Set in the aftermath of the American Civil War, Captain Montgomery Brown (nicknamed Ringo) returns to his hometown to find it taken over by a group of treacherous renegades and his family murdered. At the risk of being recognized due to his high social class, Ringo disguises himself as a wandering peasant in order to observe the new order in town and use it against those who run it, exacting both justice upon its evildoers and get revenge in the long run.
From contemporary reviews, the Monthly Film Bulletin that the film's story is "treated with an imagination unequaled in other Italian Westerns." The review continued that "what makes the film more than merely clever is the handing of its theme: as in the second half of The Odyssey, the hero-treated by all as dead-has to rediscover his identity." The review during the film's climax and ending "Tessari shiningly confirms his sense of the poetic."[6] "Hawk." of Variety described the film as "fair-to-middlin'" noting the cliches the film had, but that Tessari "keeps things lively, alternating action alternating action and humor" while noting the violence in the film "bordered on sadism."[7] "Hawk." found the film to be superior to A Pistol for Ringo.[7]
^ abVariety's Film Reviews 1964-1967. Vol. 11. R. R. Bowker. 1983. There are no page numbers in this book. This entry is found under the header "February 2, 1966". ISBN0-8352-2790-1.
Bibliography
Hughes, Howard (2006). Once Upon a Time in the Italian West. I B Tauris. ISBN0857730452.