Synopsis
for Per un pugno di dollari (1964)
A lone gunfighter, the man with no name, rides into town on his old
mule. He's the cold eyed loner with a clouded past and a cigar hanging
out of his mouth. He's as fast as the devil with a gun and damn cynical
about life.
But this isn't
the ideal town to ride into. Two rival families are against each
other in a cut throat war. The one is led by their powerful mother
mostly and the other by a blood thirsty criminal, Ramón, who has
kidnapped a local man's beautiful wife, Marisol.
The only man
who is willing, and not even he's that keen at first, to help "Joe"
or the man with no name, is the local inn keeper. But he warns "Joe"
that there's only one thing that's worth anything in this town,
and it's money. The most thriving job in town is the undertaker's
and if you know what's good for you, you'll skip town before he
knows your measurements.
But "Joe"
ain't dumb. He plays the two families off against each other and
earns a whole lost of cash doing it.
He makes a mistake
by wiping out a whole hacienda of Ramón's gang and helping the family
and the captive woman, escape over the border. Ramón soon grows
wise to him and beats him to a pulp, and burns the house of the
rival family's down.
"Joe"
barely survives with the help of the undertaker who takes him off
in a coffin.
In an unknown
and abandoned gold mine, "Joe" recovers and gets his thirst
back, ready to collect his debt and take out his dear ex-employer,
Ramón.
The dust swirls,
the vultures circle overhead and the sun is hot enough to set the
horizon ablaze, as "Joe" strides back into town. The inn
keeper is hanging from a signpost after being repeatedly beaten
by Ramón's gang, and "Joe" doesn't like this much.
When Ramón shoots
"Joe" with his trusty rifle he's sure that the steely
eyed stranger is dead. But "Joe" gets up and reveals he
has a sheet of metal under his poncho and a gun pointing at Ramón.
He single handedly takes out all the crooks and saves the inn keeper.
The townfolk
emerge from their houses, amazed at what just happened. "Joe"
tells his pal that the town will be okay now.
And once again
the man with no name rides off into the desert, in search of yet
another town to make a buck in or a fistful that is... (See
here)
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