In 1965, Sean Flynn had agreed to go to Tabernas, Almeria, Spain to film a movie (which would use the same sets used for Clint Eastwood’s film, “For a Few Dollars More”) with the Spanish twin performers “Pili y Mili”. The film, a Spanish-Italian co-production was to be a western titled, “Dos Pistolas Gemelas”(“Twin Pistols”) for its Spanish language release in 1966 and “Una Donna per Ringo”(“A Woman for Ringo”) for its Italian release also in 1966. The film would be dubbed into English and according to IMDb was released under several different titles in English. I have yet to see any English language prints of the film, but YouTube has a trailer for the film in English under the unlikely title of “Vengeance Ranch”. The trailer trying to sell the film as a rough and tumble western shows almost no scenes of the two musical numbers in the film featuring the twins Pili and Mili, (here listed as “Milly and Phyllis”). The book, “Spaghetti Westerns: the Good, the Bad and the Violent,,,” by Thomas Weisser compares the film to an Elvis Presley type musical because the twin sisters were known for their musical performances and they sing and dance in the film. In my original review of the film for my article, “The Forgotten Films of Sean Flynn, Son of Errol Flynn”, I had labeled the film as “unwatchable” due mainly to the fact that every time I tried to watch it; it put me to sleep. As YouTube now has a better copy of the film than the one I first viewed, I was able to watch it again and this time I was able to stay awake. [The version on YouTube is in Spanish only as was the version I initially watched for my article.] The twins are mildly entertaining as a singing and dancing duo, especially when in one scene they dance a well choreographed version of the “Can Can” dance. Sean is serviceable as the love interest for one of the twins and provides aid to the twins when needed against the “bad guys”. The film is not as “unwatchable ” as I previously thought, but is mildly entertaining.
It might work as a double feature with Errol’s 1950 film “Montana”; a western where Errol does a little singing.—A. R.
[It should be noted that Sean only agreed to do the film for the money, which he would use to finance his next project; to photograph the Vietnam War.]–A. R.
— ILIKEFLYNN
ILIKEFLYNN
September 6, 2022 at 5:24 am
Here is a quick synopsis for the film for those who do not understand Spanish.
The film opens with the twin sisters Jenny and Sally Parker who are traveling with their grandfather who has a Wild West Medicine show. To get an audience so Grandfather can sell his health elixir, the twins put on a shooting exhibition. While they are starting their exhibition Sean as Jimmy Slattery (not Jimmy Trevor as listed in the credits for the movie by IMDb) interrupts the demonstration by beating Sally to the draw. As Jenny then challenges Sean to a shooting match for ten dollars, he says he’ll accept the challenge and add ten more dollars for a kiss. To which Jenny responds “The kiss you can get from your horse.” Sean who has been drinking a little and is not in the best condition loses the match to Jenny. (It should be noted that although the twins dress alike, they can be told apart by their personalities. Sally is soft and demure and Jenny is tougher and slightly tom-boyish.) With the money the twins have won, Grandfather gets into a poker game with Sean’s father, Trevor Slattery portrayed by Jorge Rigaud, (In my article, based on different sources, I had incorrectly listed Jorge Rigaud as the suitor of one of the twins), Colton, a rival rancher of the Slatterys, and the Sheriff. Mr. Colton puts up the deed to his ranch as collateral and when he loses, he accuses Sean’s father of cheating and when he goes for his gun to shoot Slattery, Slattery’s ranch foreman, Farrell shoots him dead. But not before Colton lets off a shot which kills the twins’ grandfather who had the winning hand. Thereby the ranch then goes to Grandfather’s heirs, the twins.
The twins then head out to the ranch they now own and meet Colton’s only ranch hand, Monahan and the housekeeper, Maggie. While in town a civil engineer, Robert Clark portrayed by Rogelio Madrid, who will end up as the other love interest for one of the twins helps Jimmy fight three outlaws molesting the girls. The outlaws were hired by Farrell who with his partner (spoiler alert) who turns out to be the sheriff are trying to get the land the twins have won.
In the midst of the machinations of the bad guys trying to get the ranch, the twins put on a song and dance routine about differing gender roles with music by Spain’s most revered composer, Gregorio Garcia-Segura who also wrote the scores for Sean’s first two films,”The Son of Captain Blood” and “Duel at the Rio Grande”. There is some back and forth between the twins trying to work the ranch while Farrell and his “partner” cause trouble for the twins. At a saloon where the twins put on a show there is a barroom brawl. After the brawl Sean is kidnapped by the outlaws, Sean’s father is murdered, as well as Madrid’s assistant. The twins are tricked into giving up the ranch to the sheriff and move on. Meanwhile Sean escapes and has learned that his father was murdered by Farrell. He then kills him in a shootout. Then Sean, Madrid and Monahan shoot it out with the Sheriff and the outlaws who have teamed up with the sheriff and win the day. The twins who have moved on to another town with Grandfather’s medicine show and are met by Sean and Madrid who have followed them to the other town. The girls are happy to see the boys and they get together, but only after the girls give up their guns. The twin pistols are then thrown onto the ground and the boys and girls embrace. I think you can all guess which twin Sean ends up with. (If you guessed Jenny, you would be right.)–A. R.
David DeWitt
September 6, 2022 at 4:44 pm
Excellent work, ILIKEFLYNN!
David DeWitt
September 6, 2022 at 4:53 pm
shangheinz
September 6, 2022 at 7:10 pm
Great post, A.R.!