Well Deserved Praise

Such a frustrating disappointment

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

I watched this stock spaghetti western under the title TEQUILA, although I see that it was already released as a pseudo DJANGO sequel under the title KILL DJANGO...KILL FIRST. It's a low budget but watchable piece of entertainment that metes out the stock plot elements with speed and efficiency, as low budget and undistinguished as they are. Giacomo Rossi Stuart is the square-jawed hero of the piece who arrives in town only to discover that a corrupt banker is trying to buy up all the local gold mines using nefarious purposes. There are a few odd plot elements including the presence of a kooky stranger, a voluptuous showgirl played by Diana Lorys, and Aldo Sambrell as the stock villain. It's fast paced although not particularly involving, although at least it isn't boring.

Johnny or Django (as Giacomo Rossi-Stuart or Jack Stuart ) faces off the banker Burton (Aldo Sambrell) , who attempts to acquire with the help of the weird outlaw Lúpe Martínez (George Wang) all the gold mines of the poor owners . Martinez has posters along the little town captioning : ¨Lupe Martínez , Wanted for murder , 2.000 dollars reward , dead or alive¨. Meanwhile , Johnny meets in the nearer environment an old man , Thomas Livingstone , who has a valuable mine . Subsequently , Livingstone is shot by Burton's hoodlums . Johnny is accused for killing and the crowd attempts to lynch him . This potboiler low budget Spaghetti/paella Western co-produced by Italy and Spain . This is a boring Spaghetti with a non-sense script by Victor Andrés Catena that displays a few and poor scenarios embarrassingly photographed by Francisco Sánchez , shootouts , brawls , but results to be slow and tiring . A short-budget production who was made in Spain , Almeria , similarly other multiple Westerns , frequently filmed back-to-back using several of the same cast and crew members . Stars Giacomo Rossi Stuart or Jack Stuart who takes on the unlawful ways carried out by his implacable enemies . Stuart was an actor who happily capitalized on whatever cinematic trend was hot at the moment , as he starred all kind of genres, specially terror : Kill Baby Kill , The Last man on Earth , The night Evelyn came out of the grave ; Wartime : Nest of hornets , Last day of War , Churchill's Leopards , Che Guevara ; Eurospy : Agent Z-55, mission Coleman , Ring around the world , Perry Grant ; and Spaghetti/Chorizo Western , such as : 5 Army men , Zorro , The Fox , Deguello , You're Jinxed, Friend You've Met Sacramento , Amigo Stay Away and Shangai Joe . And as male lead opposite shows up Aldo Sambrell who performed lots of Spaghetti/Tortilla Westerns , usually as secondary actor , being his most important intervention in Navajo Joe versus Burt Reynolds . Co-starred the gorgeous Diana Lorys , this Spanish dynamo of fiery Latin passion played 17 European western , originally trained in ballet , dance , Flamenco as demonstrates in this "Kill Django... Kill First" , she had supporting roles in Spaghetti/Paella Westerns as Chino , Bad Man's river and California . She also appeared in two USA/Chorizo Western : The Texican and Villa rides . She was also leading lady in several lesser known Tortilla/Pasta Westerns and terror movies as The awful Doctor Orloff , Blue eyes of broken doll , Nightmares come at night and Malenka . Other secondaries here appearing and regulars in Spaghetti are the followings : Mario Novelli , Pietro Tordi or Peter White , and Lorenzo Robledo who played Leone Westerns and others in very secondary participation and cameos . Furthermore , the beautiful Krista Nell who brought her penetrating , steely gaze to some Spaghetti and horror movies until her early death at 29 years old .This lowbrow motion picture Uccidi Django... Uccidi per Primo!!!" or "Kill Django... Kill First was lousily filmed by Sergio Garrone and with lots of zooms . Sergio's direction is badly crafted , here he is more inclined toward violence and packs little action , but especially this thrilling Western contains moving shoot'em ups and some gloomy scenes into a cave where lives a disturbing Chinese bandit . Sergio serves as a classic example of a journeyman Italian exploitation filmmaker and freelance screenwriter . As Garrone penned a great number of screenplays and lack-luster films , working from the 60s in all kind of genres and B movies . He directed this embarrassing western , genre in which he would not only excel but one where he would spent much of the rest of his career . Sergio went on to helm several other spaghetti Westerns , many of them Spanish co-productions, that include Tre Croci Per Non Morire (1968) , Quel Maledetto Giorno Della Resa Dei Conti (1971) , Deguello (1966) also starred by Jack Stuart , Huracan Sobre Mexico (1967) and his greatest notoriety was the peculiar outing : Django il Bastardo (1969) . In 1974 Garrone directed the horror features as Le Amanti del Mostro (1974) and La mano Che Nutre la Morte (1974) , both of which performed Klaus Kinski . He made and wrote for everything from inferior sex comedies as La Clinica Dell'Amore (1976) , El Periscopio (1979) by José Ramón Larraz , to even Giallo , mystery thrillers such as : L'ultimo harem , La Pagella , Blonde Köder Kür den Mörder (1969) or Killer's Gold . Later on , Sergio Garrone directed nasty Naziexploitation or Porno-Nazis as Lager SSadis Kastrat Kommandantur (1976) and SS Lager 5: L'inferno Delle Donne (1977). And after writing the violent/erotic WIPs (women-in-prison) : Hell Behind the Bars (1984) and Detenute Violente (1984).

Santana (Aldo Sambrell) and his bandits steal a handful of gold, and Santana kills all his men in the following night while they are sleeping, so he can keep the whole gold for himself. But that was just the start for him. Years later, he lives in the disguise of the respectable businessman Burton and commits crimes on a much bigger scale: getting his hands on all the gold-mines in the area. Some owners of promising mines find an unexpected death. The old miner Thomas (Silvio Bagolini) gets a stranger (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) and a bounty hunter (Mario Novelli) to fight for him and the other miners against Burton.'Uccidi Django... uccidi per primo" is a shoddy piece of work from Sergio Garrone who normally shot better westerns. Occasionally, some skills show through, for example the dark, mysterious scene when Burton and the psychopathic killer Lupe (George Wang) are meeting in a cave. But there are many poorly executed scenes. See for example the scene after 5 minutes where the bandits are riding through the gate. The bag with gold is dropped by Aldo Sambrell, but he keeps riding on. Obviously, they did not want to make a second take, so the first take with this silly mistake stayed in the movie. Otherwise, it's a great role for Sambrell though who dominates the picture, whereas he often played only supporting roles in other westerns.

I think this is more usually known in English as DJANGO, KILL, or DJANGO KILL (no comma). Known for completely over the top wild violence and rivers of red blood. Some see a very hidden homo-erotic perversity to it, but there is so much general perversity all around in it, who can say if one more flavor matters? It is kind of fun (if that is the word) to see it if you put it in the context of all the other Italian Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s. Watch the documentary "Spaghetti West" to see how this one fits into the overall trend. Coming to it cold with no background, it may just seem crazy. As, indeed, I think it is somewhat.