Diamante Lobo (1976)

Director:

Gianfranco Parolini

Writers:

John Fonseca (screenplay)
Gianfranco Parolini (screenplay)

Release Date:

March 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

Priest turned vigilante Father John (Van Cleef) hunts down a gang of criminals, led by Sam Clayton (Palance)...

Plot Keywords:

Priest | Revenge | Drawing In Sand | Drinking | Donkey

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Lee Van Cleef	...	Father John / Lewis
Jack Palance	...	Sam Clayton
Richard Boone	...	The Sheriff
Sybil Danning	...	Jenny
Leif Garrett	...	Johnny
Robert Lipton	...	Jess Clayton
Cody Palance	...	Zeke Clayton
Ian Sander	...	Red Clayton
Pnina Rosenblum	...	Chesty (as Pnina Golan)
Zila Carni	...	Juanita Lewis
Heinz Bernard	...	Judge Barrett
Didi Lukov	...	Rip
Ricardo David	...	Angel George
Chin Chin	...	Willy
Rafi Ben Ami	...	Mortimer

Also Known As:

A Bullet from God
God's Gun
Pistola di Dio (Italy) (alternative title)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

Italy | Israel

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1977) | USA:R | Spain:13

Filming Locations:

Israel

Company:

Dunamis Cinematografica

Goofs:

Continuity: In the opening scene, when the Clayton gang rides into Crane City to rob the bank, there's a barn to the right of the bank with the sign 'JC McCormick, Blacksmithing, Wagon Repairing' with a large wagon wheel in the center. Later in the movie, when Lewis describes his past to young Johnny, there's a flashback scene to Abilene. Outside the Abilene Gambling Hall, right across the street, there's a barn with the same sign!

Quotes:

Father John: Mine is the vengeance, sayeth the lord.

This Gun's Not For Hire

God's Gun is a spaghetti western shot in the Negev desert of Israel thereby leavening it with a bit of bagels, cream cheese and lox. A whole bunch of American players got a trip to Israel to participate in this western produced by Israeli film makers Goran and Globus.

The idea might have been taken from that short lived James Garner series Nichols, something Garner did between Maverick and The Rockford Files. Lee Van Cleef stars and plays two roles, a Catholic priest and a retired gunfighter.

One day a really obnoxious band of outlaws led by Jack Palance comes to town and starts shooting the place up killing a few of them, robbing the citizens and raping the women, even the saloon girls. When Lee Van Cleef the priest brings back one of them who committed a murder, Van Cleef is in turn gunned down in the street. That sends young Leif Garrett who is probably the altar boy at the church off looking for the gunfighter.

This was years before the Catholic priest sex scandals started breaking all over the country so those who might have seen this in theater weren't snickering at the relationship between Van Cleef and young Leif. Now when viewed it probably brings many a guffaw among the cynical movie goers. I've always maintained that the androgynous Leif Garrett as a juvenile was definitely the prettiest of all the teen idols. Later on Garrett did a western, Peter Lundy And The Medicine Hat Stallion where his androgynous look was exploited to the max.

Richard Boone is in this as well, playing an elderly drunken sheriff who is pretty ineffectual against Palance's gang. He sounds like his dialog was badly voiced over and not in his voice. That same year he did the John Wayne classic The Shootist and Boone sounded just fine there.

I hope all the players got more than a trip to Israel and a spaghetti dinner for this film. I hope their salary checks cleared before one foot of film was shot.