A workmanlike director who mostly worked in peplums for the first fifteen years of his career, Ferdinando Baldi found his calling during the spaghetti western explosion ignited by A Fistful of Dollars in 1964. Starting with Texas, Adios in 1966, he proved to be a reliable name for mainly Spanish-shot gunslinger sagas including the eccentric Rita of the West, Django, Prepare a Coffin, Blindman, Get Mean, and kickstarting the '80s 3-D craze with Comin' at Ya! A bit lost in the shuffle at the end of the '60s but now regarded as one of his best films, Forgotten Pistolero (originally Il pistolero dell'Ave Maria) belongs to that odd subset of spaghetti westerns derived from classic literature a la the Shakespearean Johnny Hamlet and Fury of Johnny Kid and the Greek tragedy-updating I Do Not Forgive... I Kill! In the case of this film, it's a surprisingly close riff on the Orestes myth -- though you don't have to be even slightly familiar with it to enjoy.

Living in seclusion since the death of his parents, Sebastian (Weapons of Death's Mann in his debut) is visited by a wounded man who turns out to be childhood friend Rafael (Death Walks at Midnight's Martell), now full of shocking family revelations. Among them is the fact that Sebastian's parents were actually Juan Carrasco (Suárez), a Mexican general, and Anna (Thunderball's Paluzzi), who murdered him along with her lover, Tomas (Horror Express' Mendoza). The crime was witnessed by Sebastian's little sister, Isabella (Velázquez), who's in love with Rafael but was forced into marriage with a much older shop owner (Rossi). Anna gets wind that both men are aware of the truth and heading her way to free Isabella, but she doesn't want any more bloodshed as opposed to her cruel current husband who's willing to silence them at any cost.

Thanks to a sturdy narrative and compelling characters, Forgotten Pistolero is an emotionally engaging and memorable dramatic western with a handful of truly effective action sequences. It also sticks the landing well with a fiery finale that wraps things up on a satisfying note, largely thanks to the always excellent Paluzzi who pulls off a complex, fascinating character. The rest of the actors have to do far lighter lifting, though Martell (whose career went downhill after losing the lead role in They Call Me Trinity) once again proves to be a better actor than often recognized. Mann doesn't have as much to do and is hampered by some distracting makeup and heavy eyeliner, but he works well once his character actually springs into action. Velázquez also makes for an unusually proactive character for the time, intentionally provoking and inflicting guilt on those around her without being overt about it -- and she also gets some great moments at the end. Equally important is the fan favorite score by Robert Pregadio, which adopts the usual Morricone tropes but builds its own identity with a memorable main theme.

Though it was prepared in an English-language version (with all of the actors mostly dubbed despite speaking accented English on the set), Forgotten Pistolero got limited theatrical playings outside of Europe and mostly earned its reputation on home video. That included a widescreen gray market DVD from Wild East in 2007 (paired up with The Unholy Four) and a presumably legit German DVD, both with English audio. A nice HD version started streaming on Amazon Prime around 2023 along with a ton of other Euro westerns (mostly Spanish in some form or another), featuring the English track and Italian credit sequences. That same source was ported over for the 2025 Blu-ray from Carambola, a Diabolik exclusive, a two-disc set featuring the English version on disc one and the Italian (with burned-in English subtitles) on disco two. Both are from the same scan and have identical running times, and you're fine watching either one. The DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono audio for both of them sounds fine with no significant issues, and image quality is very satisfying as well. The one extra on disc two is a 34-minute interview with Mann conducted by Eurocrime!'s Mike Malloy (note that audio is only in the right channel, so adjust accordingly), which finds the American former actor (turned L.A. social worker) in a sunny mood as he looks back at his gialli, action films, and westerns, including his initial discovery in Italy, his memories of his costars, and his time bouncing around Europe during its golden exploitation era.

Reviewed on September 15, 2025