Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

ShangLuda Admirable film.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

bensonmum2 Overall, Forgotten Pistlero is a solid Spaghetti Western – not great, but good enough. Like a lot of the SWs I've seen, the central theme in this one is revenge. The children of a man murdered by his wife and her lover want revenge. It may be a familiar set-up, but Ferdinando Baldi does an excellent job of building interest and tension right to the final moments. Baldi also throws in a lot of other bits that I've come to expect from an entertaining SW – mysterious strangers (Leonard Mann and Pietro Martellanza) with over-the-top gun skills, an impossibly beautiful heroine (played by Pilar Velazquez), a gang of cut-throat killers, and lots and lots of sweaty men. And the film's finale is about as downbeat as you'll find. It's not as dark as something like The Great Silence, but it's definitely not a happy ending. It stuck with me long after the movie ended. Good stuff.A few other thoughts:1. The music, while very good, is often derivative and very Morricone-esque. It will remind you of a dozen other scores - but that's not necessarily a bad thing. 2. The acting is good, but no one really stands out. The highlight of the cast for me has to be Luciana Paluzzi of Thunderball fame. 3. For what seems like a modestly budgeted SW, there are a couple of set-pieces that are exceptionally well filmed. For example, the waltz scene looks like it came out of a film with a budget far exceeding that of Forgotten Pistolero. It's gorgeous. The other is the film's finale. The burning building is another set-piece that's very well done. I'll give Forgotten Pistolero a rock-solid 7/10.

andrabem The DVD I've ordered features the film (Il Pistolero dell'Ave Maria) in its original Italian language. Some aspects of the story may have been changed in the English language version.I will tell you just the very beginning of the story. I only want to give you a taste of the film. There will be no real spoilers (I think).A lone rider going through a canyon. Up on the cliffs horsemen watching him. Close-ups of their faces, hands ready for action. The scene is enhanced by a hauntingly beautiful score.The rider is Rafael (Pietro Martellanza). As a boy he had worked in a hacienda in Mexico. The owner of the hacienda was absent fighting against the french. For those that have no knowledge of the history of Mexico, very simplistically told, the french had invaded Mexico in 1861 and installed Maximilian of Habsburg in power. He became the emperor of Mexico! The french rule lasted until 1867, when the Mexicans led by Benito Juarez, expelled the french and shot the Emperor. Crazy, ain't it? Coming back to the film, Rafael worked in this hacienda that belonged to the Carrasco Family. The patriarch and owner of the hacienda, General Juan Carrasco, was absent fighting against the french. Rafael was the best friend of his (the general's) son Sebastian (Leonard Mann), and loved and was loved by Sebastian's sister, Isabella (Pilar Velazquez). Children, the three of them. But while General Carrasco was away fighting the french, his wife Ana (Luciana Paluzzi) was having an affair with the hacienda's foreman, Tomas (Alberto de Mendoza). After the french had been defeated, General Carrasco returns home and is received in high style by everyone in the hacienda. A party is held to commemorate his return. Suddenly... betrayal and tragedy.The characters are scattered to the four winds. Years pass and the dust seems to have settled down, but a chance meeting will rekindle old memories. The day of reckoning has arrived.This story almost seems a Mexican melodrama, but it's filmed with a grandeur and style that's unique. The party that is held in homage to General Carrasco, when he returns from the war, with its dancing, singing and eating, is flamboyantly portrayed. The same holds true for the scene in which a character enters a small Mexican village where a celebration is taking place in the streets ... firecrackers, people laughing, singing ... Then the saloon, with wild and beautiful women dancing barefoot on the counter... Ferdinando Baldi is very skilled in telling a story by way of images - editing, framing, close-ups, music ... everything adds up to create the right atmosphere and the proper emotion. It's true that sometimes he goes overboard, as he proved with the completely over-the-top film's ending, that's so operatic, so melodramatic, as to put even the wildest Mexican melodramas to shame.A good, well-told story featuring beautiful women (Luciana Paluzzi, Pilar Velazques and many others), sunny, dry landscapes, and a wonderful soundtrack. I didn't like so much the ending, though, with its fire and brimstones conclusion, but this is a matter of taste. Highly recommended if you like your spaghetti hot and wild.

spider89119 This Spaghetti western is an incredible hour and a half of cinema. The amazing music score pulls you in right away. It is beautiful and at the same time expresses a feeling of melancholy and impending doom. From the very beginning you know that the ending of this film is going to be one of those grandiose, emotional, over-the-top finales, and when you get there it doesn't disappoint.This is a great revenge story that, in some ways, can be likened to a Shakespearian tragedy. It's a tale of a wealthy family in which marital deception, betrayal, and murder brings on guilt, misery, fear, and ultimately death and destruction. It's also a great action story with lots of gun play, suspense, and some twists and turns.The movie is a quality production with decent acting, and most likely a higher than average budget for a eurowestern.This is a thoroughly enjoyable film from start to finish. Ferdinando Baldi's great direction, Roberto Pregadio's awesome music score, a riveting story, and solid acting performances make this a film that I would recommend to anyone.

Witchfinder General 666 Ferdinando Baldi's "Il Pistolero Dell' Ave Maria" aka. "Forgotten Pistolero" Of 1969 is good Spaghetti Western with an excellent score. Baldi is responsible for several good Spaghetti Westerns, including the great "Blindman" of 1971 and "Texas Addio" of 1966 with Franco Nero in the lead, and although "Forgotten Pistolero" is not one of his greatest achievements, Baldi proves once again, that he is an above average Western director. While "Blindman" is my definite favorite of Baldi's movies, I couldn't say whether I preferred "Texas Addio" of "Forgotten Pistolero". On the one hand, "Texas Addio" has Franco Nero, without doubt one of the Italian Western's best actors, in the lead, and the supporting cast includes Luigi Pistilli, Livio Lorenzon and Gino Pernice. On the other hand, the acting in "Forgotten Pistolero" is also very convincing, the score is excellent and the storyline is a bit more interesting than that of "Texas Addio".After Sebastian's father, Civil War General Juan Carrasco (José Suárez) is murdered by his wife Anna (Luciana Paluzzi) and her lover Tomas (Alberto De Mendoza), their son Sebastian flees with his nanny and former wet-nurse. Years later, grown Sebastian (Leonard Mann) has become a fast and excellent shot. One day Rafael (Peter Martell) comes to Texas, where Sebastian lives, and brings back the dark memories of Sebastian's childhood. Rafael, who is the lover of Sebastian's sister Isabel (Pilar Velásquez), is constantly victimized by Anna Carrasco's henchmen (one of them played by Piero Lulli), and Sebastian agrees to join him back to his mother's estate in order to free his sister from their unscrupulous mother and to avenge his father's death.This is the second movie starring Leonard Mann I've seen, after "Three Amens For Satan" of 1971. "Three Amens For Satan" was certainly no masterpiece, but Mann definitely delivered a good performance. In "Forgotten Pistolero" he is once again very good in the lead, and although Mann is not a very well-known Spaghetti Western actor, it should be said that this guy definitely had potential to play silent avenger types. Peter Martell also delivers a credible performance as Sebastian's sidekick Rafael, and Alberto De Mendoza is good as the villainous Tomas. The best performances in this movie, however, are in my opinion those of Luciana Paluzzi as the sneaky mother Anna Carrasco and beautiful Pilár Velásquez as Isabel. Piero Lulli fits perfectly into his (regrettably small) role of the brutal thug as always. The score by Roberto Pregadio is excellent, and the film is shot quite nicely in decent locations."Forgotten Pistolero" is a solid and entertaining Spaghetti Western, not a genre-highlight, but definitely a good film. 7/10