American actor Craig Hill made a name for himself in Europe in a variety of B-movies. He embarked on his acting career in Hollywood 1950, and he was billed fifth in his first western, Joseph M. Newman's "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" in 1952. Later, he played a cavalry officer in the 1954 Van Johnson oater "Siege at Red River." In "God Made Them... I Kill Them" director Paolo Bianchini's above-average but low-budget Spaghetti shoot'em up "I Want Him Dead," Hill is cast a hard-luck wrangler named Clayton who finds himself in the middle of a secret plot to blow up a Union general and a Confederate general at a peace negotiation summit in the west. This sounds rather like The Hampton Roads Conference, where Abraham Lincoln and William Seward met with Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens to bargain for peace. Initially, our hero rides into the action with a saddle bag stuffed with worthless Confederate States of America bank notes. Clayton wants to buy some valuable property, so he can settle down. Unfortunately, the owner refuses to accept the worthless rebel currency.
If this weren't awful enough, a gang of depraved ruffians kills his sister and leaves her body sprawled on the floor. Naturally, Clayton finds her, and he is furious. He inquires at a saloon about the men who killed his sister. A drunken lout of a gunman tries to kill him. Clayton guns him down as easily as swatting a fly. Afterward, he learns to his chagrin that the drunk was the brother of the local sheriff, and he must slug his way out of jail. Meantime, a local businessman, Mallek (Andrea Bosic of "Hornet's Nest") hires one of the killers of Clayton's sister, Jack Blood (José Manuel Martín of "For a Few Extra Dollars"), to kill the generals. Basically, peace will be bad for his business. Blood and his cutthroat dastards ambush a Confederate wagon train and kill everybody. Disposing of the corpses, they masquerade as rebels to attend the summit and lay out the explosives.
Happily, Clayton thwarts them, but he suffers repeatedly at their grimy hands. During one rough and tumble fistfight, Blood and his cronies try to shove him headfirst into a blazing fireplace. They wind up leaving him trussed up in a chair, while the building burns. Fortunately, he escapes with the help of a girl that he had brought along with him. Mallek meets an ill-fate when he shows up at a rendezvous with Blood's men and threatens them with a fate worse than death if they don't make good on their commitment to kill the generals. What the villains don't know is that Clayton has eliminated Blood. In a surprise about-face, Blood's men man-handle Mallek, take the loot that he had intended to pay them, and skedaddle with it. During their escape, these dastards double-cross each other to obtain larger shares of the money. "I Want Him Dead" was lensed in scenic Almeria, Spain, and the settings are spectacular looking. As usual, Craig Hill makes a stalwart hero, and he gets himself in lots of trouble throughout this sagebrusher. This is definitely a Spaghetti western to watch!
If this weren't awful enough, a gang of depraved ruffians kills his sister and leaves her body sprawled on the floor. Naturally, Clayton finds her, and he is furious. He inquires at a saloon about the men who killed his sister. A drunken lout of a gunman tries to kill him. Clayton guns him down as easily as swatting a fly. Afterward, he learns to his chagrin that the drunk was the brother of the local sheriff, and he must slug his way out of jail. Meantime, a local businessman, Mallek (Andrea Bosic of "Hornet's Nest") hires one of the killers of Clayton's sister, Jack Blood (José Manuel Martín of "For a Few Extra Dollars"), to kill the generals. Basically, peace will be bad for his business. Blood and his cutthroat dastards ambush a Confederate wagon train and kill everybody. Disposing of the corpses, they masquerade as rebels to attend the summit and lay out the explosives.
Happily, Clayton thwarts them, but he suffers repeatedly at their grimy hands. During one rough and tumble fistfight, Blood and his cronies try to shove him headfirst into a blazing fireplace. They wind up leaving him trussed up in a chair, while the building burns. Fortunately, he escapes with the help of a girl that he had brought along with him. Mallek meets an ill-fate when he shows up at a rendezvous with Blood's men and threatens them with a fate worse than death if they don't make good on their commitment to kill the generals. What the villains don't know is that Clayton has eliminated Blood. In a surprise about-face, Blood's men man-handle Mallek, take the loot that he had intended to pay them, and skedaddle with it. During their escape, these dastards double-cross each other to obtain larger shares of the money. "I Want Him Dead" was lensed in scenic Almeria, Spain, and the settings are spectacular looking. As usual, Craig Hill makes a stalwart hero, and he gets himself in lots of trouble throughout this sagebrusher. This is definitely a Spaghetti western to watch!