Run, Man, Run (1968) User Reviews

Great And Humorous Sequel To The Big Gundown

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 8/10 · 10 November 2006]

Sergio Sollima's "Corri, Uomo, Corri" aka. "Run, Man, Run!" of 1968 is a great and very funny sequel to his 1966 masterpiece "La Resa Dei Conti" aka. "The Big Gundown". As Sollimas two other Westerns, this is once again a quite political film, but unlike "The Big Gundown" and "Face To Face", it is so humorous, that it could actually be described as a Spaghetti Western Comedy.

After a dying revolutionary entrusts the hideout of a fortune to him, Mexican petty thief and excellent knife thrower Cuchillo (Tomas Milian, who already played Cuchillo in "The Big Gundown") is chased through the Mexican/Texan borderland by a gang of Mexian bandits, two French mercenaries, who work for the Mexican government, and Nathaniel Cassidy (Donal O'Brien), an American gunslinger who, although primarily interested in money, still has some of his former ideals left. Furthermore Cuchillo is constantly followed by his loving girlfriend Dolores (beautiful Chelo Alonso), who is sexy and passionate, but also very jealous and short-tempered. On his run, Chuchillo first meets, and travels with a pretty blonde Salvation Army activist called Penny (Linda Veras), much to Dolores' disfavor, and later teams up with Cassidy against their mutual enemies.

The acting in this movie is great, especially Tomas Milian (one of my favorite actors) and Donal O'Brien deliver excellent performances as the two main characters. The supporting cast is also very good, the legendary John Ireland has a small role as a the leader of a Mexican revolutionary squad. The cinematography is great, and so is the music by Bruno Nicolai and Ennio Morricone. Many scenes in movie are very memorable, some of them very funny , a Mexican bandit gang leader orders his wife to hold off on giving birth to their child for a few days for example, because he doesn't want his son to be a "Gringo" born in the US, and the French hit men played by Luciano Rossi and Marco Guglielmi are two very satirical villains.

Maybe not quite as brilliant as "The Big Gundown", but still an excellent movie, "Run, Man, Run!" is a witty, great and very entertaining Spaghetti Western, a must see for genre-fans, but also recommended to everybody else.

Walk, don't run...

[westerner357 · 6/10 · 14 June 2005]

(aka: RUN, MAN, RUN)

Decent sequel to Sollima's great spaghetti western, THE BIG GUNDOWN (1966), this one involves the return of Cuchillo (Thomas Milian) who helps revolutionary Santillana (John Ireland in a small role) return $3,000,000 in gold from Texas back to Mexico. Cuchillo also makes a promise to an old revolutionary before he dies to also help return the gold in order to help finance the revolution and overthrow the dictator, Porfirio Diaz.

But Cuchillo also has to deal with former sheriff Cassidy (Donal O'Brien) who also wants the gold for himself. Then there are the French assassins and bounty hunters who also want a share as well as blond Salvation Army turned gold huntress Penny (Linda Vargas) and many other bandits, too numerous to name. As comic relief we have Cuchillio's girlfriend (Chelo Alonso) following Cuchillio across the desert, trying to force him to give up the search for the gold and marry her. Cuchilio's relationship with her can be funny at times.

The nighttime gunbattle in the Texas town with the Mexican bandits is suspenseful as we see Cuchillio go to work on the bandits with his slick knife throwing skills as he kills each bandit, one after the other. It doesn't hurt that Cassidy also helps him since he needs Cuchillio to help him find the gold. The two of them eventually find out that the gold was melted down into the shape of an old printing press and painted black in order to hide it. Now that's an imaginative touch instead of the usual cave or hole in the ground plot device where people want to hide gold.

The ending is roughly the same as in THE BIG GUNDOWN only not as good since Donal O'Brien can't hope to top Lee Van Cleef in the earlier film. In fact, if there's one big flaw about this film, it's that Van Cleef isn't in it. Otherwise I'd rate it a couple of notches higher.

Blue Underground's anamorphic DVD looks pretty good and the sound and dubbing is excellent. As an earlier reviewer mentioned, there is an interview with director Sollima and Milian and their reflections on the film, as well as an interesting 1969 mini-documentary on the making of spaghetti westerns and their (then) popularity in Italy, including behind the scenes looks at this film as well as Sergio Corbucci's THE GRAND SILENCE (1968).

Decent flick although I think there are better.

6 out of 10

Vila la 1968 Revolution!

[El-Stumpo · 8/10 · 1 November 2007]

Imagine an Italian western inspired by Marx - not Groucho, but KARL. Springing from the loins of the European mini-revolutions of 1968 comes a western with a conscience, courtesy of spaghetti socialist Sergio Sollima, who recycles his most memorable character from the 1967 The Big Gundown and builds an entire film around him.

Cuban-born Tomas Milian returns as Cuchillio, a wily yet endearingly naive opportunist who's quick with a knife but not so quick on the uptake. A quick spell in a border prison sees him share a cell with a seditious poet named Rodriguez, whose dying breath reveals the last resting place of a $3 million cache of revolution-bound gold. And so begins Cuchillio's journey, spreading his proto-revolutionary seed across the Texas border whilst pursued by a sleazy assortment of cutthroats and would-be revolutionaries, spaghetti western regular Donal O'Brien playing a sheriff with a conscience, two French secret agents, his jealous fiancé Dolores (played by the fiery Chelo Alonso), and a blond sergeant in the Salvation Army, a woman who sticks out of her unlikely surroundings like a turd tambourine. Cuchillio himself spends most of his screen time bound, gagged with dynamite, spreadeagled in some godforsaken location, or in one stunning sequence, strapped to the blade of a windmill. And STILL He doesn't lose his sense of humor.

Like The Good The Bad And The Ugly it's a deliberately open-ended epic quest for hidden treasure, but without Leone's grandiose scale and pretentious camera histrionics. It's more like The Wizard of Oz wrapped in a burrito, and peppered with the most random of supporting characters. The usual grimness of these spaghetti westerns is contrasted with Tomas Milian's comic timing, a rousing score by an uncredited Ennio Morricone, and a surprising cameo from veteran American actor John Ireland as a crusty, battle-scarred soldier of the class struggle.

Socialist westerns don't usually come this entertaining - come to think of it, socialists are rarely funny at all! So enjoy the picaresque, picturesque and thankfully undogmatic 1968 Run Man Run.

Final installment from ¨Cuchillo trilogy¨ and again a magnificent Tomas Milian

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 17 January 2008]

This sequel is the third part from ¨Sergio Sollima trilogy¨ , starred by Tomas Milian , as roguish Cuchillo and formed by ¨Big gundown¨, ¨Face to face¨ and this one . Now as absolute starring , Tomas Milian supported by Donald O'Brien in similar role to Lee Van Cleef from ¨Big gundown¨ . It's set during early Mexican revolution with Porfirio Diaz governing , approximately in 1910s . The McGuffin is a hidden treasure by Benito Juarez beyond frontier . The revolutionaries aren't Pancho Villa or Emilio Zapata , but is an imaginary Santillana , well performed by John Ireland in a brief acting . The Cuban Tomas Milian, as usual, puts faces, grimaces, crying and overacting , but he plays splendidly . Enjoyable appearance by also Cuban , the gorgeous Chelo Alonso, usual of Peplum and Western : ¨The good, the bad and the ugly¨. Furthermore, there appears Italian Western usual secondaries as Jose Torres , Gianni Rizzo, Luciano Rossi and Rick Boyd.

This Zapata-Western is inferior than previous entries but displays stirring adventures , shootouts, riding pursuits and is pretty amusing . Sensitive musical score by Bruno Nicolai , replacing the great Ennio Morricone , former films composer . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Mancori , showing marvelously the habitual Almeria (Spain) outdoors. The picture was well directed by Sergio Sollima that would be his last Western and following directing successes such as ¨Sandokan¨.

Lesser "sequel" to the Big Gundown

[cengelm · 6/10 · 25 February 2003]

This film reuses the lead character of LA RESA DEI CONTI and is the third of the Sollima/Milian series. Cuchillo (spanish for "knife") is pretty skilled with this weapon and proves its usefulness in a lot of occasions. During the plot he acts as a maverick, with the only help of his fiancé Maria who wants him finally to get married. As a cultural counterpoint there is the other maverick Cassidy who is depicted as Nordic precise and cold. While being competitive at first they later join for purpose. Overall this sequel suffers from an overload of duel and fighting situations which often seem to be completely senseless, e.g. the duel between Cassidy and José in the beginning. The revolution is not more than a background. Less characters and more character development would have helped. Milian plays with his typical humor and very often we see his suffering face in repetitive scenes of torture. . Recommended for fans of the genre and of Milian. Rich daughter Penny (Linda Veras) is working for the salvation army and wears black fish-net stockings which I consider a minor inaccuracy ;-)

The Nicolai/Morricone score is nice but too hammering for my taste, cinematography is well above average. For me this film is the most humorous of the 3 Sollimas.

6/10

A feel-good Spaghetti Western, if you will!

[KingM21 · 7/10 · 22 April 2006]

This humorous Spaghetti Western was rather enjoyable, a feel-good SW, if you will! The story follows Cuchillo, a happy-go-lucky thief and knife-throwing expert, who gets pulled into a race for a large amount gold, which is supposed to be used to fund the Mexican Revolution. Of course, there are several other greedy bandits after it as well. The story is adequate, but not really original, and the action is paced nicely and pretty cool to watch, seeing that it usually involves flying knives. The real value of this movie, though, is in the character of Cuchillo, excellently played by Tomas Milian. Milian displays fine comedic timing and a honest delivery of dialogue, and is given many chances to show it all off, whether he is dealing with women, being tortured (is there a difference?), or, well, just running for his life! The rousing musical theme was nice too, a welcome change from the heavy, depressing one in Mannaja and the slower, more lyrical-based one in Django (not that they're bad songs either though). Finally, what was with the ending? Did they run out of money? I was really hoping for a resolution here and it felt like there should've been one but oh well...it was still a good movie.

Revoloutionary Spaghetti Western.

[JohnWelles · 8/10 · 24 August 2011]

"Run, Man, Run" (1968) is a Revoloutionary Spaghetti Western directed by the third "Sergio" (after Leone and Corbucci) Sergio Sollima. It stars Thomas Milian as Cuchillo the peasant, reprising his role from "The Big Gundown" (1966), who becomes involved in the hunt of a large cache of gold in Texas.

This is a semi-sequel to "The Big Gundown", but like the Dollars trilogy one can be watched without the other and no confusion arise. In fact, it is probably best to watch this and not compare it to the two previous Sollima Westerns as this movie will be found wanting, which is not to say it is a poor film. Quite the opposite, it is very well directed, acted (especially by Milian), scored by Bruno Nicolai (although allegedly Ennio Morricone gave a helping hand) and the cinematography by Guglielmo Mancori is fantastic. It is just that in this picture what you get is absolutely what you see; there isn't any Fascist allegory hiding underneath like there is in "Face to Face" (1967) or the character complexities there is in "The Big Gundown". Perhaps because Sollima is a better director than scriptwriter (this is his only Spaghetti Western where Sergio Donati doesn't have a screenplay credit). Still, this is a very good Western, way above the average fare and a film anybody with even only a superficial knowledge of the genre will acknowledge as a great.

RUN, MAN, RUN (Sergio Sollima, 1968) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 8 September 2006]

This is another fine Spaghetti Western, actually a sequel to THE BIG GUNDOWN (1966), from the same director-star team; in the accompanying interview, Sollima said that he felt the "Cuchillo" Sanchez character from that film (who, basically had been a subsidiary to Lee Van Cleef's lone gunman) was worthy of his own vehicle.

However, having perhaps overdosed on films from this subgenre over the last two weeks, I was slightly underwhelmed by it (being preceded by my first viewing of the German Expressionist classic WARNING SHADOWS [1923; see my review elsewhere], which was well and truly impressive, may also have had something to do with this!): throwing in everything but the kitchen sink in the various characters' search for gold, the film still offered nothing that was essentially new!!

In fact, here we have Tomas Milian's "Cuchillo" (whom Sollima admits to have been inspired by Toshiro Mifune's role in Akira Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI [1954]) being helped, hindered or pursued by a mysterious American bounty-hunter, a couple of French mercenaries, a bandit horde, Mexican revolutionaries (led by John Ireland, who turns up for a two-minute bit!) and the Army - not forgetting the attentions of two beautiful women, his feisty and extremely jealous Mexican girlfriend and a statuesque Salvation Army officer (but who's not above a little greed)! All this tends to make the film episodic (but which doesn't hang together as well as the first film), overlong (for no real purpose) and exhausting (there's less action than usual for a Spaghetti Western, with little of it that's actually memorable, but a good deal of talk - this is one of the most overtly political films in the genre!). The comedy, too, is more pronounced than in THE BIG GUNDOWN and, indeed, apart from the lead character's constant running (hence the title) and distinctive knife-throwing, he seems to be a different person - as if the characteristics of roles Milian had played in the interim, such as those in FACE TO FACE (1967; also directed by Sollima) and DJANGO, KILL! (1967) had filtered through to his interpretation of "Cuchillo" here!

There's still the shaky 'alliance' between the Mexican and an American ex-sheriff (played this time around by Donal O' Brien, as a cross between the Lee Van Cleef of THE BIG GUNDOWN and the William Berger of FACE TO FACE!) and even the double duel at the end - but with the former not being a chase and the opponents in the latter amounting to only minor characters, i.e. not alter egos as in the earlier film, these elements don't have quite the same impact (though I understand that Sollima couldn't merely repeat himself)! Besides, after two hours the film can only come up with an unresolved ending (with the gold still unclaimed); Sollima, however, feels it was the right thing to do!

From this review, one might think that I didn't like the film all that much or that I spent too much space comparing it to other Spaghetti Westerns - but the star rating should indicate otherwise: it's solid, flavorful and enjoyable (if overly familiar) with a few good action highlights; best of all is the rousing and infectious score by Ennio Morricone (although, due to some contractual glitch, it was credited to his friend and habitual conductor Bruno Nicolai!).

With respect to the supplements included on the Blue Underground DVD: I'll comment elsewhere on the TV special from 1968 about Spaghetti Westerns; the 17-minute featurette which includes interviews with both Sollima and Milian (it was especially great to listen to him talk about this period of his career, having missed out on his interview on BU's edition of DJANGO, KILL!) is wonderful: Sollima is as eloquent and witty here as he was on the interview featured on the Italian DVD of THE BIG GUNDOWN; Milian, apparently, was hurt by the director's put-down of his "Actor's Studio" background and here he comments how his carefully developed characterization of "Cuchillo" as a trapped rabbit was more or less ruined during the editing stages (Milian even allows himself a self-compliment by saying that he's "f***ing talented" but, then, he made poignant comments about his approaching old age)!; we're also offered the original Italian credit sequence (which adds some blue to the red tones of that in the English version), the trailer, a poster gallery and talent bios for both star (I was distressed to learn that when he returned to the U.S., all his great work in Italy meant naught to the Hollywood producers and that, in order to get even a supporting part, he had to reduce himself to testing for it!!) and director.

Once upon a Time in Mexico

[movieman_kev · 8/10 · 13 April 2005]

Tomas Milian returns as Cuchillo, a petty thief who after being imprisoned helps his cell-mate and himself escape. He then gets entangled in a run to get the 3 million dollars in gold that his cell-mate, whom also happens to be a Mexican Revolutionary, hid in a town across the border in Texas. He's chased by his overbearing girlfriend who wants desperately to get married, a bounty hunter (Donald O'Brien), as well as some others.I have yet to see "The Big Gundown", so I can't compare the two, but I really enjoyed this movie and found it to be humorous well still maintaining some good action. And I certainly liked it much more then the previous Thomas Milian film that I've seen "Se sei Vivo spara" (Django Kill, if you live shoot)

My Grade: B+

Blue Underground DVD Extras: Part of BU's Spaghetti Western Collection. Uncut; 17 minute'Run man Run: 35 years Running' Featurette; 38 minute 'Westerns Italian Style' Featurette; Italian Main Titles; Posters & Still Gallery; Talent Bios for Sergio Sollima & Tomas Milian; Theatrical Trailer

3 Easter Eggs: Highlight the hidden knife in the Extras menu for Trailers for "Django", "Dajango Kill", and "A Man Called Blade"; Highlight the knife in the main menu for Tomas Milian telling of his run with a tax man; The hidden knife over the face in the Chapter Select menu for an unsubtitled interview of some sort

Funny and entertaining spaghetti-western, by one of the great Sergios

[alucinecinefago · 7/10 · 16 August 2020]

The following review is an extract from the book "Italo-Western and more...: A filmic guide", which is now available on Amazon.

"Central theme is the search for a treasure by different individuals and factions, which will inevitably lead to numerous entanglements and misunderstandings. The film could be described as a revolutionary and humorous western. It is an Italian-French co-production shot in Almería.

Besides Leone and Corbucci, another Sergio also stood out in the subgenre of the Italian-style westerns: Sergio Sollima. This director had filmed in 1966 "The Big Gundown" (original version "La resa dei conti", which literally translates as "The Settling of Scores"). In that film, the character of funny Mexican bandit Cuchillo, played by Tomas Milian, appears for the first time. The film we are dealing with today can be considered a sequel to the above-mentioned film, although the respective plots are completely independent. Both films have the Mexican revolution as a background.

This "Run man run" stands out above all for its use of a certain comedy, brought about above all by the protagonist (with his outbursts, his blunders, etc.)."

Sollima, Milian and Chelo at Their Best

[EdgarST · 10/10 · 9 July 2014]

1968 was a very good year in films. For most specialists though, it is the emblematic year of a tumultuous period in world politics, and it has been mostly analyzed by historians, sociologists and philosophers. An analysis of films from this perspective is always interesting, but I know very few works dealing with this topic: it would be propitious to do it for the 50th anniversary of those events (in 2018), because during that year many major works were released, as varied as "if....", "Faces", "Memorias del subdesarrollo", "Night of the Living Dead", "Teorema", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Fando y Lis" or "Salesman"… and this is just a handful. Of course, if we consider 1968 in film from the viewpoint of denunciation, militancy, pamphlets and banners, the honor would go to the monumental Argentinean film and masterpiece of world documentary, "The Hour of the Furnaces". In the field of genre, if we had to choose a paradigmatic 1968 European western, the obvious option would be "Once Upon a Time in the West", a drama about the expansion of civilization in the United States, through uncivil methods. However, the plot of "Run, Man, Run", another European western of 1968, combined the political-activist spirit and the fun of those days (to get an idea, the pop and soul hit-parades of the year are a big help, as well as films as "Joanna", "Vixen", and the like): the film is the culmination of Sergio Sollima's trilogy, preceded by "The Big Gundown" and "Face to Face". Here the action takes place against the Mexican revolution of the 1910s, a conflict of epic proportion with diverse sides, from agrarian problems to military struggle, class conflict, religious controversy and vandalism, without forgetting American interventionism. By choosing this background, the scriptwriters were able to address all these sides, to reflect the spirit of rebellion in 1968 in a costume drama, and to insert many contemporary slogans and common phrases of the left. In the end, though, the tone is more ironic and parodic than dramatic: with a leading character as peculiar as the thieving scoundrel Manuel "Cuchillo" Sánchez; with Dolores (Chelo Alonso), Cuchillo's assertive woman and a revised version of the "soldadera" (a female follower of soldiers), opposite to the Adelita of Mexican folk; and with Cassidy (Donald O'Brien), an atypical American bounty hunter who opts to support the Mexican revolution, it is logic that the final product is an amusing ride, full of emotions, laughs and tension. As Cuchillo, formidable Tomas Milian is probably the greatest Cuban actor that I have ever seen in films, while for the first time I was able to see his fellow countrywoman Chelo Alonso in a good role that justified her characteristic fierceness beyond caricature, although in many moments there is a lot of humor, as in a demented comic book. The film also contains scenes of great splendor, as the horse persecution through the snow; confrontations with guns and knives; a wonderful score by Ennio Morricone, who, for apparent contractual reasons, had to give composing credits to his collaborator and arranger Bruno Nicolai; a multi-colored gallery of villains, including the loud-mouthed bandit Riza (Nello Pazzafini), the greedy Salvation Army official Penny (Linda Veras) and two ruthless French mercenaries (Marco Guglielmi and Luciano Rossi); and revolution leaders with marked differences: poet Ramírez (José Torres) and megalomaniac Santillana (John Ireland). An original and enjoyable European western, and a very good motion picture, still vigorous 46 years after its first release.

last in Sergio Sollima's trilogy

[christopher-underwood · 6/10 · 24 January 2023]

Run, Man, Run (1968) comes last in Sergio Sollima's trilogy after The Big Gundown (1967) and Face to Face (1967). It is not terrible but after the other two it is strange at first that it is almost, rather a comedy. Of course Tomas Milian is great and although some times his actions get just too silly but here he is just about right. As the knife throwing thief he is interesting all the time and there is lots of killing to come. He takes a lot of punishment even strung up a windmill. There is plenty of the Mexicans with their revolution going on but everyone really wants to get to the gold. Its rather long but still good enough and the wonderful music by Bruno Nicolai and help from Ennio Morricone. There are also great credits which have some splendid horses, some in the snow and black and white with splashes of colour, there is also the incredible demented comic like cartoon as if it was a Picasso anti-war painting of Guernica.

Extensive long but satisfying, welcome first Sollima western, welcome back Pazaffani

[Apollo15AnnoPianoCatDogSnailAnt · 6/10 · 19 November 2020]

Nello Pazaffani is someone who I have noted in other flicks like Colossus and Headhunters, Danger Death Ray, and playing headhunters and spies, now a bandit at long last. S. Sollima here provides a lavish meal of a movie, and there is lots of eating and consuming beverages even in this movie.

Hands off my slice.

[lost-in-limbo · 8/10 · 21 April 2008]

Hitting hard is the idealistic tone and free-flowing spirit that engraves itself in director Sergio Sollima's sprawling spaghetti western (a semi-sequel to "The Big Gundown (1966)") starring Tomas Milan as the simple, but lethal knife slinging protagonist Cuchillo. While the material is heavy on the comic banter and physical mishaps, it never loses balance of the strenuously meaningful political side of the story, as Sollima agreeably pulls it off. There's bounce, and zippy energy as it moves along quickly enough, despite its lengthy story and open-ended conclusion for another expansive adventure to begin. Rich varieties of characters (maybe too many) come and go with a lot of minor stories branching of the central premise. This leaves the story feeling loose. So pretty much something is always happening, but the resolutions and overall intentions come off cloudy in this largely chatty script. There's a lot of running, but just as much talking. Sollima skilfully directs with bold compositions and controlled precision in his grand set-pieces. His camera-work imagery and widescreen placement is professionally executed, and imaginatively snappy. The rough and scorching desolate backdrop never looked so sumptuously rich. Adding to the drama was Bruno Nicolai and Ennio Morricone's downright superb alarmingly scheming and melodic score. The performances are truly wonderful. Milan's ferret manner always amused, and Donal O'Brien brings out an intriguing performance. The passionate performances came from two fiery ladies; Linda Veras and Chelo Alonso. They were great! John Ireland has a small, but potently hearty and flavorful role as Mexican revolutionary General Santillana. Quite a fun and well-made spaghetti western, but it does take quite a lot out of you.

The Big and FUNNY Gundown

[Coventry · 9/10 · 28 December 2008]

Once upon a time in the cinematic west, more particularly during the sixties, you had to be Italian and your first name preferably had to be Sergio in order to make the greatest Spaghetti Westerns of all time. There was the greatest Sergio of them all (Sergio Leone, creator of the "Dollars"-trilogy and "Once upon a time in the West") but there was also Sergio Corbucci who made the awesomely terrific "Django" and "The Great Silence", and last but not least there was Sergio Sollima who was responsible for "The Big Gundown" and its mega-cool sequel "Run Man Run". Unfortunately I haven't seen the original yet – it's hardly my fault Blue Underground opted to include only the sequel in the fabulous Spaghetti Western Collection DVD box – but the follow up is a vastly entertaining, fast-paced, refreshing, exhilarating and effectively light-headed western adventures and promptly became one of my new personal favorites in the genre. Tomas Milian is stupendous as usual depicting the witty and hyperactive petty criminal Manuel "Cuchillo" Sanchez who is literally always on the run; whether for his demanding fiancée who insists on getting married or – due to a series of unforeseen events – from a whole lot of bounty hunters, organized criminal gangs and Mexican army officers. After helping a Mexican revolutionist to escape from jail, Cuchillo receives some valuable information regarding the whereabouts of a treasure of $3.000.000 in gold. This money is meant to finance the Mexican Revolution, but obviously several parties are more than interested in stealing it and they're all short on Cuchillo's tail as he's the only one who can lead them to the exact location. This top-class Italian western is near damn perfect from every viewpoint. The typical "Viva La Revolution" theme is always present, but never obtrusively shoved down your throat like often the case in other westerns (for example "Bullet for the General") and actually the emphasis strangely enough lies on comedy and abrupt plot twists instead of on harsh fights until death. Cuchillo spends most of his time on screen either running (duh!) or captured by one of his many opponents and subjected to ingenious methods of torture, but his narrow escapes are even greater to behold. Despite the comical atmosphere, "Run Man Man" nevertheless contains large portions of violence (Cuchillo is an expert knife thrower) and typically wild Western shootouts in desolate areas. The musical scores, courtesy of both Bruno Nicolai and Ennio Morricone, are beyond genius. The title track can be found on YouTube and I'm really addicted to it.

Run, Rabbit, Run, Rabbit, Run Run RUn

[Bezenby · 8/10 · 23 June 2017]

The main character in this one seems to stem from another Spaghetti Western I haven't seen, so that's that. What I do know however is that Tomas Milian plays a low-down dirty peasant called 'Knife' who goes around stealing and grifting and being a fanny rat. Somehow he becomes the only guy who knows where three million in gold has been set aside for the Mexican revolution, and there's many a folk want that gold. To quote Pink Floyd - the Gold it's in the...

Come on my friends lets make for the hills. They say there's gold but I'm looking for thrills. You can get your hands on whatever we find, Because I'm only coming along for the ride. Milian is great as the pretending to be innocent but really sneaky Mexican knife guy who never uses a gun, even during a duel! He also joins the Salvation Army and gets tied to a windmill's blades.

Donald O'Brian would turn out to be a mainstay for Italian cinema as a whole, right up to the bitter end, and he's great here as basically the Lee Van Cleef guy. I also got a laugh from big Nello Pazzafini losing the rag as his pregnant wife was about to drop his kid on Texan soil.

This is much lighter in tone that Sergio Sollima's Face to Face, but then again there's plenty of violence and all the bad guys are taken care of by the end. Milian may have had a very inflated sense of his talent but he is really good when let loose in these films. He somehow especially excels when running about screaming in his pants.

Hugely amusing and entertaining spaghetti Western romp

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 19 April 2017]

Impudent knife-throwing thief Cuchillo (an excellent and engaging performance by Tomas Milian) finds himself on the run across Mexico from a gang of murderous bandits, two sadistic American agents, his hot-blooded fiancé Dolores (a delightfully feisty portrayal by the ravishing Chelo Alonso), and noble ex-sheriff turned bounty hunter Nathaniel Cassidy (the always solid Donal O'Brien), all of whom are after a fortune in gold.

Director Sergio Sollima, who also co-wrote the cheeky script with Pompeo De Angelis, keeps the enjoyable and eventful story moving along at a cracking pace, stages the shoot out with rip-roaring aplomb, and maintains an amiable lighthearted tone throughout. Moreover, it's acted with zest by a tip-top cast: Linda Veras provides plenty of spark as spunky Salvation Army missionary Penny Bannington, Joe Torres does well as passionate revolutionary leader Ramirez, and John Ireland has a splendid cameo as wise general Santillana. Best of all, Milan's considerable scruffy charm and vibrant presence keeps this movie humming throughout. Guglielmo Mancori's crisp cinematography makes breathtaking use of the widescreen format. The sprightly and stirring score by Bruno Nicolai and Ennio Morricone hits the rousing spot. A fun film.