Sugar Colt
 | |
| Directed by | Franco Giraldi |
|---|---|
| Starring |
Jack Betts Soledad Miranda |
| Music by |
Luis Bacalov Ennio Morricone (uncredited) |
| Cinematography | Alejandro Ulloa |
| Edited by | Ruggero Mastroianni |
Release dates | 1966 |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | English |
Sugar Colt is a 1966 Italian spaghetti western directed by Franco Giraldi. It is the Giraldi's second film after Seven Guns for the MacGregors. The film represents the cinematographical debut for Jack Betts, here credited as Hunt Powers, and it's also the Erno Crisa's last film.[1]
Cast
- Jack Betts as Dr. Tom Cooper / Rocco (as Hunt Powers)
- Soledad Miranda as Josefa
- Gina Rovere as Bess (as Jenny Oak)
- Erno Crisa as (as James Parker)
- José Canalejas as Bearded Bandit
- Víctor Israel as Gravedigger
- George Rigaud as Alan Pinkerton
Plot
Rocco – also called the man with two faces – is visited by Pinkerton, who wants him to investigate the disappearance, and possible kidnapping, of some soldiers. Rocco declines, as he has a good life teaching women self-defence. When Pinkerton is assassinated, Rocco changes his mind and goes to Snake Valley disguised as a doctor. He uses narcotic gas to loosen the tongues, and gets help from a sidekick and two women at the saloon. He is disclosed and heavily beaten, but eventually frees the hostages, while the responsible big boss gets killed.
Reception
Sugar Colt was generally well received by critics, and Tullio Kezich defined it as a "little masterpiece".[1] Over 40 years after it was made, Sugar Colt was screened at the 2007 Venice Film Festival in a spaghetti western retrospective. Director Franco Giraldi and star Jack Betts were in attendance.
In his investigation of narrative structures in Spaghetti Western films, Fridlund ranges Sugar Colt among Spaghetti Westerns heavily influenced by secret-agent films, because the hero is shown in company with beautiful women, works to uncover a mystery and - unlike the protagonists in A Fistful of Dollars and Django - does not have any complicating secondary motive.[2]