A Professional Gun (1968)
"Il mercenario" (original title)

While a Mexican revolutionary lies low as a U.S. rodeo clown, the cynical Polish mercenary who tutored the idealistic peasant tells how he and a dedicated female radical fought for the soul... See full summary »

Director:

Sergio Corbucci

Writers:

Giorgio Arlorio (story), Adriano Bolzoni,

Stars:

Franco Nero, Jack Palance, Tony Musante

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Franco Nero	...	Sergei Kowalski, the Polish
Jack Palance	...	Ricciolo ('Curly')
Tony Musante	...	Paco Roman
Giovanna Ralli	...	Columba
Eduardo Fajardo	...	Alfonso García
Lorenzo Robledo	...	Officer
Álvaro de Luna	...	Ramón
Raf Baldassarre	...	Mateo
Vicente Roca	...	Elias Garcia
José Canalejas	...	Sebastian
Franco Ressel	...	Studs
Guillermo Méndez	...	Captain
Enrique Navarro
Simón Arriaga	...	Simón
Ugo Adinolfi

Storyline

While a Mexican revolutionary lies low as a U.S. rodeo clown, the cynical Polish mercenary who tutored the idealistic peasant tells how he and a dedicated female radical fought for the soul of the guerrilla general Paco, as Mexicans threw off repressive government and all-powerful landowners in the 1910s. Tracked by the vengeful Curly, Paco liberates villages, but is tempted by social banditry's treasures, which Kowalski revels in.

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Plot Keywords:

mexican | mercenary | revolutionary | clown | machine gun | 

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Taglines:

He sells death to the highest bidder! Buy or die!

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Genres:

Comedy | Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence and brief nudity

Details

Country:

Italy Spain

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

29 August 1968 (Italy)

Also Known As:

The Mercenary

Filming Locations:

Madrid, Spain

Box Office

Gross:

ESP 21,793,177 (Spain)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Produzioni Europee Associati (PEA), Produzioni Associate Delphos, Profilms 21

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jack Palance plays a character named "Curly". Palance later won an Oscar for City Slickers, in which he also played a character named "Curly".

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Goofs

A plane is used to bomb Paco's fort. However planes did not begin to drop bombs until the late stages of WWI, in which they were dropped by hand.

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Quotes

Kowalski aka the Pole: Dream, Paco, but dream with your eyes open.

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Connections

Remade as Companeros (1970)

User Reviews

A great revolutionary epic with awesome music

I was totally knocked out of my socks when I saw that this masterpiece was on TV. One of those many titles this movie has makes it hard to identify it in my TV magazine but still...

Why was I so curious about this movie? First, its famous for its music, composed by Ennio Morricone. Mainly, it's "L'Arena", the tune that was used in Kill Bill Volume 2, which gives me goes bumps every time I hear it. So that was the main reason I wanted to see it. The other: Directed by Sergio Corbucci (Django), starring Jack Palance and Franco Nero (Django). Produced by Alberto Grimaldi....

And what did I get? A high-quality, well-written, nicely filmed epic set in the Mexican revolution. The music perfectly fits the movie. Nero and Palance each have their own theme tunes, and there is a lot of Mexican tunes in the film. The movie as an awesome pace and its very nice to watch. I can really not understand why this movie hasn't gotten a proper DVD release yet. The available Full Screen DVD is really not worth wasting a buck on it, I even got to see the widescreen version on free-TV... This is one of Corbucci's finest works, and one of the best spaghetti westerns ever made, with incredible music, cinematography and mood. Don't miss this. Write down all those alternative titles so you don't miss it when it's on TV.