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I was never into the Italian produced westerns until my sweetie-wife came along and now we will seek them out, either on streaming or on disc. Some have been real gems and others rather tedious to screen. However, this one proved the most unique in the thematic structure of its story.

It is 1881 and President James Garfield (Van Johnson, dubbed even in the English Language version) is touring the western United States as he pushes for greater civil rights for the recently liberated enslaved people. In the sleep desert town of Dallas, Texas, a conspiracy of bitter-end Confederates plot to assassinate Garfield. Only a former Union officer, Jack Donovan (Ray Saunders) stands in the way of the powerful interests plotting the president’s murder.

As the film unspooled, I wondered just how much of the story, a presidential assassination plot in Dallas, was deliberately crafted to invoke the Kennedy killing. My answers came at the end of the second act when hidden gunmen shot and killed Garfield as he rode through the street in an open carriage with the lovely dark-haired wife at his side. This was quite directly a retelling of November 22, 1963, but with a different assassinated head of government. (Garfield was shot and killed while in office, but back east and by a disgruntled office seeker.)

I haven’t yet finished the film, but I strongly suspect that the third act will be fairly standard for a spaghetti western as our hero has plenty to avenge beyond the murder of a president. It’s a shame that the only version streaming in Tubi is the dubbed one but still it’s revealing itself to a most interest example of those late 60s Italian productions.