The Civil War left Davy Flanagan (Anthony Steffen) an amnesiac wreck,
drifting from town to town begging ... until a headhunter captures him as
a wanted criminal & wants to take him back to Dixon. When Davy shoots
him in self defense though, he realizes he's doing quite nicely with a gun
& decides to return to Dixon to find out about his past ...
But in Dixon, he is not welcomed with open arms but with loaded guns,
& he has to shoot quite a few men before he can even get a room in the
local hotel. Soon enough he meets Kellogg (William Berger) though, the
judge of Dixon, who claims to be his old friend, tells him he is wanted
for several warcrimes but promises to gather evidence to clear him in
court ... what a pal, what a pal ... but why then is he good friends with
Hackett (Robert Hundar), Davy's sworn enemy for whatever reason, who has
also stolen Davy's wife Lisa (Ida Galli) - & turned her into an
alcoholic ? & how come right after Davy has met Kellogg, he is caught
by the sheriff & his men who seemed to have been waiting for him ?
Of course, Davy can shoot his way out of the sheriff-situation &
return to Kellogg's place to have another little talk - & now
Kellogg's story is a bit different, obviously Hackett has actually
committed the warcrimes Davy is accused for, but he has left Dixon with
Lisa to find refuge with his old pal, outlaw Crazy Joe (Fortunato Arena)
... his old pal whom Hackett eventually shoots to take over his gang ...
Davy soon forces Kellogg to take him to Crazy Joe's gang, which works
only partly, as eventually Kellogg manages to escape (but is caught by
another outlaw gang) while Davy, almost unexpectedly, ends up with a
station wagon full of Whiskey & explosives, which he uses to gain easy
access to Hackett's (formerly Crazy Joe's) gang, & he soon convinces
Hackett to let him join the gang.
But by now of course Kellogg has freed
himself from the other outlaws & has arrived at Hackett's place as
well, blown Davy's cover & has him taken captive. It is only now that
Davy starts to remember ... it wasn't Hackett at all who framed him, he is
just an outlaw who has married his wife when Davy was thought dead, but
Kellogg himself.
Of course, Davy can eventually free himself & pretty much wipe out
Hackett's gang - with the help of the explosives he has brought, but in the end it's a three-way duel, Davy against Hackett
& Kellogg, & Hackett, who just realizes he has been had, against
Kellogg as well ... but ultimately, Lisa shoots Hackett who has just made
up his mind to shoot Davy first, then Kellogg takes Lisa hostage ...
But need I say it, after a long game of hide & seek - with guns -
Davy can shoot Kellogg & thus save Lisa. & the 2 of them ride off
into a better future.
Objectively speaking, this is a competently made (if not overly
original) Western, but something just doesn't click quite right, it's
neither inventive enough to compete with hte reknowned classics of the
Spaghetti Western genre, nor is it outrageous enough to compete with the
gems on the trashy end of the genre, actually it's just another Western,
nothing more ...
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