http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Mercenario,_Il
Il Mercenario / A Professional Gun / The Mercenary / Mercenario -- Der Gefürchtete
Italy / Spain 1968
Director: Sergio Corbucci
With Franco Nero, Tony Musante, Jack Palance, Giovanna Ralli, Eduardo Fajardo, Raf Baldassarre, Alvaro de Luna, José Canalejas
Screenplay: Luciano Vincenzoni, Adriano Bolzoni, Sergio Corbucci, Sergio Spina
Cinematography: Alejandro Ulloa
Music: Ennio Morricone
During the Mexican revolution mine owner Colonel Alfonso Garcia (Eduardo Fajardo) hires Sergei Kowalski (Franco Nero) a Polish mercenary to protect seven tonnes of silver being transported to the US. Kowalski arrives only to discover the repressed peasant workers, led by Paco Roman (Tony Musante), have taken control of the mine by force. Always eager to make good his losses Kowalski persuades Roman, now in a tight spot with Garcia's army bearing down on him, to hire his services. A sadistic homosexual mercenary called Curly (Jack Palance), wanting the silver himself tries to ambush Kowalski, but Roman thwarts his plans and Curly's men are killed. Kowalski renews his partnership with Roman and after liberating a town the bandits are joined by Columba (Giovanna Ralli) an idealist who's farther was hung for being a revolutionary. With the promise of making Roman as famous as Pancho Villa and all the gang rich in exchange for a hefty daily fee plus expenses, under Kowalski's guidance Roman earns the reputation of a great revolutionary liberator. Garcia's army still desperate to capture the bandits are joined by Curly in their search. Kowalski's financial demands for guidance increase but Roman now married to Columbia sees the true importance of the revolution to the Mexican people. Realising his responsibility for his fellow countrymen Roman reneges on the deal and takes all Kowalski's money for the great cause. The bandits keep Kowalski tied up as a prisoner, but in a devastating attack by Garcia's army he escapes. Kowalski tracks Roman to a rodeo where he is in hiding working as a clown, Curly also trails him there and the scene is set for the final showdown.
Tonight and tomorrow only at The Belcourt, the Sergio Corbucci tribute continues with his epic The Mercenary. From last week's Scene:
Leone has gotten the lion's share of critical attention over the years, perhaps because his epic yarns have an operatic grandiloquence and an element of myth-making almost absent from Corbucci's termite Westerns. That will make it all the more interesting to compare their takes on similar material — such as Corbucci's 1968 The Mercenary (Dec. 8-9), which pits turn-of-the-century Mexican firebrand Tony Musante and Polish gun-for-hire Franco Nero against another of the director's vengeance-warped villains, American angel of doom Jack Palance. It arrived ahead of Leone's own Mexican Revolution reverie Duck, You Sucker! by three years; by that time, Corbucci had already made his own partial remake, Compañeros, reuniting Nero and Palance.
Go, even if it's only so you'll recognize Nero in his cool cameo in Django Unchained.
