1960s Western film action film Spaghetti Western

Texas, Adios

Texas addio

1966 · Spain, Italy · 93 min

Director: Ferdinando Baldi
Screenplay: Ferdinando Baldi, Franco Rossetti
Producer: Manolo Bolognini
Music: Antón García Abril
Cinematography: Enzo Barboni
Editing: Sergio Montanari

Cast

Franco Nero

Livio Lorenzon

Elisa Montés

José Suárez

Luigi Pistilli

José Guardiola

Hugo Blanco Galiasso

Alberto Dell’Acqua

Gino Pernice

Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia

Mario Novelli

What it is about

Burt Sullivan, a taciturn Texas sheriff committed to duty and justice, has long been driven by a desire for revenge. He finally learns who killed his father, a wealthy and cruel Mexican boss, and crosses the border with his younger brother Jim, who reluctantly goes along. Their hunt soon pulls them into the middle of a revolution, and their plans grow more tangled than either expected.

How it was made

Texas, Adios was the second of three films Franco Nero had agreed to make for producer Manolo Bolognini, following Django. It was co-produced with a Madrid company, and the project was first pitched as a Django sequel. Sergio Corbucci turned it down, and Ferdinando Baldi, a friend of Bolognini, took over, making his first Western as director. Shooting took place in April and May 1966 across Almería, Madrid, the outskirts of Rome and the Roman studios. Cinematographer Enzo Barboni, later the director of They Call Me Trinity, returned from the earlier film. Several actors were dubbed by others, a common practice in European genre cinema of the period.

Reception and legacy

Contemporary Italian critics objected to the film's heavy violence, though they praised Barboni's photography. Retrospective assessments have seen it as a workmanlike, unpretentious Western, lacking the stylization of Leone or the Django series. It was nonetheless a commercial success in Italy and Spain, and in West Germany it was sold as a pseudo sequel to Django. Today it is mainly remembered as part of Nero's career before his move to Hollywood.