Per 100,000 Dollari ti Ammazzo (1967)

The Spaghetti Western genre really kicked off in 1965, and by 1967 was in full swing, with over 60 titles being released (compared to less than 40 Westerns produced in America during the same year). Luciano Martino had made a career for himself as a writer - penning a variety of horror and peplum titles, until in the middle of the 1960s he decided to move into production, and along with his brother Sergio, shot a pair of Spaghetti Western titles starring Gianni Garko.

Johnny Forest (Gianni Garko, dubbed Django for the German release) is an expert Bounty Killer. Years earlier it emerged that his was born illegitimately, and his half-brother Clint ran him out of the house, before framing him for the murder of his father, and leading to Johnny being imprisioned for 10 years. A mutual friend now informs Johnny that his mother has recently died, and her dying wish was that he would contact Clint, who is now an outlaw with a large bounty on his head. Meanwhile we see Clint and a gang attack a stagecoach carrying gold, before betraying them to escape with the gold. Johnny persues Clint across the country until catching him, and trying to take him to the nearest marshall to hand him over, but with the civil war raging, he cannot find anywhere to take him in, and has to keep travelling - however, the gang that Clint betrayed, and his own friends who he cheated all want to catch him, and his gold...

Although the Martino brothers would later be associated with some of the trashier elements of cult cinema (see: Mountain of the Cannibal God (1978)), their duo of Spaghetti Westerns rank as some of the best films in this very varied genre, thanks to strong scripts and direction, and the introduction of Gianni Garko as a new genre star.

As can be seen from the synopsis, Per 100,000 Dollari ti Ammazzo has a very detailed plot, and the focus is much more on the characters of the two half-brothers, than on action. John clearly has a troubled past, we see in some rather surreal flashbacks, details of his once happy childhood, mixed with the destruction of his life by his half-brother on discovering that John was born a bastard. Some details remain vague, probably intentionally - a mysterious woman in John's past who seemed to vanish, and a woman with a young son (not his) that he looks after - giving him a much darker deeper persona, much more effective than the rather generic "man with no name and no history" characters in similar films. Generally unpredictable, the film builds to a nice and very effective climax with a beautiful ending. Fortunately, although there is some light comic relief, it is kept to a minimum and is not so grating, actually coming as a relief compared to the rather intense nature of the storyline as a whole.

The film benefits from some very impressive direction and camerawork, thanks to the very little known director Giovanni Fago who had some experience as a second unit director on some of the genres early entries. There are some beautiful visual shots, and the flashback scenes especially make good use of slow motion and patches of focus to give the scenes a surrealist look. The production values are strong throughout, and of special note are the costumes which have an incredibly dirty look. As with 10.000 Dollari per un Massacro, composer Nora Orlandi provides a fitting soundtrack.

Gianni Garko is appearing here in his first Spaghetti Western, varying between the dashingly clean cut image in the flashback scenes, and the grizzled bounty killer he has become. He looks strong throughout, and at one point demonstrates some very impressive physical strength in a scene that was clearly not faked. He is joined by Claudio Camaso (brother of Gian Maria Volontè, star of the iconic Sergio Leone Dollars films) who puts in an equally strong performance as Clint, and is rather remniscent of Spaghetti Western star Tomas Milian. Several familiar faces including Fernando Sancho and Piero Lulli pop up in small roles.

Although not on the epic scale of many of the most recognised Spaghetti Westerns, Per 100,000 Dollari ti Ammazzo certainly ranks as one of the genre's best thanks to some superb acting by Gianni Garko and Claudio Camaso and a very well written script, backed up by solid production values and an effective soundtrack. Highly recommended to genre fans, and a decent place for newcomers.

Anyone famous in it?	Gianni Garko - a lesser known but frequent star of euro-cult cinema, best known to SW fans as Sartana
Directed by anyone interesting?	Giovanni Fago - a very little known Italian director who shot a few SW titles, and was the assistant director on Lucio Fulci's Massacre Time (1966) and a few peplum titles.
Any gore/violence?	Quite a lot of blood and plently of Western violence.
Any sex?	No
Who is it for?	All Spaghetti Western fans should see this film.
Good soundtrack?	A solid score from Nora Orlandi.

Visuals	Original Aspect Ratio - 2.35:1. Anamorphically Enhanced. Colour The picture quality is very good with only a minimal layer of grain and minor print damage.
Audio	Original German and Italian mono tracks, both sound fine. German is missing a few scenes which play in Italian.
Subtitles	German (for the Italian), and German for the missing scenes in the soundtrack. English (translates the Italian).
Extras	The disc features: Mondo Garko II - the second part of an interview with actor Gianni Garko as he discusses his career, including footage from the films, plus contributions from actor Guglielmo Spoletini and frequent Sartana director Giuliano Carnimeo (better known as Anthony Ascot). In German, with German or English subtitles (28 minutes). Part one is included on the 10.000 Dollari per un Massacro disc in the boxset). Original German and Italian theatrical trailers. Spoiler filled. A brief, manually scrolling poster gallery. The soundtrack from this film is included on an audio-CD in the boxset.
Availability	German release. DVD Title: Django - der Bastard This disc is only available as part of the Django Italo-Western collection.
Region	Region 2 - PAL
Other regions?	Also available on a Spainish disc. This is the only disc with English options and interviews.
Cuts?	Believed to be fully uncut. Print used is Italian language.

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