Thompson 1880

Oct 13 1966 N/A 1h 28m
Adventure, Romance, Western

Ray, young and destitute, reaches Desert Spring, carrying a case on top of his mule. A gang headed by Brady uses apparently legal means to prevent anyone from trading and exploits all the town's possibilities for itself. The only one who dares to protest is Sheila, the daughter of a tradesman who has been ruined by Brady. She therefore welcomes Ray, hoping to make him an ally. But the young man doesn't even known how to handle a gun. However, when Brady's men beat him up and humiliate him, Ray decides to stay.

Plot

A western made during the boom of such movies in Italy, but quite an unusual one. It's not about revenge or a bag of gold, it's about a kind of economic struggle. The villain Brady (Paul Muller) asks his men to always obey the law, because guns are not as effective. He tries to control a town by building a monopoly, thus controlling the prices on all kinds of goods. This becomes difficult when Ray (George Martin) comes to town. He is unarmed, but invents the first machine gun, which gave the movie its title. Sheila (Gia Sandri) expects Ray to help her build up her own shop with lower prices. In opposite to most genre heroes, Ray is not keen on using a gun at all. But when Brady is increasingly afraid of losing his profits, the going gets tough, naturally. Great roles for José Bódalo as the drunken judge who loves to quote Shakespeare, Gordon Mitchell as a gunman with crippled hands and Pedro Sanchez as one of the bad guys.

Written by

Jaime Jesús Balcázar, Lorenzo Gicca Palli

Directed by

Guido Zurli

Production Countries

Spain, Italy

Production Companies

Balcázar, Lucy Film, Profilms, Plaza Film

Languages

Italiano

Awards

N/A

Scores
# of Votes
105
Average Rating
6.2 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA