Lee Van Cleef stars alongside John Phillip Meceita in this spaghetti western from Giulio Petroni. My knowledge of spaghetti westerns is pretty slim, so it should come as no surprise that I had never heard of this one, but with Lee Van Cleef in it I figured why the hell not?

What it is, is a smart, gritty revenge film.

Meceita is Bill, who as a child was witness to the murder of his father, and the rape and murder of his mother and sister. Burned into his memory under a gauze of red is the incident and pieces of his attackers, a scar, a tattoo, a skull head necklace.

For fifteen years he’s fostered the hate of those who killed his family, he’s perfected his shot, his aim, and his gunfighting. He’s almost ready to go after them, but has nowhere to start.

As fortune would have it, Ryan (Van Cleef) has just been released from prison, and he’s out for revenge as well. He’s after the gang that betrayed him. The same gang that killed Bill’s family. The younger man posits that they should work together, by Ryan believes Bill’s anger is going to cloud his judgment and get them both killed.

So off they go, racing across the west, following the bare clues that Ryan has offered. There is a fun rivalry between the two that evolves into a begrudging respect as they track down the gang, and Bill gets to knock off his family’s killers one by one.

With a score by Ennio Morricone the film races along at a breakneck pace with action beats, gunfights, as well as some twists and turns that aren’t wholly unexpected. But they’re still fun.

And I was absolutely delighted to see that one of the villains was played by Anthony Dawson who will always be Strangways in Dr. No for me.

It’s gritty, violent and dark, and yet has a playful humor running through most of it as Ryan and Bill interact. It’s got some great moments, but the opening is admittedly brutal, which is the point, of course, but those first few minutes are tough watch.

The gunfights are well-orchestrated, and the climax gives us all-out battle between two armies, the gang versus townspeople that have been in the grip of their evil.

This one was highly enjoyable, if you can get past the assault at the beginning of the film that sets the tone for the level of violence present in the film. But it’s a revenge tale, and by making it that brutal, you invest the viewers in Bill’s desire for vengeance.

Damned fun.