The Return of Ringo [Il Ritorno di Ringo] *** (1965, Giuliano Gemma, Fernando Sancho, Lorella De Luca) – Classic Movie Review 9325

Director Duccio Tessari’s impressive 1965 Italian-Spanish spaghetti Western The Return of Ringo [Il Ritorno di Ringo] is the quick sequel to his popular A Pistol for Ringo (1965) and again stars Giuliano Gemma (again billed as Montgomery Wood) as Ringo, and much of the previous cast and crew, and features another fine score composed by Ennio Morricone.

Bizarrely, the story is a loose retelling of Homer’s poem The Odyssey. The screen story and screenplay are by Duccio Tessari and Fernando Di Leo.

Ringo returns home from the American Civil War to find that his property has been taken over by a family of Mexican bandits and that his fiancée is about to marry the Mexican bad guy. So he goes undercover disguised as a Mexican and discovers he has a daughter.

The main cast are Giuliano Gemma [Montgomery Wood] as Captain Montgomery ‘Ringo’ Brown, Fernando Sancho as Esteban Fuentes, Lorella De Luca [Hally Hammond] as Hally Fitzgerald Brown, Nieves Navarro as Rosita, Antonio Casas as Sheriff Carson, George Martin as Don Fernando Paco Fuentes, Manuel Muñiz [Pajarito] as Miosotis (Morning Glory), Tunet Vila as Mimbreno, the Apache medicine man, Víctor Bayo as saloon owner Jeremiah Pitt, Mónica Sugranes as Elizabeth Brown, Juan Torres as Bartender at Mimbres’ village, José Halufi as Gravedigger, Fernando Di Leo as Fuentes Henchman, Frank Oliveras as Fuentes Henchman,  Montserrat Prous as Mexican Girl, Duccio Tessari as Fuentes Henchman, Ricardo Valor as Priest, and Rinaldo Zamperla as Fuentes Henchman.

It runs 96 minutes, is made by Produzioni Cinematografiche Mediterranee (PCM), Rizzoli Film and Balcázar Producciones Cinematográficas, is released by Cineriz (1965) (Italy) and Golden Era Film Distributors (1965) (UK), is written by Duccio Tessari and Fernando Di Leo (screen story and screenplay), is shot in Spain in Eastmancolor by Francisco Marín, is produced by Luciano Ercoli and Alberto Pugliese, and is scored by Ennio Morricone, with Art Direction by Juan Alberto Soler.

A Pistol for Ringo / The Return of Ringo: Two Films by Duccio Tessari was released on Blu-ray by Arrow Films in 2018 in the UK.

Giuliano Gemma (1938–2013).

Giuliano Gemma died after a car accident near Rome on 1 October 2013, aged 75. After work as a stunt man, an early role was as a Roman Officer with Messala (uncredited) In Ben-Hur. The spaghetti Westerns where he was credited as Montgomery Wood, Una pistola per Ringo, Il ritorno di Ringo, Un dollaro bucato [Blood for a Silver Dollar] and Per pochi dollari ancora [For a Few Extra Dollars] are among his greatest successes, along with I Giorni dell’ira [Day of Anger], Il deserto dei Tartari [The Desert of the Tartars] by Valerio Zurlini and Il prefetto di ferro [I Am the Law] by Pasquale Squitieri.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9325

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com