Django Shoots First
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| Django Shoots First | |
|---|---|
| File:Django Shoots First.jpg | |
| Directed by | Alberto De Martino |
| Music by | Bruno Nicolai |
Django spara per primo (internationally released as Django Shoots First, Bronco, and He Who Shoots First) is a 1966 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed by Alberto De Martino.[1][2]
Plot
Glenn kills the bounty hunter Ringo, who has killed his father, and then takes his father's body to town for collecting the bounty. There he is befriended by Gordon (performed by Fernando Sancho in a city dress with bowler hat instead of his usual Mexican bandit outfit), who tells him that he stands to inherit 50% of practically everything in town that his father owned in partnership with Cluster.
Cluster's henchman Ward and his men fail to get rid of Glenn, so Cluster robs his own bank and pins a murder charge on Glenn. The latter escapes and is taken in by Jessica Cluster, who wants him to kill her husband. However, it turns out that Jessica also is the wife of the stranger Doc, who has earlier helped Glenn. Jessica escapes to Ward, whom she convinces that Cluster wants him to place the loot in Mexico in her name. Glenn, Doc and Gordon ambush the convoy and Ward is killed, 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 leave with the money – and does not believe Doc's warning that Cluster will kill her outside, which is exactly what happens, as the gun turns out to be unloaded and she dies because of Cluster's knife.
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, has learned that his father was framed and that Ringo acted on Cluster's bidding – is offered part of the loot but chooses to avenge his father instead. He shoots off Cluster's gun and kills him when he draws a knife. Then the corpse is buried in the grave of Glenn's father. Glenn makes apologies to his father and posts a reward for Cluster just like the latter did for his father.
Doc, Gordon and Glenn leave, but the latter two decide to return when they discover that the gold in the saddlebag is 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 busy running the bank when a son of Cluster appears to claim his 50%!
Cast
- Glenn Saxson: Glenn Garvin / Django
- Fernando Sancho: Gordon
- Ida Galli: Jessica Cluster (credited as Evelyn Stewart)
- Nando Gazzolo: Ken Cluster
- Erika Blanc: Lucy
- Alberto Lupo: Doc
- José Manuel Martín: Ringo (credited as José M. Martín)
- Guido Lollobrigida: Ward (credited as Lee Burton)
- George Eastman: Jeff Cluster
Reception
In his investigation of narrative stuctures in Spaghetti Western films, 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, 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 takes first place, though eventually he manages to get his vengeance too. Doc is the partner that has a hidden motive – not concerning the malefactor Cluster but to get back or punish his bigamist wife. Their opposition, the Clusters, betray each other for money. Finally, Lucy has to betray Glenn money-wise to secure his love.
"Glenn Saxon who plays Glenn is one of the few Italo-western stars whose style sometimes recalls the blond gusto of Giuliano Gemma /../. Most of the many lead actors emulating the style and demeanour of Clint Eastwood would have had a hard time carrying the scene where Glenn after a stunt in bed with Jessica appearing in a female dressing-gown and gun-belt!"[3]
References
- ^ Roberto Chiti, Roberto Poppi, Enrico Lancia, Mario Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film. Gremese Editore, 1992. ISBN 8876055932.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Marco Giusti (2007). Dizionario del western all'italiana. Mondadori. ISBN 8804572779.
- ^ Fridlund, Bert: The Spaghetti Western. A Thematic Analysis. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company Inc., 2006 p. 144.