Spagvemberfest 2023: Giunse Ringo e… fu tempo di massacro (1970)

Ringo, It’s Massacre Time (AKA Wanted RingoRevenge of Ringo and Reward for Ringo) is at once an Italian Western and a mystery. A series of deaths at a ranch — the victims are all foaming at the mouth — brings Mike Wood (Mickey Hargitay) to solve things. Yet he soon mysteriously disappears (he was actually the star of the movie, but had to fly home to California when he learned that his son Zoltan was mauled by a tiger at Jungleland during a publicity shoot for his wife Jayne Mansfield) and his brother Ringo (Jean Louis) comes on board.

Director and writer Mario Pinzauti starts with those basics and then goes wild, bringing in elements of the giallo and even voodoo dolls, something you may not see in a single other Italian Western. Pinzauti made several movies that cashed in on other films, like Let’s Go and Kill SartanaMandingaPassion PlantationDue Magnum .38 per una città di carogne and Clouzot & C. contro Borsalino & C., which looks like Borsalino quite a lot from the poster.

There is a femme fatale named Pilar (Lucia Bomez) and a witch — yes! — that lives in a cave that has caused all of this. The film feels like it was being written as it was shot, as people literally stop speaking in scenes and some characters walk on and never get seen for the rest of the movie. It’s just a blast of complete wildness and while I appreciate just how strange it all is, if you’re looking for a complete film, this is in no way it.

You can watch this on YouTube.