Find a Place to Die (1968)

An outcast Confederate soldier redeems himself by defending a woman against bandits willing to kill for her goldmine claim.

Director:

Giuliano Carnimeo (as A. Ascot)

Writers:

Lamberto Benvenuti (screenplay), Lamberto Benvenuti (story)

Stars:

Jeffrey Hunter, Pascale Petit, Giovanni Pallavicino

Cast

Cast overview:
Jeffrey Hunter	...	Joe Collins
Pascale Petit	...	Lisa Martin
Giovanni Pallavicino	...	Gomez (as Gordon York) (as Gianni Pallavicino)
Reza Fazeli	...	Paco
Nello Pazzafini	...	Fernando (as Ted Carter)
Adolfo Lastretti	...	Rev. Riley (as Peter Lastrett)
Mario Dardanelli	...	Chato (as Darlo Darnel)
Umberto Di Grazia	...	Bandit
Anthony Blod	...	Bobo (as Anthony Blond)
Serafino Profumo	...	Miguel (as Seraphin Profumo)
Daniela Giordano	...	Juanita
Piero Lulli	...	Paul Martin (as Peter Lull)

Storyline

After a long fight with Chato's murderous gang of bandits in the dusty Texan-Mexican border, Lisa, the wife of the unfortunate gold-miner, Paul Martin, escapes in search of help. As the defenceless woman heads to the nearest town, before long, the disgraced former Confederate officer, Joe Collins, agrees to lend her a hand, of course, in return for a share of the gold, assembling a motley group of greedy cut-throats willing to join them. However, the fever of gold can turn man to beast, and wounded Martin's spouse is easy on the eyes. Will they get out of Chato's dangerous land alive and in one piece?

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Plot Keywords:

female cowboy | mine | attempted rape | punched in the face | beating | 

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Taglines:

They wanted each other dead! She wanted them all alive!

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Genres:

Western

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Quotes

Joe Collins: Their idea of fun is a word called torture, and the only thing they're interested in is gold and women.

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Connections

Remake of Garden of Evil (1954)

User Reviews

Solidly entertaining pasta oater

Giulio Carinomeo (aka Anthony Ascott) was not really in the class of great Italian directors like Sergio Leone or Sergio Corbucci, but he was a solid Spaghetti Western director, and this is one of his better efforts. A pair of husband-and-wife American adventurers discover a vein of gold in the badlands of Mexico controlled by a notorious Mexican bandit named "Chato". They are besieged by bandits and the husband is crippled and trapped by a rock slide, so his wife (Pascale Petit) has to go for help to the rough-and-tumble nearby town of "Nido de Aguila" ("Eagle's Nest")where most of the surly locals are much more interested in trying to rape the pretty "gringa" than in helping her rescue her husband. She does meet a seemingly amoral American mercenary (Jeffrey Hunter), who agrees to help her out for a share of the gold, and the latter puts together a gang of treacherous Mexican cutthroats (as well as false gringo preacher)to accompany them. The pair are in jeopardy then not only from "Chato's" band, but from their own vicious gang.

There is a real aura of menace hanging over this movie as pretty much all these rough men are after "the gold . . .and the woman" in that order. (Ironically, these Mexican borderlands are still pretty much ruled by bandits, but it's drugs rather than gold or gringas that they fight over these days). There's a surprising amount of female nudity here for this genre (although not much by the standards of later Italian genre films). The woman are pretty much treated like chattel, but it isn't so much Petit's gringa that gets freely passed around as a guitar-playing Mexican prostitute (former Miss Italy Daniela Giordano with a spray-on tan). The Old West was not portrayed with this much raw savagery in any of the American Westerns and really only a few of the Italian ones like "Cutthroat Nine" or "Four for the Apocalypse".

The real weak link here is probably Jeffrey Hunter as the only halfway decent guy around. He looks the part of a mercenary, but he just isn't very compelling. There were any number of Italian or expatriate American actors who could have played this role better. The end also doesn't really live up to the sense of menace created in the early going, and exploitative tag-line, "They came for the gold and her body. . . they didn't get the gold" is pretty inaccurate (for better or worse) as another reviewer mentioned. Still, this is a solidly entertaining pasta oater

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian English

Release Date:

1971 (USA)

Also Known As:

Find a Place to Die

Filming Locations:

Ostia Studios, Ostia, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Aico Films, Atlantis Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1