''Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot!'' () is a 1967

spaghetti Western The spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's filmmaking style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

film directed by Giulio Questi and starring

Tomas Milian Tomás Quintín Rodríguez-Varona Milián Salinas de la Fé y Álvarez de la Campa (3 March 1933 – 22 March 2017) was a Cuban-born actor with American and Italian citizenship, known for the emotional intensity and humor he brought to starring ...

, Marilù Tolo, Roberto Camardiel, and Ray Lovelock in his film debut.

Plot

A pair of Indian medicine men encounter a wounded bandit, the Stranger, crawling out from a

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...

; they nurse him back to health. During his recovery, he remembers an assault on a

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with a significant global presence. The company operates in 35 countries and serves over 70 million customers worldwide. It is a systemically important fi ...

covered wagon A covered wagon, also called a prairie wagon, whitetop, or prairie schooner, is a horse-drawn or ox-drawn wagon used for passengers or freight hauling. It has a canvas, tarpaulin, or waterproof sheet which is stretched over removable wooden ...

guarded by

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

troops. The Stranger, his partner Oaks, and their gang killed the troops, caught swimming in a river, and stole a strongbox containing bags of powdered

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

from the wagon. However, Oaks and the

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

members of the gang betrayed the Stranger and the Mexican bandits, and forced them to dig their grave before gunning them down. In the present, the Indians inform the Stranger that they have

smelted Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron, copper, silver, tin, lead and zinc. Sm ...

his share of the gold into

bullets A bullet is a Kinetic energy weapon, kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is Shooting, shot from a gun barrel. They are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax; and are made ...

, and that they wish to be his companions so that he can tell them about the happy hunting ground. Oaks and his gang arrive in a nearby town (referred to by the Indians as "The Unhappy Place"), where they attempt to buy horses and food with their gold. Bill Templer, the saloon owner, recognises Oaks from a

Wanted poster A wanted poster (or wanted sign) is a poster distributed to let the public know of a person whom authorities wish to apprehend. They generally include a picture of the person, either a photograph when one is available or of a facial composite ...

. Templer and Alderman, the town

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

, lead an armed mob in

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of i ...

all of the bandits except for Oaks, who barricades himself in a store. The Stranger arrives and shoots the frightened Oaks. Wounded, Oaks is operated on in the saloon, but is killed when the townspeople try to pull the gold bullets from his body. The Stranger spends the night in the saloon, haunted by what has transpired. Templer and Alderman argue over what shares of the bandits' gold they should receive; Flory, Templer's mistress, becomes aroused as she watches the proceedings. Templar's unstable son, Evan, destroys some of Flory's clothes in anger after seeing her watch the argument. Sorrow, an eccentric

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

rancher, orders Templer to surrender the gold. When the Stranger and the Indians cut down the hanging corpses of the bandits to bury them, they are ordered to leave town. While horse-hunting, the Stranger witnesses Evan being kidnapped and held

hostage A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized—such as a relative, employer, law enforcement, or government—to act, o ...

by Sorrow's ''"muchachos"''. They return to Sorrow's ranch, where he offers the Stranger work, throws a party and sends a messenger to town to inform Templer of the kidnapping. Templer lies and insists that Alderman has the gold. Sorrow orders Evan killed, but the Stranger saves his life via a drunken

shooting game Shooter video games, or shooters, are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is on the defeat of the character's enemies using ranged weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range weapons, an ...

, and Sorrow allows him to live. Whiskey-sodden, the Stranger is unable to help Evan as he is surrounded by amorous ''muchachos''. The next morning, while Sorrow, the Stranger and the other men sleep, Evan takes a gun and commits

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

. The Stranger returns to town with Evan's body. Enraged by his death, he gets into a savage brawl with Templer and several locals. Knowing that Sorrow will have their saloon searched, Flory and Templer hide the gold in Evan's coffin. Alderman invites the Stranger to live with him, and encourages him to have an affair with Elizabeth, his half-mad wife who is kept locked up in her bedroom. As the Stranger and Elizabeth become attracted to each other, Alderman kills Templer with the Stranger's pistol, placing the blame on him. Flory, witnessing the murder, flees and tells the Stranger what has happened, and that the gold is now in the graveyard due to Evan's burial. Alderman leads the townspeople in a search for the Stranger, during which one of the Indians is

scalped Scalping is the act of cutting or tearing a part of the human scalp, with hair attached, from the head, and generally occurred in warfare with the scalp being a trophy. Scalp-taking is considered part of the broader cultural practice of the taki ...

and Flory is shot dead by Alderman. Sorrow's ''muchachos'' capture the Stranger,

crucify Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

him and torture him with

vampire bats Vampire bats, members of the subfamily Desmodontinae, are leaf-nosed bats currently found in Central and South America. Their food source is the blood of other animals, a dietary trait called hematophagy. Three extant bat species feed solely on ...

; he confesses that the gold is in the cemetery. Sorrow's gang uproot the graveyard, but find that Alderman has already dug the gold up. The surviving Indian frees the Stranger, who kills Sorrow's men using a horse laden with

dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern German ...

, and shoots Sorrow in his boudoir. The Stranger returns to town, where he finds that Alderman's house has been set on fire by a distraught Elizabeth. Alderman opens a cabinet to retrieve his gold; having turned molten, it smothers his hands and face. The Stranger and the townspeople watch as Elizabeth and Alderman, covered in boiling gold, die in the flames. Alone, the Stranger rides out of town, where he passes by two children using strings to distort their faces.

Cast

as The Stranger * Marilù Tolo as Flory **Ann Collin as Flory's singing voice * Roberto Camardiel as Sorrow * Paco Sanz as Alderman *

Milo Quesada Milo Quesada, born as Raúl García Alonso, (16 April 1930 – 12 December 2012) was an Argentine actor. He started his career in Argentina with the movie ''Cristol de Hombres'' and other minor roles. He then moved to Spain, where his career ex ...

as Bill Templer *

Piero Lulli Piero Lulli (1 February 1923 – 23 June 1991) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 111 films between 1942 and 1977. He was the younger brother of actor Folco Lulli. Selected filmography * '' A Pilot Returns'' (1942) - De Santis * '' ...

as Oaks * Ray Lovelock as Evan Templer *Patrizia Valturri as Elizabeth Alderman *Miguel Serrano as Indian *Ángel Silva as Indian * Félix Sancho Gracia as Willy *Mirella Pamphili as Townswoman ;Uncredited *

Lars Bloch Lars Bloch (6 August 1938 – 27 March 2022), was a Danish-Italian actor and producer, sometimes credited as ''Lars Block'' or ''Carlos Ewing''. Born in Hellerup, after military service in the Navy, Bloch moved to Italy and in the late 1950s embar ...

as Oaks' Henchman * Frank Braña as Townsman *Gene Collins as Collins * Rafael Hernández as Richie *Herman Reynoso as Townsman

Style

''Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot!'' was described by film historian Howard Hughes as "difficult to pigeonhole", noting it encompassed the

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

, and

splatter film A splatter film is a subgenre of horror films that deliberately focuses on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence. These films, usually through the use of special effects, display a fascination with the vulnerability of the human body a ...

genres, describing it as "the weirdest Italian made Western". It is well known for the surrealistic violence and for the psychedelic editing of Franco "Kim" Arcalli. Phil Hardy defines it as "the most brutally violent spaghetti western ever made". Describing the film,

Christopher Frayling Sir Christopher John Frayling (born 25 December 1946) is a British educationalist and writer, known for his study of popular culture. He was awarded a knighthood for Services to Art and Design Education in the 2001 New Year Honours. Early lif ...

says that "the violence was of an extraordinarily savage kind". Antonio Bruschini writes that "this film is the first western to offer a sample of truly horrendous scenes".

Marco Giusti Marco Giusti (born 24 December 1953) is an Italian film critic, essayist, television writer and presenter. Life and career The son of a quaestor, Giusti was born in Grosseto and during his early years frequently moved following his father's ...

referred to the film as the most violent and bizarre ever filmed in Italy. It has also been characterized as an Acid Western. Despite the fact that it has "'' Django''" in its title, the film is unrelated to the ''Django'' series, and was just one of many Spaghetti Westerns to incorporate the name into the title to cash-in on the success of the Franco Nero film.

Release

''Django Kill...If You Live, Shoot!'' was shown in Italy in January 1967 and was withdrawn from release within one week due to complaints from censorship boards. The film was then cut from its 117 minute running time to a 95 minute running time. The film was released as ''Oro Maldito'' in Spain and was reissued as ''Oro Hondo'' in an Italian re-issue and under the alternative name ''Gringo Uccidi!'' in Italy. The cut version was also released in UK and US in 1970 by Golden Era Film Distributors with the tagline "Terror from the Depths of Hell!".

References

Footnotes

Sources

* *

External links

* {{Django 1967 films 1960s Western (genre) horror films Django films Films directed by Giulio Questi Films shot in Almería Films shot in Madrid Films shot in Rome Italian Western (genre) horror films Spaghetti Western films Spanish Western (genre) horror films 1960s Italian-language films 1960s Italian films Films about post-traumatic stress disorder Acid Westerns