Am I Missing Something?

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The most noticeable thing about Ferdinando Baldi's "Blindman" is that Ringo Starr plays a supporting role in it. Yes, the annular member of the Beatles appears in a spaghetti western...with his voice dubbed! It's more than a little jarring to hear the man who sang "Yellow Submarine" and "Octopus's Garden" have a neutral accent.But anyway, it's an OK movie, not great. Tony Anthony plays a man hired to deliver fifty brides to the miners, but the brides get kidnapped and so he has to take charge. It's got a lot of the things that we can expect in a spaghetti western, along with a few things that wouldn't have been acceptable just a few years earlier. It's a fairly interesting flick, partly to see the most famous drummer in the world play a bandit, but mostly just to see this lesser known entry in the genre. Good times.PS: Producer Saul Swimmer also co-produced the documentary "Let It Be" and directed the documentary about George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh. In other words, this is one spaghetti western that's all about the Fab Four.

"Blindman" (1971) is a Spaghetti Western directed by Ferdinando Baldi.The plot is simple, almost a mere showcase for the highlights that are contain in this film: a blind, if deadly, gunfighter played by the great Tony Anthony, is hired to escort 50 mail order brides to their miner husbands. But he's double-crossed by his associates who sell them to the dangerous Mexican bandit (Lloyd Battista) Domingo. Blindman tracks down the bandit to get his brides...This is more bizarre Spaghetti than usual as it has Ringo Starr of The Beatles fame playing a Mex outlaw and, surprisingly, equips himself well and is much better than one has any right to expect. Tony Anthony is the best actor in the movie, playing Blindman excellently and makes us believe he can kill five Mexican crooks, who all of weapons, with his rifle. There are some rather mean jokes played at his expense (i. e. knocking over pots, breaking mirrors), but these thankfully stop after the beginning. The rest of the cast are good, if not exactly memorable and the music by Stelvio Cipriani is pleasant enough. The cinematography by Riccardo Pallottini just does the job of telling the story, but then, that is the first priority for photography. Baldi's direction is very good, even if the cruelty to women is overdone. There is also more nudity in this Spaghetti Western than in any other I have seen.So, the action and shootouts are well done, there is at least one great performance and the direction couldn't be more spirited. What more could you ask from from a Spaghetti Western?

***SPOILERS*** Utterly ridiculous but vastly entertaining Spaghetti Western involving this Blindman, Tony Anthony, who together with his seeing eye horse is on the hunt for a stable of 50 well endowed and gorgeous looking women. The women who were stolen from the Blindman by his two timing partner Skunk, Renato Romaro, who then had them shipped down to Mexico to work as prostitutes for Mexican bandit Domingo's, Llyod Battista, string of whorehouses.The Blindman feels his way through the movie and in the process ends up wiping out Domingo's gang almost single handedly without the advantage of having his sight to see what he's doing. The 50 women were in fact to be sent up north of the border to Texas as mail order brides for the hard pressed and sex starved Texan coal miners who haven't seen, much less touched, a women in years. It was that skunk of a partner Skunk who double-crossed the Blindman by selling the women to Domingo before the Blindman could have them shipped to the miners who paid big bucks, in gold and silver, for them.There's also the very interesting side story in the movie involving Domingo's both younger and hot blooded brother Candy played by "The Beatles" drummer Ringo Starr, in his first and last dramatic role, who's got the hots for pretty gringo girl Pilar, Agenta Eckemyr. Candy's insane and uncontrollable lust for her has Pilar who together with her father, Franz Von Treuberg, instead of excepting him as a member of the family just can't stand the very sight much less smell of that, in their words, filthy and overbearing pig! This complicates matters for both the Blindman and Domingo in both being involved in a deadly tug of war over the 50 kidnapped woman who end up unwillingly getting involved with the sex crazed Candy's love life.The Blindman despite his major handicap, in him being totally blind, has no trouble at all dispatching Domingo and his gang of Mexican Bandits who at times seem to be even, in letting the Blindman get away from them time after time, blinder then he is! Using his wits instead of his eyes the Blindman also gets help from Mexican General Ref Badassarre who was once Domingo's captive who, now back from the dead, is out to avenge what he did to him.***SPOILERS*** In true Spaggitti Western Clint Eastwood style the Blindman sets a trap for Domaigo and his men in a deserted Mexican cemetery with an ending somewhat like Eastwood's classic "The Good the Bad & the Ugly". But this time around the Blindman, unlike Clint, gets help from a very unlikely source a former enemy who has now, in evening things out, become his most steadfast and trusted ally!

Your average spaghetti western gunslinger goes in search of gold, probably hidden in a grave somewhere, someplace. Or is hunting down the bad guy that has murdered a member of his family. But not Blindman - "I want my 50 women".Yes, Blindman has a contract to deliver 50 mail order brides to a group of miners, and unfortunately he has been double-crossed by his partner, who has sold the women on to bandit Domingo.It is worth noting that Domingo's brother, Candy, is played by none other than former Beatle and Thomas the Tank Engine narrator Ringo Starr. And, surprisingly he plays this role really well (who said he was the least talented Beatle - I couldn't imagine Paul McCartney acting so well. Actually, I know - I saw "Give My Regards to Broadstreet" once!).The film, with its "mock Morricone" score, charges along comic book style, and is really good fun. The politics are maybe a bit dodgy in places (judging by the number of beatings and mishandling that both the Blindman and his 50 women are subjected too at regular intervals) and you have to question how a blind gunslinger could have survived so long. But maybe it is such points that make this so different from the many other Spaghetti Westerns, and help to make this a really great view.