| THE FORGOTTEN PISTOLERO - (Italian / Spanish coproduction, 1969) Starring Leonard Mann and Peter Martell, Directed by Ferdinando Baldi.
THE UNHOLY FOUR (Italian, 1970) Starring Leonard Mann, Woody Strode, Peter Martell, Directed by E.B. Clucher.
Saddle up for a double dose of Leonard Mann in two terrific Spaghetti Westerns by two of the best directors in the genre as Mann twice plays gunmen in search of their identities.
In FORGOTTEN PISTOLERO, Mann plays a loner whose childhood friend (Peter Martell) finds him decades after a faithful servant has spirited him away during the assassination of his wealthy father and all of his father's staff, leaving only his sister (Filar Velasquez ) and his duplicitous mother (Lucianna Paluzzi). Together Mann and Martell fight the gang that has taken over Mann's father's estate and together they seek to avenge his father's killers in a neat revenge tale with a slam-bang ending.
The superb direction of FORGOTTEN PISTOLERO is by Ferdinando Baldi, who went on to make four films with Tony Anthony, three of them Westerns including the remarkable BLINDMAN. He is also the co-author of the screenplay. The film's atmosphere owes much to the brilliant score by Roberto Pregadio. The support cast includes genre regular Piero Lulli (TASTE OF KILLING, THE DIRTY OUTLAWS) as a sadistic villain.
Mann stars again as Chuck Moll in THE UNHOLY FOUR. He plays an amnesiac who, with three friends (Woody Strode, Peter Martell and George Eastman using his real name, Luc or Luigi Montefiore) escapes from an asylum and makes his way to his home town to find out the truth about his identity. The town is in the midst of a power struggle between two wealthy ranchers, one of whom is Moll's father.
The fast pace is due to the skilled direction of E.B. Clucher (Enzo Barboni) before he made the Terence Hill/Bud Spencer TRINITY films and the surprise filled screenplay is by Franco Rossetti, the director of THE DIRTY OUTLAWS and writer of DJANGO, RINGO AND HIS GOLDEN PISTOL, and TEXAS ADIOS. The score is by Riz (DAY OF ANGER) Ortolani. Also in the cast is the beautiful Ida Galli using her Evelyn Stewart pseudonym.
The sunscorched look and fluid camera work of both films is the contribution of cinematographer Mario Montuori.
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