Sella d'argento

Plot synopsis:
South Texas Border, the 1850s. A poor man and his young son arrive exhausted at a small outpost. There, the man confronts Luke Fletcher (Donald O'Brien), a sneering crook in the employ of a rich and powerful landowner called Barret. The man tells Fletcher that Barret has swindled him and his son out of money for some non-existent land. The bitter altercation ends with the man shot dead right in front of his son. As the killer laughs sadistically, the little boy picks up his father's gun and shoots Fletcher dead. Impassively, the boy mounts Fletcher's horse, claiming it along with its ornate silver-trimmed saddle, and rides off.Several years later, the young boy has grown up into a rugged bounty hunter named Roy Blood (Giuliano Gemma) who rides into the Texan town of Cerriotts on his silver-saddled horse, accompanied by Two-Strike Snake (Geoffrey Lewis), an amusing but treacherous man he recently met. Snake tells Roy that many have heard the story of the Silver Saddle, and its owner, the boy who avenged his father. He also knows that Roy Blood seems to leave a trail of dead men in his wake. This is why he wants to tag along: Snake collects items of value from the frequent corpses encountered at every turn in the Wild West. Roy's arrival is also noted by Turner, a mysterious blond-haird cowboy (Gianni De Luigi).Roy meets with Shiba (Licinia Lentini), a well-to-do madam of the town's local whorehouse, who is also an old flame who wants more. She tells Roy that a man called Shep is extorting money from her, for a Mexican named Grenache (Aldo Sambrell). Her business will be ruined unless she pays up the following day. Roy obligingly shoots Shep and some of his cronies. Once again Snake turns up, shadowing Roy for spoils. The blond cowboy appears and makes a deal with Snake who offers it to Roy: $2,000 for a hit on one Thomas Barret, to be executed in a graveyard out of town. Roy is suspicious, but accepts the murder contract when he hears the name of Barret.At the graveyard, Roy is crouching with a rifle aiming at carriage that rolls up as arranged. Instead of the old man Roy was hoping to shoot, a young boy (Sven Valsecchi) emerges, carrying a funeral wreath. As the child approaches, several men emerge to shoot him. Roy's impulse is to save the boy's life. Roy shoots the would-be assassins and rides off with the boy. He discovers that he has rescued Thomas Barret Junior, the son of Richard Barret who swindled the young Roy's father years ago. Thomas tells Roy that his father, Richard Barret, has been dead for several years and he is currently being looked by his uncle, Thomas Barret Senior (Ettore Manni) whom he is named after. Angered at being cheated out of his revenge, Roy rides off in disgust, leaving the boy stranded in the hills with just a knife and blanket for protection.At the Barret estate, young Thomas' older sister, the beautiful Margaret (Cinzia Monreale), is distraught over her little brother's dissappearance. Thomas Senior discusses the search with Turner his estate manager; the mysterious blond cowboy. Turner announces that he knows the idenity of the kidnapper: Roy Blood. Immediately, a $5,000 reward is offered for Roy's head. Meanwhile, Snake offers a proposition for Roy. He has kidnapped young Tom, after Roy left the boy behind. He plans to ask for a huge ransom. Roy hears that it was Turner who had set up the graveyard hit as a device to kill the boy and Roy Blood, and blaming the outlaw for the killing.Roy hides out in Shiba's whorehouse, where she looks after Thomas Jr. Using sexual subterfuge, Shiba helps Roy discover the story of the Barret family. After Richard Barret died, the only ones who remained rich were the children, Thomas and Margaret. Thomas Sr. gambled away his part of the Barret fortune. If anything happened to Tom Jr. Margaret inherits everything. Plus, Turner has his eye on Margaret for whomever marries her stands to inherit the whole fortune.When Tom Jr. is spotted by Turner at the whorehouse, Roy whisks him off to the San Jacinto monastery several miles away. The Padre of the monastery totes a gun and promises to protect the boy for Roy while he goes back out to find Turner and his men. After a tense shootout at an abandoned farm, Roy gets the better of the evil Turner, who dies in a trough of stale water. Just as things seem resolved, Garrinchas bandits attack the monastery and grab the boy, murdering all the monks. The local sheriff (Phillppe Hersent) arrests Roy Blood, thinking that he's an accomplice of Garrincha. A huge ransom of $10,000 is made for the save return of Tom Jr. Thomas Sr. goes against the advice of the law and dispatches a rider with the money. But the courier is murdered by Garrincha after handing over the cash at the bandits settlement.Meanwhile, Margaret helps Roy escape from jail, and he teams up with Snake to track down Garrincha. The find the Garrincha hideout thanks to Tom Junior's ingenuity: he flies a kite to alert help. They arrive to find Garrincha flogging the boy after he discovers the signal kite. Roy and Snake shoot it out with Garrinchas men and the rescue is successful, but Snake dies after Garrincha shoots him, before being shot himself by Roy.Back at the Barret ranch, Roy returns with Tom Jr. where he exposes the final betrayal. Thomas Senior has been in league with Turner, planning to dispose of both his nephew and Margaret so he can have the whole estate for himself. The kidnapping stunt with Garrincha was part of the plan to avert suspicion from him. He'd also planned to kill Turner once he married Margaret as the final plan enacted. Roy shoots the treacherous uncle with one of his ornamental guns. As the lone outlaw returns to the plains, he is joined by Thomas Junior, riding alongside him on a pony.

Tags: western, violence, sadist

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