Movie Review: Johnny Yuma

Johnny Yuma 

Tiger Film, West Film, Spain, Italy, 1966. 

This movie can be found in Ten Thousand Ways to Die The Spaghetti Western Collection 12 Movie Pack by Mill Creek Entertainment. 

Desperadoes try to buy Johnny Yuma's (Mark Damon) horse dirt cheap, but he decides to keep it. Johnny demonstrates his superior shooting skills on the unlucky bandits. Then he demonstrates his skills as ladies' man. The dead bandits are worth of lot of money, so Mexican Fidel Alvarez Cortese Sanchez Garcia or Torito (Fidel Gonzáles) wants to team up with Johnny and share the profits. But Johnny is not interested in bounty hunting business so Torito tries to collect the bounty himself. 

Johnny Yuma

Torito

Thomas Felton (Anthony La Penna) wants to give his ranch to his nephew Johnny. His immoral maneater wife Samantha Felton (Rosalba Neri) and her sadistic brother Pedro (Luigi Vannucchi) are not satisfied with the idea and they murder Thomas. Samantha sends her servant Luis 'Sancho' Fernandez (Franco Lantieri) to bounty hunter Lorenz Jerome Carradine (Lawrence Dobkin), so that Sancho can be framed for killing Thomas.

Samantha Felton

Pedro

Lorentz Jerome Carradine

During a bar fight Johnny and Lorenz become friends. Johnny and Torito go to Santa Margo to solve uncle's murder. At first Johnny and Torito have a abrasive friendship. Torito learns that in the desert lack of water can kill you as sure as a bullet. However finally Johnny allows Torito to follow him. 

One of Johnny's girlfriends (Dada Gallotti)

In Santa Margo Johnny is mistaken for Carradine. However the plot fails and Johnny is beaten badly by Pedro but manages to escape. Pedro's men terrorize innocent villagers  to find Johnny. Samantha sends also her ex-lover Lorentz after Johnny. 

Johnny in a tight spot

Johnny goes to search for Thomas' will. Thomas' safe opening mechanism is quite campy, as you must know the combination and shoot bullseye to open it.  When Pedro hurts innocent people, Johnny must set out for revenge. But what will Lorentz do? 

Campy safe

Lorentz and Johnny reloading

The movie is presented in letterbox format. Nora Orlandi's music is great although the lyrics of the title song are a bit ill-fitting to the rest of the story. The production is a bit uneven but the story has many surprises and brutal Spaghetti action. 

Torito brings some comic relief to the dark story. Mark Damon is a bit unusual hero in an Italian western, but teaming up with Lawrence Dobkin and Fidel Gonzáles he manages to pull the hero role well. The movie is not in anyway connected to Johnny Yuma in American Western-series "The Rebel" (1959–1961). 

Rating: Good 

Starring:  Mark Damon, Lawrence Dobkin , Rosalba Neri, Luigi Vannucchi (as Louis Vanner), Fidel Gonzáles, Gustavo D'Arpe (as Gus Harper), Anthony La Penna (as Leslie Daniels), Gianni Solaro (as Johnny Solari), Ferdinando Poggi (as Ferd Poger), Dada Gallotti (as Alba Gallotti), Franco Lantieri (as Frank Liston), Mirella Pamphili, Fortunato Arena, Joaquín Parra, Saturno Cerra, Alberico Donadeo 

Director: Romolo Guerrieri