"Any Gun Can Play" probably has more 'vamanos' and 'andeles' than any spaghetti Western out there, while mixing in it's share of black hats, stogies, beards and ponchos. The opening scene is a blast, it will make you sit up and take notice of some familiar, yet unfamiliar characters who aren't around long enough to worry about. The film keeps you guessing as to the relationship of it's three principals, as alliances are made and broken with tenuous regularity, with bandit Monetero's lady even switching sides when it suits her.
I got a kick out of the way the self proclaimed 'Stranger' (George Hilton) kept raising the ante on the reward for Montenero's (Gilbert Roland) capture, and wondered if the authorities were on the same page. Even though Edd Byrnes' 'kookie' persona kept intruding, he still managed to maintain a sufficiently duplicitous posture as banker Clayton. The slick move he pulled with the spilled drink to catch a reflection struck me as surprisingly clever. The best though was taking up the pugilistic stance to mix it up with the Stranger, that was hilarious!
The movie has some outstanding cinematography purporting to be the border of Mexico and it provides a great scenic backdrop to the action. The 'tres cientos mil' dollars at the core of the story is never seen until the end of the picture when it showers the principals and even then, I had the impression that if the three hombres had it to do all over again, it might have gone an entirely different way.
I got a kick out of the way the self proclaimed 'Stranger' (George Hilton) kept raising the ante on the reward for Montenero's (Gilbert Roland) capture, and wondered if the authorities were on the same page. Even though Edd Byrnes' 'kookie' persona kept intruding, he still managed to maintain a sufficiently duplicitous posture as banker Clayton. The slick move he pulled with the spilled drink to catch a reflection struck me as surprisingly clever. The best though was taking up the pugilistic stance to mix it up with the Stranger, that was hilarious!
The movie has some outstanding cinematography purporting to be the border of Mexico and it provides a great scenic backdrop to the action. The 'tres cientos mil' dollars at the core of the story is never seen until the end of the picture when it showers the principals and even then, I had the impression that if the three hombres had it to do all over again, it might have gone an entirely different way.