Plot

A Swedish arms dealer and a Mexican peon team up to rescue the intellectual leader of the Revolutionary cause, while taking part in numerous misadventures along the way.

Arms dealer Yolaf Peterson aims to make a sale to guerilla Mongo, but the money is locked in a bank safe, the combination known only to Professor Xantos, a prisoner of the Americans. Yolaf agrees to free Xantos, accompanied by reluctant guerilla Basco, but a former business partner of Yolaf's- John 'The Wooden Hand', has other ideas.—Tom Seldon <elpuro@msn.com>

In times of revolution in Mexico, the ignorant Vasco is promoted by the corrupt General Mongo to lead his men in the invasion to San Bernardino. Meanwhile the arms trader Yolaf "Swedish" Peterson arrives in the village to deal with Mongo; however the money to buy the weapons is locked in a bank safe. The only man that knows the combination to open the safe that was not murdered by Mongo's men is the pacifist Professor Xantos that is prisoner in Fort Yuma in the United States. Swedish offers to release Xantos but the suspicious Mongo asks Vasco to go with Yolaf. The twosome is chased by the followers of Xantos led by the beautiful Lola that want to convince the duo to join the revolution; and by the mercenary John that lost one of his hands in a betrayal of Yolaf to save his life and uses his smart hawk Marsha to get Xantos to deal with Mongo.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

During the Mexican Revolution in the 1910s, a peasant named El Vasco (Tomas Milian) starts a revolt in his central Mexican town by killing the army colonel in charge. Rebel leader and self-appointed General Mongo (Francisco Bódalo) soon arrives on the scene and recruits El Vasco into his revolutionary gang. However, Mongo is more interested in gaining fortune for himself than for his country. Yodlaf Peterson (Franco Nero), a Swedish mercenary, arrives in Mexico to sell guns to General Mongo. The safe containing the money is locked and only Professor Xantos (Fernando Rey) knows the combination. Xantos is the leader of a student counter-revolution that opposes violence, and is held in a prison by the United States army, after he tried to find funding from the US and did not agree to give the monopoly of his country's entire oil wealth in return. El Vasco dislikes the suit-wearing Peterson and calls him a "penguin", but at the suggestion of General Mongo, the two reluctantly join forces and set out to capture Xantos. Their task is made harder by the American army looking for rebel leader Pancho Villa and a wooden-armed American named John Svedese (Jack Palance), who wants to exact revenge on Peterson, his former business partner. Peterson had left John to die after he was crucified, and his pet hawk had to peck his right hand off to save him. In order to maximize their personal gain and to support Xantos' rebel fighters, El Vasco and Peterson have to double cross Mongo. They receive help from Lola (Iris Berben), the leader of Xantos' rebel group, who El Vasco falls for, and her group of young teenage revolutionaries.—Larry B.