Cast * Richard Crenna as Noon, a gunman who develops amnesia after an at ...

''.

Reception

''Sugar Colt'' was generally well received by critics, and

Tullio Kezich Tullio Kezich (17 September 1928 in Trieste – 17 August 2009 in Rome) was an Italian screenwriter and playwright, best known as the film critic for ''Corriere della Sera'' and for his award-winning biography of Italian director Federico Fell ...

defined it as a "little masterpiece". Over 40 years after it was made, Sugar Colt was screened at the 2007 Venice Film Festival in a Spaghetti Western retrospective. Director Franco Giraldi and star Jack Betts were in attendance. In his investigation of narrative structures in

films, Fridlund ranges ''Sugar Colt'' among Spaghetti Westerns heavily influenced by secret-agent films, because the hero is shown in company with beautiful women, works to uncover a mystery and - unlike the protagonists in ''

A Fistful of Dollars ''A Fistful of Dollars'' ( it, Per un pugno di dollari, lit=For a Fistful of Dollars titled on-screen as ''Fistful of Dollars'') is a 1964 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood in his first leading role, a ...

'' and '' Django'' - does not have any complicating secondary motive.

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0061040 1967 films English-language Italian films Spaghetti Western films Films directed by Franco Giraldi 1967 Western (genre) films Films scored by Luis Bacalov Films scored by Ennio Morricone Films shot in Almería Cultural depictions of Allan Pinkerton 1960s English-language films 1960s Italian films