Sugar Colt

Plot synopsis:
Tom Cooper (Hunt Powers a.k.a Jack Betts) is the owner and main teacher of the Academy for the Spiritual Freedom of Women, and his real name is Rocco. In there, some women (Patrizia Giammei, Mara Krupp and Elisabetta Velinska) learn how to shoot and they practice on pictures of their annoying relatives: husbands, aunts... Cooper lives comfortably, and secuces some of the most attractive women who go to the academy.One day, an old friend of his from his Army times asks him to take care of some business: a friend of his has been asked ransom for a son whom everybody had left for dead for years. That son and his batallion disappeared on their way to Gran Alamo, and the friend of the father thinks that the batallion must have lost his way to Snake Valley, a small sun-burnt town in the village of nowhere where you arrive leaving the main road to the left. At the beginning, Cooper is not interested, but that night his old friend is shot to dead by Alan Pinkerton (George Rigaud) outside the Pinkerton detective agency. He was close enough to hear his last words: "think of the father".So Tom Cooper makes believe he's a meek doctor with a fake degree certificate. He doesn't defend himself when two rascals, Black (Paolo Magalotti) and Pink demand a 25cent toll of him for going to Snake Valley. They hit him but the Colonel appears to defend him. Cooper is given his money back and arrives to his destination: everybody on the street seems to stare at him.He checks in in the saloon of the town. Mrs Bess (Jenny Oak a.k.a. Gina Rovere) allows him to check in. Cooper allows himself to be beaten again; however, later on, he wins everybody on a fight "because of the scientific art of fighting". That night, he tries to watch around what's going on. He enters a room and Josefa (Soledad Miranda), the saloon waitress, a young girl who is Mrs Bess' niece, watches him. He pretends to be trying to make out with her. Bess overhears the noise and comes up to see what's happening. From that moment on, Josefa seems to dislike the doctor deeply. In the conversation with Mrs Bess, Cooper hints at his interest on Mrs Bess herself, to which she seems incredulous.The next morning, Clayton (Jeff Cameron), White and other people call on the doctor. However, the sheriff Bingo (Luis Barboo) accompanies the doctor, saying that he won't have any customers anyway. The gravedigger (Víctor Israel) tells him that Clayton has just died, and White tells the doctor that he's OK, that he had been summoned because of his wife but that she's already well.Coming back to the saloon, Mrs Bess tells the doctor that he won't make any money on Snake Valley. The doctor recommends Josefa to take a pill against the smoke, but she doesn't really swallow it: she just spits it. Immediately afterwards, Cooper puts something on the saloon fire, so that all the room gets smoky and foggy. Josefa gets dizzy like everybody else because she spit the pill. Mrs Bess - who seems unaffected by the smoke - punches Josefa and carries her upstairs. All the rest of the patrons look drugged out of their minds.A military cornet resounds. One of the saloon patrons (Osiridi Pevarello) gets into a frantic and says that he didn't want to do it, and the major kills him. The kidnapped batallion gets all excited, -imprisoned underground- thinking that, finally, the army is coming to rescue them. The colonel of the town (Giuliano Raffaelli) asks for Peter Headway (Ricardo Pizzuti), telling him that his father hasn't got any money to pay the ransom because of his gambling habit, and Peter is asked whether he has got any other relative who could pay 50,000 dollars. Peter knows that nobody he knows has such an incredible amount of money, so he is shot to death.Cooper shoots two gunners who tried to shoot him in the night. He gets threatened once again. However, at that moment, in the middle of the saloon, he takes off his glasses, his coat and his bow hat, and instead of leaving, he tells to everybody that gunman Sugar Colt has arrived, and to prove his worth, he shoots several of the gunmen present at the saloon. Agonía (Manuel Muñiz), one of the gunmen present, is made to wake up and confess having told Cooper aka Sugar Colt that something was happening in the town. He denies it, but he is hanged anyway.The colonel knows that Sugar Colt must have been helped by the person who played the trumpet. The next day, the burial of the person who really tried to help Cooper is organized, but many townspeople did not want to meddle with that business. The major tries to buy Sugar Colt, but he doesn't look eager to compromise, although he also avoids creating a scene on the burial place. The major asks him whether he believes that the trumpet is played by the ghost. Of course, Cooper doesn't say it's really Sammy (Fortunato Arena), his assisstant, who is looking for an abandoned mine, or a derelict building, or a place where a group of people may be hidden from view. Sugar Colt finds Sammy's corpse - he had heard the two long wailing notes which were their keyword, but could not assist him at that particular moment as he was talking with the colonel. Josefa had insulted him because he was leaving, but now Sugar Colt has a personal reason to keep on the case again.Cooper is trapped and left alive but carried tied on a horse. He unties himself down and kills some of the bad guys and runs away. He is hurt but alive, and returns to the salloon on the verge of collapse. Josefa and Bess tend to him and his wounds.The colonel hits Bess and he tells her that it was him who gave her the saloon. However, the colonel takes Josefa with him to force Bess not to help Sugar Colt anymore, who had run away from the saloon.Sugar Colt kills one of the sentinels by pushing him down a well after stealing his Mexican sombrero. He disguises himself with that and takes one basket of bread with some other bread porters to the prisoners. There, he frees them. He leaves them but tells them to wait inside. However, the privates will not wait, and their leader, Preston (Nazzareno Zamperla) goes with them. They try to leave but some are killed with a shotgun. Sugar Colt uses some explosives to help them.Josefa also gets rid of the sentinel who is keeping her a prisoner. The colonel tries to run away after taking some money from the safe. He tries to have his own back by shooting Josefa, who runs away throughout the window. Preston helps him from the other side of the street shooting at the colonel.Finally, the colonel has nowhere else to die. He runs into the saloon, where Bess will shoot him.Later that day, Josefa is giving alcohol to the ex-prisoners outside, on the street. Cooper/Sugar Colt asks her for some, but she seems to reject him.Soon, Cooper/ Sugar Colt leaves the place with a dirty cart. Suddenly, he hears a cough. He pulls of a blanket and there it lies Josefa, hidden away. Cooper smiles and pulls the blanket over her and keeps on marching on on his horse.

Tags: western

Review:
Pleasant Spaghetti/Paella Western co-produced by Italy and Spain with lots action , thrills , fights and comedy.
1866 , New Mexico territory , the Civil war has finished .
The General Lee troops and Union soldiers go back home .
Among them a regiment of ¨Sharp shooters¨ of the II brigade of riflemen .
But the Infantry battalion has been disappeared on the road to Alamo Fat and the tracks lead to Snake Valley .
Sugar Colt (Hunt Powers) is a former government agent , now retired .
He works as a professor at ¨Academy for the spiritual defense of women right¨ .
His previous chief Pinkerton (George Rigaud) of the famous Pinkerton's detective agency ask him for help in a dangerous mission.
Samuel has to find out what happened to an army corps that has mysteriously disappeared .
He therefore puts on the disguise of a doctor , including glasses and top hat , and starts investigating in a somewhat uncomfortable town .
Samuel Colt goes to Snake Valley where is blackmailed by some nasties and to pay toll 25 cents .
After that , at the Snake saloon he meets a beautiful girl named Josefa (Soledad Miranda) .This is a good S.W. plenty of action , shootouts , fist-play and some touches of humor in charge of Sugar Colt character .
Tom Cooper or Sugar Colt is a type of James Bond of the West , an elegant marksman and resourceful ¨Bon vivant¨ who is stunningly played by Hunt Powers .
It's a Spanish-Italian co-production and , of course , shot on location in Almeria that is well photographed by cameraman Alejandro Ulloa (Horror Express) .
In the movie appears usual support actors as Spanish : Frank Braña , Jose Canalejas , Luis Barboo , Victor Israel as Italian : Erno Crisa , Fortunato Arena , Nazzareno Zamperla and Ricardo Pizzuti (customary in Terence Hill and Spencer movies).
Special mention for Soledad Miranda (Jess Frank's muse ) as an attractive and rogue young woman ; a bit later on , she unfortunately died by car crash .
Original musical score by Luis Enriquez Bacalov and Ennio Morricone , this is one of the best soundtrack of the Spaghetti genre .
The motion picture was professionally directed by Franco Giraldi .
This Italian writer/filmmaker (and Sergio Leone 's assistant director) so consistently mixed the good with the mediocre that it became quite impossible to know what to expect from him next .
He directed four Westerns with abundant touches of humor (Seven guns for the MacGregor -1966- , 7 women for the MacGregor -1967- ) and one serious and violent (A minute to pray , a second to day -1968- ).
Rating : acceptable and passable movie that will appeal to Spaghetti Western buffs ..
Great spaghetti western, beautiful starlet.
An army corps has mysteriously disappeared.
They are actually hostages near a place called Snake Valley.
A gunslinger, Rocco, is visited by a friend who tells him about this.
The man's dying wish is for Rocco to find out what happened to the army corps.
Rocco goes to the town near where the soldiers are held captive, posed undercover as a doctor.
Cult star Soledad Miranda plays Josefa, a flirtatious barmaid at the saloon hotel where he stays.
Rocco starts investigating the disappearance of the soldiers in hopes to rescue them.
This flick has catchy music and the presence of the beautiful Soledad Miranda, along with star Hunt Powers, makes it an entertaining flick..
Entertaining spaghetti with a catchy theme..
The main theme to Sugar Colt reminds me of Ennio Morricone's theme for My Name is Nobody made seven or so years later.
Luis Bacalov provides the score and Hunt Powers (aka Jack Betts) provides the charisma for this serio-comic quasi-secret-agent spaghetti western with the renowned Sugar Colt (Powers) going undercover to the town of Snake Valley to investigate the disappearance of a regiment of Union sharpshooters at the end of the Civil War. Most of the humor comes from his posing as Dr. Tom Cooper, mild mannered yet accomplished at boxing and fooling the henchmen of the kidnapper.
But the film turns more serious once he reveals himself as Sugar Colt, and the recovery of the regiment takes on a tragic air as supporting characters start to drop.
Powers is good in this, as he was in most of his starring efforts in Italy; one wonders why he now acts in small parts under his true name Jack Betts.
Perhaps, like Nicholetta Machiavelli and some others, fame did not rest lightly on his shoulders...or perhaps he just hated the name Hunt Powers (it does remind one of Dash Riprock) and having had his minutes of fame in Europe, is content being a journeyman actor.
Three stars out of four, and fans of Euro-Westerns will like it better than others.
Fans of Soledad Miranda will be delighted by her appearance here..
Fun Little Spaghetti Western.
Franco Giraldi's "Sugar Colt" of 1966 is an amusing little Spaghetti Western with a nice theme by Louis Bacalov and Ennio Morricone.
Even though this quite humorous little Western is occasionally a bit too silly for my tastes, it definitely has its heights too.
It was shot on great locations in the Spanish Almeria, Jack Betts is cool as Sugar Colt, and beautiful Soledad Miranda makes a lovely female lead.
This is definitely no highlight of the Italian Western genre, but it is an entertaining little time waster for Spaghetti Western enthusiasts like myself.Disguised as a doctor, gunslinger Sugar Colt (Jack Betts) goes to the town of Snake Valley, in order to avenge a friend's death and fulfill his last wish.
An Army corps has disappeared near the little town after the Civil War, and Sugar Colt is investigating to find out what happened...The score by Louis Bacalov and Ennio Morricone is overall good, but basically divided in two parts.
There is a very cool main theme, and then there is a quite annoying score for the sequences that are meant to be funny, which lowers the value of the entire score.
Jack Betts, who is infamous amongst Spaghetti Western fans for usually working with the genre's worst director, Demofilo Fidani, fits in very well here.
Beautiful Soledad Miranda, who is best known for films directed by cult director Jess Franco, and who sadly died at the age of only 27, fits in very well in the female lead.
The film's major weakness is the illogical plot.
There is no real reason for Sugar Colt to disguise as a doctor in the first place (other than some amusing situations), for example.
Then again, the film is funny and nicely photographed.
The film is entirely shot in Almeria, Spain, without doubt the greatest location for a Eurowestern.
Genre freaks might notice that the town of 'Snake Valley' is the exact same town that was called 'El Paso' in Sergio Leone's 1965 masterpiece "For A Few Dollars More".All said, "Sugar Colt" is certainly no masterpiece, and occasionally quite silly, but it is nevertheless a good time-waster for my fellow Italian Western buffs.
Recommended..
Belongs among the best Italian westerns.
Sugar Colt" is an excellent movie that belongs in a list of the top 20 Italian westerns for me.
Definitely the best role Hunt Powers ever got in Europe and this genre, as he went on to make Django flicks with Fidani, but "Sugar Colt" is memorable also for its unusual script about criminal investigators in the wild west, which makes "Sugar Colt" a comedy in the first half and a serious brutal western in the second half - which is absolutely making sense because the main character is totally changing when he gives up his disguise as doctor Cooper and becomes the gunman Sugar Colt.
Composer Luis E Bacalov ("Django") uses two different themes here to illustrate this: the "Sugar Colt" leitmotif, and the soldiers' theme with the trumpet.
Spanish photographer Alejandro Ulloa who also shot Corbucci's "Mercenario" and Castellari's "Ammazzali tutti e torna solo" achieves the perfect western look near Almeria, partly at the same locations "For A Few Dollars More" was shot at.
Together with the skill of director Giraldi ("Seven Guns for the MacGregors") and the legendary Soledad Miranda in her best western role, this is a must have for a "Western all'italiana" collection even if currently harder to find than many others.
I've got an Italian language DVD with French subtitles in well restored picture quality..
A slow first half gives way to predictable action in the second.
SUGAR COLT is a very typical spaghetti western with a starring role for Hunt Powers, an actor who doesn't have much charisma and who annoyed me for the most part.
The weirdest part of the film is that Powers is asked to solve a crime early on, so goes in disguise for half of the running time before he reverts to the avenging gunslinger-type role at the climax.Why Powers goes into disguise makes little sense and really drags down the pace in the first half.
Essentially he dresses up as a studious doctor and is abused by everybody as a weakling.
Perhaps he was a Sherlock Holmes fan, but these early scenes just feel like the story is treading water.
Thankfully, the later action scenes are more fun, even though they're very predictable by genre standards; Powers' character is much more fun when he's kicking backside than when he's moping around and looking on.