Beyond the Law (1968)

If you can get past the ropey dubbing and some truly awful singing, then this spaghetti western works fine as a vehicle for the charismatic Lee Van Cleef. It’s his “Billy Joe” that is teamed up with the “Preacher” (Lionel Stander) and his own personal henchman “Al” (Al Hoosman) and they have found themselves an unique way of robbing a silver mine that uses a stagecoach to shift it’s product. Despite the best efforts of newly arrived mine manager “Novack” (Antonio Sabato) and the sheriff (Enzo Fiermonte), they can’t find out just what happened and so that encourages the trio to plan their next raid. Unexpectedly, when the stage coach is actually attacked by some more front-on bandits, these three become unlikely heroes and their leader even becomes the new sheriff! Even better, think they, as they can ingratiate themselves easily into the affairs of the town and plan in plain sight, whilst “Billy-Joe” befriends local gal “Sally” (Graziella Granada). The bandits, however, haven’t forgotten their own scheme and so their caped-crusading leader “Burton” (Romano Puppo) devises a cunning plan that will hopefully get the wise guys to do all of the heavy lifting and then leave him and his men to walk in and help themselves to the loot - and, mercifully, stop the wailing choir in it’s tracks. The photography makes the most of the (Spanish) scenery and the rest of production is fairly rudimentary but LVC has a glint in his eye for much of this; it does benefit from a welcome lack of slushy romance and there is duplicity and mischief a-plenty before an explosive and action-packed conclusion. No, you probably won’t recall it for long, but it’s perfectly watchable for ninety minutes.