Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Peereddi 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.

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

TankGuy Bounty killer Luke Chilson makes it his business to bring in escaped bandit Jose Gomez. Gomez flees to a small settlement on the Mexican border pursued by Chilson, who is treated with contempt by the townsfolk because of how he earns his living. However, the welcome Gomez with open arms and see him as the "victim". The townspeople help Gomez overpower Chilson and the bounty killer is held prisoner in the town. Gomez' gang soon joins him and the townsfolk become increasingly disturbed by the outlaw's violent behaviour. This prompts Gomez' former girlfriend to free Chilson which sets the stage for the inevitable showdown...The Bounty Killer was released in mid 1966 when most spaghetti western directors were still practising their craft and only the likes of Leone or Corbucci could produce a truly amazing film. This movie is rather poor and makes for nothing more than a time passer, it's contents easily forgotten once the credits begin to roll. It does have its moments but failed to hold my attention, looking good on the outside but coming across as extremely tepid. Despite the interesting plot nothing much happens over the film's duration and the narrative is set around a dusty little settlement in the middle of the desert. Apart from the two leads all of the characters are one dimensional and uninteresting. Richard Wyler was pretty good as Chilson as was Tomas Milian as Gomez. Milian(in his first spaghetti western)chews the scenery but is really the film's saving grace. The soundtrack began to get tedious around the film's halfway mark and is one very dour composition, a far cry from a chilling Morricone score. Action is sparse but I will admit that the final showdown was pretty enjoyable. The OTT deaths intercut with the stern close-ups of Chilson's face did make me laugh a little. Jose Gomez gets a humorously melodramatic death which gives literal meaning to the term "...and another one bites the dust".Overall an okay spaghetti western which is still worthy of viewing. 6/10.

FightingWesterner Using a pistol slipped to him by his sweetheart, bandit Tomas Milian escapes an armed transport before encountering hard-as-nails bounty hunter Richard Wyler in what's left of his nearly deserted hometown, where the people are squarely on his side.Although there's nothing much new here, there is a hard edge and a dead-serious nature to the proceedings that help make it enjoyable, along with Milian, who gives one of his typically offbeat performances, playing it cool and crazy! I wish I had a nickel for every time he basically played the same guy. Unfortunately though, Wyler is no match in the acting department and appears a little stiff.In an interesting reversal of what you normally see in western films, the town of basically law abiding people (including spaghetti western star Mario Brega) welcomes the villain and actively aids him against the hero!

marc-366 This film was oh so close to nearly losing me. Maybe my attention span was limited - it had been a pretty tiring day after all (but thats another - and highly uninteresting - story!). But anyway, for pretty much the first third of the movie I was convinced that it was notable purely for being Tomas Milian's first foray into the Spaghetti Western genre that he is so renowned for (and rightly so).Milian plays Jose Gomez, an outlaw treated with reverence by the small population that make up his hometown. He is freed from captivity by Eden (Zalewska), who looks at Gomez with wanting eyes, seeing him as a local hero. However, bounty hunter Luke Chilson (Wyler) is on his trail, and arrives at the town ahead of the escapee, to the wrath of the very protective townsfolk. When Gomez does arrive in town, with a group of bandits at the helm, the locals begin to experience that he is no longer the great man that they believed him to be, and begin to witness first hand why he has the bounty on his head.Whilst the opening sequences are slow and stretched to near yawning point (even for me and, hey, I like slow films!), the second half of the movie more than makes up for it. The film really hits the heights as the locals witness the transformation of Gomez' character. Milian plays this role expertly, demonstrating clearly the promise that was to blossom fully in the very near future. Wyler's bounty hunter on the other-hand is far more restrained, yet apt for the character he portrays. There is also a fine supporting cast that includes Spaghetti favourites Mario Brega and Frank Brana, and a pretty powerful soundtrack provided by Cipriani.All in all, I am relieved that I sat through the slow beginning, because the film does have so much going for it once it does get going. May day improved considerably. Well worth viewing.

KREEPY Given a free reign in New Chacos, the town in which he was born and where his Mexican parents were murdered when he was a child, Jose Sanchez (Tomas Milian) does what he knows best - breaks the law. But like anyone who has received love, affection and moral guidelines in their infancy, Jose has moments of lucidity when he realises that he is doing wrong. The problem is that crime and the inherent ease with which Jose can take whatever he wants have become an addiction; an addiction which has eaten away at his moral fibres so much that even the townsfolk who have helped to free him from the gun of bounty killer Luke Chiltern (Richard Wyler) are treated by Jose with contempt.If there is one scene which compounds the extraordinary acting range of Tomas Milian into its unique whole, it occurs in this movie. Much of the action in The Ugly Ones takes place in the tavern of New Chacos owned by ex-gunman Novak whose niece Anna Eton (Ella Karin) helped free Jose from the law. In an intensely studied scene Milian portrays Jose as torn between obvious glee and tears as he contemplates robbing a young drifter who has just left the tavern. As he is emotionally torn in two his henchmen watch him. He is obviously a strong and charismatic leader to this gang of thuggish cut-throats, but there is a definite hint of caution among his gang in dealing with his schizoid personality. Finally, as if to put his mind at peace before their collective act of violence, Jose caresses, then cradles his head, on the butt of one of the gang member's guns before uttering his name, "Senor Gomez", a confirmation of his power and status.The Ugly Ones is a very classy western indeed which transcends its black hat/white hat scenario with finesse. It's a classic "siege" western but this time the enemy is within; Jose and his amoral gang of desperadoes as one enemy and the guilt and cowardice of the townsfolk as another. "Only the rich have to fear men like Jose Gomez, not the poor. He's one of us." Their voicing of sympathy for outlaw gangs often forced into delinquency by social circumstance is countered by Chiltern's simplistic view of the situation, "Today, that child's a murderer." The film is loaded with interesting notions of why Jose has become a killer. We hear of his parents' deaths and his family's land being stolen and also that he killed a Yankee soldier in a brawl following a barrage of racist taunts. So with all this prejudice heaped on him solely because of his Mexican nationality, is it any wonder that Jose is forced to become a ruthless criminal? Why should Jose pull rank and behave himself? The answer is simply because the people of New Chacos still care for him and still remember the innocent child who used to play with Ethan the blacksmith (Mario Brega). For this reason they helped him to escape Chiltern and for this reason Jose holds the bounty killer captive.But Jose spurns their affections and pathetic pleas for the violence to stop, preferring instead to drink himself into a stupor while his brutish friends engage in a particularly wild version of the "shooting and drinking" games which are as familiar to the spaghetti western as laughing Mexicans. When finally Jose and his men have stripped the town's businesses and caused as much destruction as possible it is Anna, Jose's childhood friend (and possibly sweetheart) who is brave enough to free Chiltern so that he can face Jose in a surprisingly vigorous showdown.The exceptional location work and baroque visual touches can be attributed to Enzo Barboni who lensed Sergio Corbucci's ferocious Django in the same year while the complex analysis of Jose's criminality can probably be credited to co-script writers Don Prindle and Jose Maesso as well as Eugenio Martin. The film also boasts some of the finest supporting performances in the genre, particularly Ella Karin who, uniquely for a female in a rampantly macho genre, is the only one who will stand up to Jose's violence while it is implied throughout that their emotional ties are the strongest. But the most phenomenal aspect of The Ugly Ones is Tomas Milian, staking his claim in his genre debut as a formidable western leading man and delivering what is in retrospect, the spaghetti western's most complex and most electrifying performance, equally tormented, resentful and vicious right down to his final gasping breath.