There is an amusing line in American-made western parody "Rustler's Rhapsody" that all Spaghetti westerns had great music. Composer Angelo Francesco Lavagnino spices up Umberto Lenzi's violent horse opera about revenge and robbery with a haunting orchestral score that lingered with me long after I'd watched "Pistol for a Hundred Coffins," with Spaghetti western stalwart Peter Lee Lawrence and "Red River" alum John Ireland. Although this 84-minute oater is ostensibly about revenge-as are all Euro-westerns--Lenzi and co-scenarist Marco Leto of "Dead Men Don't Count "and Vittorio Salerno of "Twenty Thousand Dollars for Seven," adapting Eduardo Manzanos' story, have slipped in some interesting characters that you rarely see in horse operas. Peter Lee Lawrence's protagonist Jim Slade is a Jehovah's Witness as well as a conscientious objector who lands himself in a Confederate hard labor camp because he refuses to bear arms. Similarly, John Ireland plays a swift-shooting gunslinger who quotes scripture from the Bible at every opportunity despite not being an ordained preacher. Twists such as these and some surprises in this otherwise formulaic sagebrusher marks "Pistol for a Hundred Coffins" as an above-average shoot'em up with a body count. Interestingly, Lenzi appears to have redressed the same western movie set town that Sergio Leone lensed "A Fistful of Dollars" in, and the villain is played with gusto here by another Spaghetti western regular Piero Lulli. No, the hero doesn't endure the brutal beating that the bad guys gave Clint Eastwood in "A Fistful of Dollars." Primarily, this western takes place in the frontier town of Galveston (nothing like the real-life Galveston) and it concerns a prolonged effort by Corbett (Piero Lulli) and his trigger-happy pistoleros to rob the local bank of $200-thousand dollars that has been set aside from farmers to buy seeds for planting. The loot is delayed, and Corbett and his men hover over the town on its arid, mountainous outskirts, while Slade (Peter Lee Lawrence of "For A Few Bullets More") continues his manhunt for the dastards that killed his family. Most good stories concern characters that change over the course of the narrative, and Jim Slade changes from a man who refuses to kill to one who does kill. Principally, this change is prompted because his blood kin have been massacred. Nevertheless, during this stage of his life, he remains steadfast in his refusal to drink whiskey.Mind you, Umberto Lenzi wasn't the consummate stylist that Sergio Leone was, but Lenzi was prolific in his output and ventured into horror epics, World War 2 actioneers, cannibal movies, police procedurals, etc., with sixty-five films to his credit under his own name and pseudonyms. "Pistol for a Hundred Coffins" doesn't dawdle and the film isn't without comic relief when everybody seems to be spun around by a bullet shrieking through them. Franco Pesce has a blast playing an old codger who embalms and buries the scores of corpses that pile up after each gunfight. One of the more curious subplots that "Pistol for a Hundred Coffins" contains is one that you don't see often see: a bunch of lunatics held in the city jail after their asylum has burned to the ground. At one point, this maniacs, among one who is Spaghetti western regular Eduardo Fajardo, break out and launch an uncoordinated assault on the townspeople with anything they can get their hands on to kill them. Sadly, I haven't seen the letterboxed version of this blood-splattered Spaghetti western, but it ranks as an above-average entry.

Jailed for his religious objection to violence, Peter Lee Lawrence is released from prison at war's end, to find his parents murdered by a gang of thieves. Reversing his stance on killing (though not drinking!), he seeks vengeance, eventually taking a job in Galveston, protecting a cash shipment from the last and hardest of the bunch.From horror director Umberto Lenzi, this is a typically colorful, though somewhat routine Italian western, with some good double and triple-crosses, as well as a few oddball touches, like a jail full of giggling loonies from a burned-out asylum, escaping and wreaking havoc on the town!Though not terribly memorable, A Gun For A Hundred Graves (another great title) is decent enough entertainment for spaghetti western aficionados who want to see all the genre has to offer. John Ireland, who plays a quick-draw preacher, is always worth watching. There's also some pretty good Morricone-like musical themes.

Jim Slade is sentenced to forced labor, since he refused to kill somebody in war (due to his religious conscience). After the war, he returns home and finds his parents murdered. He chases the murderers and kills most of them - and everything I told you now just happens in the first 15 minutes of the film! After this rushed beginning, the real story unfolds. Bandits are trying to rob a bank - but there is no money in that bank because a transport with 200,000 dollars did not arrive yet. So the bandits threaten to return soon... and the citizens are eager to find a new sheriff and prepare for the attack. John Ireland plays a priest who is suspiciously fast on the draw. Eduardo Fajardo has only a small appearance as one among a bunch of madmen breaking from their cage. Piero Lulli, though, is at his best in the role of the leader of the bandits. Peter Lee Lawrence plays Slade as good as possible under the circumstances - it is a hero poorly developed by the screenplay who makes him a pacifist in the beginning and a gunman later on, but for a man who's never touched a gun before, he seems to learn effortlessly how to become the most dangerous man in town within a day or two. Also he first was ready to go to prison for his religious belief - and then he kicks that over board without a single regret later on. It would have been possible to make Slade a character torn between duty and desire, but instead the makers of the movie simply settle for a fast gun. Thus, "Una pistola per cento bare" became just one average movie among many.

This western is the type of movie you might see from Something Weird Video or on MST3K. That's not meant to be a put-down (if it was I'd be putting down 2/3 of my movie collection). I really enjoyed this film.The movie is directed by Umberto Lenzi, who is better known for his Euro-horror movies. The horror influence is clearly evident here when an escaped band of drooling lunatics runs around grunting and killing everyone in sight. It's a real hoot to see spaghetti western regular Eduardo Fajardo playing the part of a giggling homicidal idiot. This alone makes it worthwhile to seek out this film.John Ireland is great as the gunslinging preacher, and Piero Lulli makes a great villain as usual. The acting from the rest of the cast is not exactly top-notch, but that just adds to the flavor of this film. It's quite funny in parts (perhaps unintentionally but one can never be sure).There are also some really funny lines in the movie, which I will not spoil by mentioning here. The way everyone overreacts to the fact that the hero likes to drink water is especially hilarious.I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys both spaghetti westerns and strange, funny cult movies.