John the Bastard

Entertaining and amusing picture contains an engaging plot , Western action , shootouts , twists and turns . Film inspired on the character from "Don Juan Tenorio" . John (John Richardson) is a cynical and attractive seducer of women . John devotes his life to seduce girls , taking great pride in his ability to conquer female people of all ages and stations in life . His seductive lifestyle brings with it all the faces in the world , but soon after Juan discovers he is actually a bastard son of a rich Mexican landowner (Claudio Gora) who is retired at a monastery and whose another son (Claudio Volonte who subsequently committed suicide , and Gian Maria Volonte's brother) is jealous of John's sudden presence .

The film packs action , shootouts , high body-count , go riding and lots of shots . This is a peculiar adaptation upon the known classic plays written by Tirso Molina and Juan De Zorrilla . This decent flick contains a story full of crosses as well as double-crosses , romance , ups and downs pace , thrills and ordinary direction . It results to be a very acceptable Maccaroni adventure based on a classic novel realized in Spaghetti Western wake . Weak acting by main starring John Richardson , his big success was Don Chaffey's One million years B.C. (1966) , produced by Hammer films , with Raquel Welch and in which he met his wife Martine Beswick . Later on , following the steps of some other actors , he went on to appear in various Italian movies , such as : Torso (1972) , Frankenstein '80 , Umberto Lenzi's horror Eyeball (1975), Michele Soavi's La Chiesa (1989) and many others ; but his recent movies filmed in the 80s convinced him to quit acting completely and , nowadays , he is a noteworthy photographer . Here appears ordinary secondaries and familiar faces from Spaghetti Western , such as : Claudio Camaso , Martine Beswick , Claudia Gravy , Gia Sandri , Remo De Angelis , and Gordon Mitchell as a weird Mormon bounty hunter . Special mention for Claudio Gora as a wealthy landowner .

It contains an attractive score with plenty of Spaghetti sounds by Nico Fidenco and Del'Orso , including wonderful songs . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Sante Achilli , shot in Almeria , Spain. The motion picture was professionally directed and in traditional Spaghetti style by Armando Crispino , a writer and director expert on all kinds of genres as Wartime , Gialli , thriller , terror ..as ¨Commandos¨ , ¨The Boxer¨ , ¨The Etruscan Kills Again¨ , ¨Autopsy¨ ..

This famous myth about Don Juan -freely based on Tirso De Molina and José Zorrilla plays- has several cinematic renditions , such as : Silent version ¨The private life of Don Juan¨ by Douglas Fairbanks , ¨Adventures of Don Juan¨ with Errol Flynn , Viveca Lindfords , ¨Nights and Loves of Don Juan¨ by Alfonso Brescia with Robert Hoffman , Edwige Fenech , ¨Don Juan of Moliere¨ starred and directed by Jacques Wever with Penélope Cruz , ¨Don Giovanni¨ composed by Mozart with Ruggero Raimondi , ¨Don Juan De Marco¨ with Johnny Depp , Marlon Brando , ¨Don Juan De Los Infiernos¨ by Gonzalo Suarez with Fernando Guillen , ¨Don Juan Mi Querido Fantasma¨ by Antonio Mercero with Juan Luis Galiardo and ¨Don Jon¨ (2013) written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt , among others .

Before he made superior gialli, Crispino tried this first outing in the then-popular western genre. And came up with a winner. In between parody and serious bloodshed, this is an adaptation of the Don Juan mythos featuring interesting ideas, like the subplot about mormons persecuted in the US. The cast is very good - strong actor direction being one of Crispino's forte - and the script keeps things lively. The ending, turning the whole movie into a flash-back, dwells in supernatural territory. With gems like this to be discovered, on might wonder why Italian westerns have such bad press nowadays. Don't miss.

John the Bastard (1967) was truly a fun movie to watch. I loved the opening music theme in Spanish about John and the opening scene showing various woman John has made love to and left. It was funny the scene where John is being forced at gunpoint to marry a young woman by her kin only to say "no" on the wedding day and then be rescued by his faithful servant Morenillo, who admits latter on to being stupid and is fiercely loyal to John even though the latter is always calling him names and being cruel. What is interesting about the Don Juan theme in this SW is how the main character is by no means a hero and is truly a bastard in many aspects still you cant help yourself to be entertained by his character and enjoy his various ways of conning people and walking over various woman and men alike. John the Bastard truly wants revenge for being born and being an outcast finally getting the closer of knowing who his father is by tricking his mother who calls her son the Devil. I don't want to spoil anymore of the story it is a very good movie and John Richardson's character will grow on you even though he's a bastard!