Review of Gunfight in the Red Sands

"Gunfight at Red Sands" has one of the cooler sounding Western movie titles of the modern era. The title would have been right at home as an episode of 'The Dakotas' which came out the same year, 1963. Though it appears to hold an important place in the early history of Spaghetti Westerns, the film for me was a rather run of the mill affair with it's Euro-West flavor and unrelenting revenge theme. The opening scene in which the Gringo's (Richard Harrison) partner Francisco was shot in the chest by a posse shooting from behind as they gave chase may have colored my perception about what was to follow. That sort of stuff should have gone out with Fifties B Westerns.

That's not to say that the picture didn't offer some interesting elements. The Martinez sister Lisa (Sara Lezana) takes an active role in the action showing some skillful firearm work in the final showdown against Sheriff Corbett's (G.R. Stuart) bunch. Just before that, I thought it was cruelly ironic that the Sheriff gunned down his own girlfriend Maria (Mikaela) during the posse chase, a classic case of what goes around comes around.

Ultimately though, this one didn't strike me as anything special. At one point in the story, the Gringo is asked how he's doing and he replies - "Things are bad but they'll get better". I guess it's all a matter of perspective. Still, it was a cool title.