The Stranger (George Hilton) rides into a deserted town with three empty coffins and quickly populates them with members of Monetero's gang.
"Monetero. Heh heh. Think you're fast enough to go gunning for him?"
"Faster. You can bet your last dollar on it."
Sometime later, the bounty hunter is on a train carrying $300,000 of gold along with a guard detachment of soldiers and a nervous bank employee, Clayton (Edd Byrnes). Monetero (Gilbert Roland) attacks, his bandidos making short work of the troops, and takes off with the gold.
Unfortunately for the Mexican, the treacherous Bahunda steals the gold and hides it before killing his ertwhile partner Charro – with "this will blow over and when it does only you and I will know where we hid it…" a strong candidate for line most likely to get you immediately offed – and himself being gunned down. The only clue to the gold's location is a medallion bearing an unusual crest.
Before Monetero can begin his quest he is captured and taken to be executed. The Stranger shows up disguised as the priest to give Monetero his last rites, and exchanges one half of the medallion for saving the Mexican. But Clayton notices the half-medallion Monetero is now sporting and, recognising something is up, appropriates it for himself.
Soon all three men are on the loose, closing in on the gold, and double and triple crossing one another like there is no tomororrow, all the while pursued by both the men from the bank's insurance company and Monetero's fair-weather gang…
This early spaghetti western from Italian action specialist Enzo G Castellari ( Cold Eyes of Fear , La Via Della Droga and numerous lesser entries) provides decent entertainment, a meandering middle section with a few too many stabs in the back and fistfights countered by an effective over-the-top finale and some clever directorial touches here and there, as when Clayton sees an advancing gunman mirrored in his spilled drink or a conventional corrida build-up, complete with intensifying rhythmic close-ups, that suddenly takes a somewhat whimsical twist.
If Leone's Dollars trilogy is the obvious model, with some near direct lifts – note Montero's comment facing the firing squad that "You talk too much… If you're going to shoot a man go ahead and shoot him" in the manner of Tuco's "If you want to shoot, shoot… don't talk" line in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly or the way in which Clayton and the Stranger (plus the insurance agent Blackman) spy one another through their telescopes in the manner of the rival bounty hunters in For a Few Dollars More – the more knockabout tone, less about matters of life and death than a game in which none of the protagonists is ever seriously in danger, clearly prefigures the spaghetti's post- Once Upon a Time in the West decadent phase wherein comic and parodic forms like the Trinity films predominated.
The soundtrack likewise has a somewhat transitional or hybrid feel. While the presence of a Bach-styled pipe organ pieces providing a futher link to For A Few Dollars More the title theme "Stranger" seems more related to Sergio Corbucci's Django (arguably more influential domestically than the Leone/Eastwood entries) and the style of much later "twilight" era entries like Sergio Martino's Mannaja and Castellari's own Keoma in its use of lyrics – "Stranger, who knows your name" – in place of Ennio Morricone style instrumental leitmotifs.
Mexican-born Gilbert gives Montero a touch more dignity and smarts than the average spaghetti bandido, while one can't but help raise a smile at the Uruguayan-born Hilton – a familiar face in all manner of Italian genre product around this time – commenting that he needs to brush up on his Spanish. Kareen O'Hara – or Stefania Careddu – has a thankless role as Monetero's love interest.
VCI's Region 0 DVD presents Any Gun Can Play letterboxed in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, the only way to really appreciate a spaghetti western. The transfer is watchable but not the greatest, vibrant colours being offset by a some visible grain and artefacting, with the sound likewise serviceable but less than spectacular.
The disc includes the film's US theatrical trailer and somewhat crackly, jumpy one – or is it two – for A Bullet for Sandoval AKA Los Desesperados, another Hilton vehicle on which Lucio Fulci may or may not have lent a hand.
Neither the greatest film nor DVD, then, but well worth the $9.99 list price.
Copyright © K H Brown 2002-2005
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