Blood for a Silver Dollar

Un dollaro bucato
Italian theatrical film poster
Directed by Calvin Jakson Padget
Produced by Bruno Turchetto
Screenplay by George Finley
Calvin Jakson Padget
Story by George Finley
Starring Montgomery Wood
Evelyn Stewart
Peter Cross
John Mac Douglas
Frank Farrell
Music by Gianni Ferrio
Cinematography Antonio Secchi
(as Tony Dry)
Edited by Antonietta Zita
(as Rosemary Ware)
Production
company
Fono Roma
Dorica Film
Explorer Film '58
Les Films Corona
Distributed by Euro International Film
Release date
 8 August 1965
Running time
 98 minutes
Country Italy
France
Language Italian
English (dubbed)

Blood for a Silver Dollar (Italian: Un dollaro bucato), also known as One Silver Dollar, is a 1965 Italian-French Spaghetti Western film directed by Giorgio Ferroni, written by Giorgio Stegani and Ferroni and starring Giuliano Gemma and Ida Galli.[1]

Upon release in the United States, nearly all of the cast members and production team had their names changed for the English audience.[2] In France the film is known as Le Dollar troué. Gemma was billed as "Montgomery Wood" as with many of his other films. The title song had a successful cover version by Nini Rosso.

The original title music, composed by Gianni Ferrio, was used in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds soundtrack. Some of Ferrio's remaining themes are also featured in the videogame Red Dead Revolver.

Plot synopsis

Gary O'Hara, a Confederate Lieutenant, returns from the war, to fight one at home. Prior to his release from the Prisoner of War camp his pistol has its barrel sawn off, as well as his brother Phil's gun and all the pistols from Lieutenants of the South. He arrives at his house and finds his wife living in poverty. He promises to reunite with her after three months and travels to Yellowstone to make a living. There, he meets the wealthy landowner and banker McCoy, who hires Gary and asks him to arrest a new gangster in town named "Black Jack", who has supposedly wrought havoc in the community.

Gary agrees to kill Black Jack, but it is revealed too late that the outlaw is actually his brother Phil, who also recognizes his brother Gary just a second later after shooting him. McCoy and his men kill Phil and order a mexican farmer and his wife to bury him and Gary. Soon after, the Mexicans discover that Gary has miraculously survived being shot, since the bullet was stopped by a silver dollar coin Gary always carries in his left pocket. The Mexican couple takes Gary away to safety, and everyone in Yellowstone believes he has died.

After hiding away for some time, Gary returns to the lands near Yellowstone and saves a group of farmers who are being harassed into selling their lands to McCoy. Thus he finds out that his brother Phil was actually protecting and helping the defenseless farmers against McCoy's men's raids and violence. Gary sets himself up for revenge against his former employer, and works with the local sheriff and the farmers' leader to stop McCoy's men from stealing a shipment of gold belonging to the farmers to be used by them to pay off a loan to the bank owned by McCoy. Nevertheless, events take a turn when Gary realizes that the sheriff, as well as McCoy, are in fact former criminals wanted by the law and are only masquerading as respectable men. Things get even more complicated when O'Hara's wife comes into town looking for her husband.

Cast

Scene from Blood for a Silver Dollar.

References

  1. ↑ "One Silver Dollar". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ Hughes, p.39

Bibliography

  • Hughes, Howard (2010). Spaghetti Westerns. Harpenden: Kamera Books. ISBN 978-1-84243-303-4.
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