Blood for a Silver Dollar (1965)

hyped garbage

Highly Overrated But Still Good

best movie i've ever seen.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Handsome, charming former stuntman Giuliano Gemma is once again in good form as he plays Gary O'Hara, a former Confederate soldier in the post-Civil War era. Looking for employment, he comes to the isolated town of Yellowstone, and gets hired for a job by local fat cat McCoy (Pierre Cressoy). He survives the ensuing ordeal to learn that McCoy lied to him, and that the supposed bad man he was hired to roust was in fact his brother Phil (Nazzareno Zamperla). Saved from certain death by a strategically placed silver dollar, he goes about seeking justice."Blood for a Silver Dollar" is just good, straightforward entertainment, complete with gunfights, stunts, twists and turns, a lovely leading lady (Ida Galli as Garry's wife Judy), and appealing widescreen photography. It doesn't reinvent the genre, but it tells a diverting story in capable fashion for a fairly well paced 91 minutes. Certainly a lot of the pleasure derives from Gemmas' casting, and he's an engaging hero as always. Cressoy is one of those classic characters who you can just sense is going to be sneaky and corrupt, and other supporting actors like Franco Fantasia (as the sheriff) also do fine work.Gary takes plenty of lumps before the tale is done. While we're not in much doubt that he'll rise up righteous and kick some ass, it's good that he doesn't always necessarily have the upper hand, keeping things at least fairly interesting.Seven out of 10.

Sword and sandal director Giorgio Ferroni's frontier saga "Blood on a Silver Dollar" marked the first of the four Spaghetti westerns that he helmed,including "For A Few Extra Dollars," "Fort Yuma Gold," "Wanted," "Gunmen Sent by God." Interestingly, Giuliano Gemma starred in the first three, and Anthony Steffen appeared in the fourth. Composer Gianni Ferrio provided the music for all Ferroni's westerns except for that final one, while the gifted Carlo Rustichelli handled the soundtrack assignment for "Gunmen Sent by God." Since Ferroni's first sagebrusher was released in 1965, it resembled an American oater with some evolution of what would come in the European genre. Giuliano Gemma makes a traditional, stalwart hero, and he looks good in his buckskin outfit. He has one interesting scene early on where he has a showdown with a gun-toting dastard, brushes dust into the dastard's eyes, and disarms him with relative ease. The production values look a notch about a standard-issue Euro-western. Ferrio's soundtrack enhances the action, while Ferroni stages some vigorous gunfights that rarely boil down to the chicanery that he indulges in with the final showdown. "A Bullet for the General" lenser Antonio Secchi's widescreen, color cinematography captures the abrasive look of the old Southwest. If you're a Spaghettimwestern aficionado, you'll recognize at least three of the villains who made prolific appearances in the genre: Benito Stefanelli, Nello Pazzafini, and Franco Fantasia.Like the traditional western hero, our hero isn't a bounty hunter as many Spaghetti western protagonist would later become. Indeed, the protagonist Gary O'Hara (no doubt some allusion to the fictional character Scarlett O'Hara from "Gone with the Wind") has a name that echoes the South. Gary and his brother Phil O'Hara (Nazzareno Zamperla of "Dangerous Beauty") are Confederate soldiers. The end of the war finds these two together briefly as the Union returns their firearms, with a proviso. You see, the Yankees have sawn off the barrels of their revolvers so they resemble the .38-calibered snub nose revolver. Gary complains about this to a Union commander and proves his point that these cut-down revolvers are virtually useless for protection. He fires at a can in the dirt and repeatedly misses it. When the Union officer suggests he should improve his marksmanship skills, Gary persuades him to allow him the use of his revolver. Our hero proves that he is a crack shot with a revolver, and his brother joins in, too. The Yankees send them on their way with the rest of the freed Confederate soldiers. At least, the filmmakers got a little history right because they state that Johnston surrendered instead of the usual reference to Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Before they part company to pursue their dreams now that the South lies smoldering in ashes, Phil informs Gary that he plans to seek his fortune out west. Meantime, Gary is a married man, and he must exercise greater discretion. Phil gives Gary is entire fortune: one silver dollar. Some prints of this Spaghetti western have abbreviated the title to "One Silver Dollar." Naturally, I prefer the title "Blood on a Silver Dollar" because it explains an important part of the plot. Our hero is killed alongside his brother Phil, but Phil had no idea that he was drawing against his brother. The chief villain McCoy (Pierre Cressoy of "Navajo Joe") is struggling to buy up all the land around Yellowstone, but he faces trouble when Phil sets out to exile him from town. Now desperate beyond despair with neither a horse nor a dime to his name, Gary is willing to accept any job, and he accepts McCoy's offer to arrest a troublemaker who has been harassing McCoy. Shrewdly, McCoy has decided that Gary stands no chance against Blackie so when they clash in the saloon, McCoy has his own gunmen wipe at Blackie in a hail of gunfire. Conveniently enough, McCoy's men kill Gary, too. What neither they nor Gary realize at the time is that Phil gave Gary a single silver dollar coin and the coin saved Gary's life. Furthermore, Gary grows to realize that he has killed his brother. Oddly, neither Ferroni nor "Adios, Gringo" scenarist Giorgio Stegani make a big deal out of Gary's brother getting killed by the villains. Indeed, eventually, Gary's wife Judy (Ida Galli of "The Unholy Four") blunders into the plot as a convenient weapon for the villains to use against him. Meantime, Gary uses his apparent death to create chaos for the villains. I cannot go into greater detail without sacrificing one of the chief surprises. Incidentally, the filmmakers get a lot of mileage out of those cut-down revolvers. I don't believe the Union Army pulled a stunt like than Southerners, but the gimmick works splendidly in the overall context of the action.

A solid spaghetti western outing, with James Woods look alike Giuliano Gemma in one of his many leading roles for the genre. ONE SILVER DOLLAR shows influences from Sergio Leone's A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, not least in the title, but also in the opening animated drawings accompanied by a tuneful whistling on the soundtrack. However, the plot is different enough and complex enough to be totally interesting. There are good production values and well-staged scenes of action, with never a dull moment. Plenty of fist-fights, beatings, shoot-outs, and show-downs highlight the movie and its near classic stuff here.Gemma - not one of my favourite actors, I have to admit - is solid enough to be a hero, and charismatic with it. He's well supported by the ever-lovely Ida Galli as his loving wife Judy, and French actor Pierre Cressoy as the slimy villain McCory. The film even manages a couple of moving scenes along with all of the excitement, including the moment when innocent farmer Donaldson is shot dead by the traitorous sheriff, or the bar room scene where the two brothers unknowingly kill each other (or so it seems), a set-up by McCory. The ending has a huge body count as O'Hara just goes around wiping out every single villain in the town, and Giorgio Ferroni is careful to have lots of imaginative twists and minor turns in the plot, as well as plenty of surprises like guns turning out to be empty, coins saving people's lives, and friends suddenly becoming enemies and vice versa. Good genre material.

Quite a good spaghetti western. Interesting performances by all concerned together with some fine photography and direction. The theme song is worth a mention as well - very haunting.Was available on VHS a long time ago from Videoyesteryear in New Jersey. Fans of the genre should try to catch up with this one.