Cast
- Robert Wood
- Pedro Sanchez
- Malisa Longo
- Massimo De Cecco
- Robert Hundar
Inventory
- Three dog teams
- An Indian woman
- A branding iron
- An HO-gauge railroad
- Incriminating papers
- A bucking broncho
- A suitcase full of neckties
- One wedding brawl
Summary
A grizzled backwoods coot takes a shot at a rabbit with a Henry rifle and causes an avalanche which buries a less grizzled, but even more mangy trapper. Fortunately, the trapper has a wolf (german shepard) that is clearly the brains of this outfit. The wolf makes like Lassie and brings the shooter back, where they dig out the trapper. The trio heads to town, only to find it a corrupt dump where everything is owned by someone named Ferguson.
When we meet Ferguson, he's doing a Snidely Whiplash act, pressuring a widow to sell her farm to him. When she objects, he points out that he's always been fond of her. For example, he had offered to marry her the day after her husband died. For some reason, she remains unmoved by the offer and even suggests that it might have been Ferguson would sped her ex-husband to his heavenly rewards.
After leaving town, our trio is set upon by a pack of wolves who leave the coot and the wolf, who we learn is named White Fang, wounded. Fortunately, they find their way to the aforementioned farm.
As expected, the trapper, who we learn is named Daniel, proves to be an expert shot, brawler, and horseman. The coot also turns out to be a horseman as well, for he is able to ride out on a tan horse and ride in on a white one. When Daniel pursues the coot, he learns from Ferguson that the farm's importance is that it's blocking the path of the railroad.
An eyeblink later, both Daniel and the coot are back at the farm, just in time for an army of Ferguson's men to assault. Fortunately, the hoodlums have the standard level of incompetence and are only able to shoot a puppy, while being all but massacred themselves.
This entire attack is conducted in a static-fiiled grey fog. I don't think it was actually filmed that way, but all of the contrast was bleached out of whatever was used to master the DVD. The daylight scenes, which take place in a winter wonderland, are almost the exact opposite, with nothing but contrast. In fact, virtually all of the movie's action takes place in murky gloom. The screenshot at the top was about the clearest shot in the movie and it required considerable work in Photoshop to render into something worth posting.
In the end, Ferguson is shot (indirectly) by White Fang. I know that this is a spoiler, but I don't think that I can truly capture the spirit of the movie without mentioning this little detail.
The closing credits do include the following, in English:
All capitalization and punctuation is as found in the original.
Ignazio Spalla, who played the old coot, Dollar, spent most of his career acting under the name Pedro Sanchez, including this movie. Somehow, this doesn't sound like much of an improvement.
Dialogue
"Leave us alone. You too, although you are his mother. Johnny and I must talk. Talk as men do talk."
Story
It's almost impossible to tell how much of this was intended to be slapstick and how much was supposed to be a serious movie. The Jack London estate has a good case for a defamation suit.
Music
The main theme has a seventies feel about it. I can't decide whether it belongs to a cop drama or to a porn movie.
Acting
Malisa Longo is incredibly beautiful. She might even be able to act, although this movie doesn't give her much room to show it. Massimo De Cecco, who played Johnny, was not much of a child actor. Whoever dubbed his lines was even worse. Actually, all of the dubbing is really, really bad. As in, you could get a bunch of friends together and do a better job, even after having spent the evening getting drunk.
For what it's worth, the "wolf-dog", White Fang, was played by Habbash. He clearly was the best actor in the movie. The credits also note the "participation of Robert Hundar", who played Ferguson. Apparently, he did it just to be cooperative.
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