This review is based on the American video release of this spaghetti western, inappropriately retitled Machine Gun Killers for the Stateside market. That makes it sound like a Roaring Twenties' gangster flick, but it's actually a fairly cerebral and artfully plotted oater about a loner (Robert Woods) on the trail of a villain (John Ireland) and the inventor he's kidnapped. Quel Caldo Maledotto Giorno di Fuoco has a good reputation amongst spaghetti fans, but the Meteor video release is absolutely abominable, featuring badly squeezed credits, lazy to nonexistent pan and scanning, and a washed out print. It also seems to be missing some scenes. Happily, Piero Piccioni's jazzy score blends Jimmy Smith-style Hammond organ riffs with a hint of country-western tang and is one of the few elements to successfully make the transition to home video. Nonetheless, this is a film crying out for a digital upgrade. There are hints of good photography, good editing, and thoughtful writing here, but the negatives far outweigh the positives at this point.

I'd never heard of this one before its recent late-night Italian TV screening; on a hunch, I looked the film up on the "Spaghetti Western Database", where it's given a favorable write-up – and I'm glad I did, because this is a solid entry within the genre. I also wasn't familiar with director Bianchini – but, then, the same also held true for Mario Lanfranchi of DEATH SENTENCE (1968),another unconventional Spaghetti Western I was impressed by of late.

The film is enjoyable, reasonably stylish and displays plenty of invention throughout; at the same time, we have to contend with some resistible (albeit brief) humor. It's also quite a violent offering: the hero is dragged by a horse, tied to a tree and beaten-up en masse, buried alive and shot at a number of times (the film's single most startling moment – which I'm amazed wasn't cut for TV – involves the graphic extraction, in gloating close-up, of a bullet from his hand!). The action scenes are undeniably well-staged – with the hero always managing to outwit the villains and emerge victorious (despite being greatly outnumbered).

Having mentioned all of this, it's interesting that I should be following the film with the newest James Bond adventure – I may be wrong here, but this Western seems to have been inspired to some extent by that highly popular franchise (then in its heyday): the complex plot (involving espionage at the time of the American Civil War, having a Gatling gun for the obligatory "McGuffin", and where one of the characters is revealed to be a 'defector'),dour womanizing hero (with the leading lady typically picked out from the opposite side and another who's dispatched by the villains for her involvement with him),etc. Casting, too, is more than adequate: Robert Woods (who would feature in a dire Spaghetti Western I'd watched not too long ago, SAVAGE GUNS [1971], but also six Jess Franco movies – including the haunting THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR [1973]),John Ireland (excellent as an uncouth half-breed bandit who can throw a deadly knife with his toes{!}and, to feign a tough exterior, lights a match against his bare feet and eats an onion raw – though there's also an anti-racist angle surprisingly attached to his character),Evelyn Stewart, Georges Rigaud and Gerard Herter.

With respect to the soundtrack, apart from an effectively atypical jazzy score by Piero Piccioni, there's a nice atmospheric touch in the constant buzzing of flies (due to the oppressive heat). For the record, the framing on the edition I watched was slightly compromised by being opened up from the original Techniscope (2.35:1) to the 1.85:1 ratio. By the way, an alternate title for the film is GATLING GUN – another Western by that name was made in 1973 (and one which is readily available for DVD rental locally).

This film takes place during the American Civil War with several Pinkerton agents being assigned the task of escorting an inventor named "Richard Gatling" (Ennio Balbo) and his new type of machine gun from Las Cruses, New Mexico to Washington D. C. for mass distribution in the Union army. However, upon starting out both Mr. Gatling and his new weapon is seized by what they presume to be Rebel forces and all but one of the Pinkerton agents by the name of "Chris Tanner" (Robert Woods) is killed. So considering that only a handful of people were even aware of this mission Chris is subsequently court-martialed for treason and sentenced to death. Before that can happen, however, one of his superiors switches his identity to another prisoner and gives him 30 days to uncover what happened and bring either Richard Gatling or his new weapon back. What Chris doesn't know, however, is that one of the Pinkerton agents presumed to be killed is still alive and this presents a unique challenge to everyone involved. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film had an interesting premise but the director (Paolo Bianchini) seemed to lose his focus here and there which tended to lessen what could have been an excellent picture. On a similar note, while I liked having two attractive actresses like Evelyn Stewart (as "Belinda Boyd") and Claudia Lange ("Martha Simpson"),neither of them were used sufficiently enough to overcome the rather meandering plot and this movie suffered as a result. Be that as it may, although this film had its weaknesses here and there, it still managed to pass the time fairly well and I have rated it accordingly. Average.