Welcome to a new B-Movie Enema review and welcome back to Quly!

So Quly is all about over-compensating for never having done a movie that started with a Q before this month. Do I often over-compensate? Oh boy, do I. I am a fairly unremarkable white dude after all. It’s like I was BORN to over-compensate. Anyway, we started last week with the JCVD classic The Quest. This week, we continue on with another classic – 1969’s Quintana: Dead or Alive.

Quintana: Dead or Alive (or, as it was originally known, Quintana) comes to us from director Vincenzo Musolino. Musolino was an Italian actor who racked up about two dozen roles between 1952 and 1967. Toward the end of that run as an actor, he started doing what a lot of Italian actors did, appear in spaghetti westerns. His final role on screen was in one of the many, many unofficial Django sequels, Don’t Wait, Django… Shoot! In fact, starting in 1965, he began writing scripts for the movies he appeared in, and that Django flick was one of them.

In 1968, Musolino took the director’s chair for the first time with one of the great titles for a spaghetti western, May God Forgive You… But I Won’t. What a fuckin’ title. Anyway, Quintana: Dead or Alive became the second film he directed at the age of 39. The same year Quintana was released, Musolino died. He actually died on his 39th birthday of a heart attack. That’s… That’s a bummer.

One of the leads in this movie is the Croatian-Italian beauty Femi Benussi. Benussi was a fairly popular actress in thrillers, giallos, and spaghetti westerns. She appeared in films like Bloody Pit of Horror which starred Mickey Hargitay and Mario Bava’s Hatchet for the Honeymoon. My favorite title in her filmography though is The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance. That’s the thing with a lot of European films… Their titles can be really awesome. And very thought-provoking.

Quintana is played by Toni Di Mitri. He passed away in 2019 at the age of 88. He had an uncredited part in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, but he also appeared in the other Musolino film, May God Forgive You… But I Won’t. In a 1964 spaghetti western, Two Gangsters in the Wild West, he played Jesse James. He was a middling star who had over 30 roles but wasn’t particularly famous.

But, he did play Quintana and that’s a character that is a mix, of sorts, of Zorro and Clint Eastwood, so let’s dig in!

The movie begins like all good westerns, and all great spaghetti westerns, do… with a man being drug into town by the authorities and, assumably, facing execution for bein’ a scoundrel. A local named Miguel is disturbed by the authorities’ treatment of this prisoner. He goes home and tells his wife and son that the federales have arrested Manuel. He’s been accused and arrested for killing three soldiers. Indeed, he will be hanged at dawn.

Miguel’s son, Jose, is also now rather upset. He gets up from the dinner table and says he has some things to do. On his way out, he tells his mother that someday someone will have the courage to stand up to the corrupt head of this town. Apparently, they capture guys all the time on trumped-up charges. The man who runs the town, Governor Don Juan de Leyra, also forces people who live in the town to be drafted into service to basically slave away in the fields.

Jose goes to speak to another man outside of town about Manuel. Don Juan’s whole deal and a serious hard-on for locking away Manuel is over a woman. Don Juan was in love with a woman named Virginia. Manuel won her heart. Because of that, Don Juan must punish Manuel. With Manuel gone, Virginia would have no choice but to accept his proposal for marriage. He still has a problem named Quintana. One of his lackeys, Alvarez, says that they should put a reward out for Quintana. In fact, if they set the reward high enough, then surely there will be plenty of interest to come into town and hunt Quintana.

Virginia comes in to bargain for Manuel. She’s willing to pay anything to free him. Don Juan is like, “Yeah, your money’s no good here. I have a counter-offer.” He tells her that if she marries him, he’ll free her lover. Of course, that wouldn’t do either Manuel or Virginia any good as she would be married to another man so they couldn’t be together. It’s a bit of a lose-lose.

Virginia admits that she did love Don Juan prior to meeting Manuel. In fact, she thought she would marry the guy. That is until her father was killed. She said that event opened her eyes and she could finally put two and two together. She thinly accuses Don Juan of killing her father.

She goes to see the imprisoned Manuel. She tells him he must get out of prison before morning or he has no hope left. He doesn’t know who will free him. She won’t say what the asking price for his freedom was. She just says she loves him and that she will always protect him.

Enter Quintana who forces a guard at gunpoint to take him to the prison and open Manuel’s cell.

I am curious… Does that mean Virginia doesn’t need to marry the Governor? I was thinking this stuff over and then some excitement happened that shook me from my pondering.

The Governor’s goons, which are really just the local soldiers for the territory, have shown up. Quintana also opened the other cell that had a whole bunch of other prisoners inside. When they spilled out of the jail, the goon squad just fired at them and killed a bunch of them. It’s like Quintana and Manuel covered their own escape and shielded themselves with the other prisoners. I’m not going to say that’s a bitch move, but it’s kind of a bitch move on the part of our movie’s hero.

Quintana and Manuel are pretty damn good at the gun stuff. They are able to shoot their way out and take off into the desert. As best as I can tell, there’s something of a ground-swelling resistance in Don Juan’s territory. Juan is part of a group who all knew that Manuel was definitely not a killer… Well, he’s not a murderer. He did a pretty bang-up job killing those guys in the escape from jail. Anyway, Manuel immediately goes to a monastery to speak to the padre. The padre is quite happy to hear that Quintana helped free Manuel. The padre tells him he will send a message for Virginia to meet Manuel at the monastery.

The curious thing about the whole payment to Don Juan is the fact that he has another woman already.

I suppose he was just going to throw this woman to the side once he got Virginia. That seems pretty shitty. She’s not that far off from Virginia. She has a giant raven-colored hairdo. She’s vaguely the same complexion and looks. What gives, Don Juan? She’s all sexy and wanting to know why he’s been so cold the last few days. She’s willing to warm his bone with her fire pit if you know what I mean and I think you do.

Eh… Strike that last sentence. That was a bad joke. Hey, Hector… Can you make sure that last sentence is cut out of the final draft of this article? Yeah? Cool.

Anyway, back to the movie. Jose shows up at a ranch where a bunch of other compatriots are waiting to hear about what happened with Manuel. He tells them that he freed Manuel, but the other prisoners? Well, they didn’t quite make it. He fails to mention that some guy in 2024 named Geoff thought he pretty much sacrificed them to the federales so he and Manuel could escape more easily. Anyway, the other guys at the ranch are, understandably, not very pleased that, like a dozen of their number got cut down pretty viciously. Jose is also not too pleased that he essentially got them killed (read: used them as meat shields to cover his escape).

I kid, but I actually kind of like this as a character development sort of thing. It would have made sense if it was revealed that it wasn’t an accident that the goon squad showed up quicker than likely expected, but the movie doesn’t take that turn instead opting to have the federales just coincidentally right there when the jailbreak happened. But when it comes to a hero of the people, like a Zorro, as Quintana has been compared to, those types don’t often get into situations where their actions get “innocents” killed. I put that in quotes because we can only assume they were captured by Don Juan’s crew on similarly trumped-up charges like Manuel. His letting them out and having them essentially leave the prison building first led to them being entirely wiped out. When he delivers the news to the rest of his people, they are upset about it. These were their friends and loved ones.

This gets to Quintana. That means he’s not infallible. I like that. This is a war that is brewing from within this territory where the people fighting back against Don Juan aren’t exactly military-grade folks. They are farmers and older men. They know something has to be done about this Don Juan dude. They have to operate extremely carefully and quietly. They need to make sure their resources are well used and not wasted. Most importantly, they need numbers. When you have a dozen dudes that you can suddenly have back in your camp, and they were killed to save a single guy, it’s not going to sit all that well, honestly. Esmerelda, a woman who loves Quintana tries to lift his spirits. She says that he had to try to do something and that’s important. He wants Esmerelda to return to town, but she says he can’t. She won’t return even if Don Juan’s men come and start killing folks.

Shortly after talking about this, three men in white arrive on horseback requesting something to eat and a place to bed down for the night. They know that Jose is Quintana. They know this because he’s got a mighty high bounty on his head that’s been recently raised. Still, they don’t seem to pose an immediate threat, so Quintana invites them to stay the night and have a bite. He still has someone watch them.

This is a pretty well-shot and directed scene. There are a lot of long takes that have Quintana carefully watching the men. They take long looks at Esmerelda. It’s fairly tense too. It’s odd that these guys just showed up in the middle of the night. It’s odd they are so willing to flaunt that they know Jose is Quintana. Finally, it all comes to a head when they stab the guy Quintana asked to watch them after inviting him to the table to drink some wine with them. Then, in a great Dutch angle shot, we see them walk toward Quintana’s house only for Quintana to appear behind them and face off against them. He kills them all before they can raise their guns to shoot him. It’s a great scene and superbly scored, shot, and played. It’s very clear that Muslolino really had some directing chops.

More importantly, it’s a signal that more men will be heading his way to capture and/or kill Quintana.

I… I mean, after all, it is in the title of this movie. There’s the whole Dead or Alive thing in the title, right? I’m going to have to assume that Quintana is going to consistently and constantly have to defend against bounty hunters… even if the movie will ultimately be uninterested in showing that too much.

Anyway, Don Juan’s men are out in the streets of the town and hassling a guy who is packing up a carriage and planning to move away. He explains that city-livin’ is just not working out. He wants to go somewhere his kids won’t starve. So the goon slaps the guy and tells him that he’ll be goin’ to jail for that lip he’s giving. Quintana ain’t gonna stand for that shit.

Quintana arrives in town and when the army is about to fire on him, he draws and drops three of them before they have a chance to shoot him. He takes off on horseback and leads the soldiers out of the town. He picks off each of the guys until he is forced to do a little trickery to slip the men.

Later, some banditos are chasing after a carriage with Virginia. They eventually can’t outrun the bandits and our villains kill the driver. They commandeer the carriage and bring Virginia to Don Juan’s estate. Virginia’s presence in his home pisses off his regular Saturday night thing. She says that he can’t just buy her off like a common whore. So he tells her to beat cheeks.

We see the reward for Quintana has been raised from 1,000 pesos to 1,500. Jose and the padre are in town taking care of some business. We see a bunch of Don Juan’s men also present on the street, and, worse, in the tavern. There, they pick on the people of the town and the bartender. When they say they want the pitcher of wine that was served to Jose and the padre since they ordered first, Jose tells the dude to come get it himself so he can whoop some ass. After putting about six of the guys on the floor, Jose heads for the door only for the soldiers to draw their guns. So Jose kills a few of them before escaping.

Unfortunately, this brings a lot of bad stuff down on Jose. Specifically, the authorities go to his parent’s home where they threaten his mother by telling her to tell them where he is or they’ll put a bullet in her head. He arrives to blow those motherfuckers away too.

This is kind of an interesting arc we’re seeing Jose on. When we first met him at the beginning of the movie, he seemed mild-mannered. Of course, we know he’s more or less a superhero but he seemed careful and didn’t want to endanger his parents when he goes off to meet the other members of the rebellion against Don Juan. However, when he broke Manuel out of prison and those other prisoners got killed, he became far more brash. He dispatched with the three bounty hunters before returning to town to kill some of Don Juan’s men. Now he is doing this without his mask to hide his true power levels.

I just find this interesting because he’s dangerously close to endangering more people, namely, his parents.

Meanwhile, having learned of how heartless and cruel Don Juan can be, Perla, the mistress he’s dispatching now that Virginia is in his possession, decides to try to help Virginia escape. Virginia’s like, “Yeah, that’s cool, but you’re an idiot because there’s no way to escape this place or Don Juan.” Virginia suggests maybe she knows someone to whom she can send a message for help. Virginia tells Perla to go to the mission and tell everything to the padre.

Jose brings his parents to the camp where all the rebels live. They tell Miguel that defending Quintana is like defending freedom. Just then the Statue of Liberty shed a tear that turned into an eagle that flew away while Lee Greenwood music played loudly in a Chevy pickup truck.

Perla arrives at the mission to tell the padre about Virginia being held captive. She says she believes Virginia was headed to the mission because she heard some of the men laughing about it in private. The padre LITERALLY TALKS TO GOD! No shit, he prays to God for guidance and the crucifix responds saying that a true man of God would already know what it is he must do.

Elsewhere, Don Juan and Alvarez have found Manuel. Despite a valiant gunfight, He is recaptured. Upon returning to his home, Don Juan visits Virginia. He tells her that he’s got her little playmate. The deal is simple. Marry him or she’ll never see Manuel again. She finally relents and agrees to the terms to save her true love.

So, with 20 minutes to go, we’re kind of in the endgame now. The padre is escorted to the captain of Don Juan’s soldiers to be notified that he will be performing the ceremony that will marry Don Juan to Virginia. While he’s ridden into town, Quintana watches. They meet and Quintana says he already knows about the wedding. They both express concern for Manuel and then they ride off in opposite directions.

Quintana rides to the prison, guns down some fools, and throws a couple guys into one of the cells. He goes to free Manuel who is in pretty bad shape. Manuel has a wish on his deathbed. He wants Quintana to take off his mask and reveal his true identity. He does and surprises Manuel. Manuel dies.

Um… Bummer?

I mean, yes yes yes… Of course we should want to basically rid ourselves of Don Juan. He’s a bad dude surrounded by more bad dudes. However, Manuel’s arrest kicked off the whole thing. His arrest meant Quintana had to strike out in a big way, which led to the death of all those prisoners, which led to Quintana having a pretty big weight on his shoulders, which led to more need to remove Don Juan. All the while, we have Virginia who is distraught over her current lover being hunted by a former, jealous, and evil, lover. Her entire decision to marry Don Juan was to save his life. But he’s dead anyway. So this guy who everyone who was against Don Juan loved is dead. The woman he loved, and loved him back, is going to be devastated. There’s no real way now for a happy ending. The best we can now have is vengeance, and, preferably, from Virginia.

But the movie’s title isn’t Virginia Gets Her Revenge. It’s Quintana. So… That should serve as some forewarning.

Quintana rushes back to the camp to gather the rebels to make their final attack on Don Juan during his wedding. Before leaving, he rides his horse up to Esmerelda and his parents and simply tells them “adios” before riding off. They are headed to the mission. Don Juan and Virginia are riding to the mission to get married. It’s all comin’ to a head now and all to this great dirge being played on an organ. This movie is technically wonderful.

Quintana and gang arrive to take on Don Juan’s forces. It’s a lot of gunshots, a lot of bullets whizzing all around, and a lot of people die. Ultimately, the rebels are successful in defeating the federales. Quintana rides off in pursuit of Don Juan which leads them out into the desert. He eventually rides into the city where some more of his men are waiting. I have to assume Don Juan got his guys on loan from the Galactic Empire because he tells them to shoot Quintana and there are a lot of his guys and only one Quintana. They miss many times while Quintana calmly draws and kills all of them. This leads to yet another chase with Quintana in pursuit of Don Juan. He goes to his estate and Quintana lowers his mask before the two men joust each other with guns. Seemingly, Don Juan gets a shot off but it’s Quintana who fires a killing shot. His rebel pals arrive to see Don Juan dead on the ground.

The… End.

I like this movie. This is not the first time a spaghetti western appeared on this site. In fact, not that long ago, the fourth episode of this fifth season of B-Movie Enema: The Series featured Gunman of Ave Maria. Both that and this movie have a villain who is basically powerful, rich, and has a lust-centered drive. Both are a bit soap operatic in how the story is structured, the relationships between characters, and so on.

I would argue Quintana is better than Gunman. While neither has a great detailed plot, both have a few twists and turns along the way. That said, Quintana is technically better. I have talked about this a few times in this review, but it is quite well-shot. The use of Dutch angles helps make the frame seem wider and taller at times. I don’t know if I’m describing that properly, but there are a few times in which you just feel like you are seeing more than you should in its CinemaScope format…. and you’re already seeing a lot in that format! But it’s also tense in some scenes. There is that scene with the bounty hunters that is just great. The editing for the scenes that have gunfights is timed pretty well too. I am a little disappointed that Manuel died and Quintana used that as a reason to get revenge, but the ultimate defeat of Don Juan should have been far more climatic OR you should have given that revenge to Virginia. In the end, neither Virginia nor Perla were required for the movie at all. But what’s funny about that is that when Virginia and Perla are involved, you want to know what’s going on with them. You want to see them resist this evil Don Juan guy.

Anyway, this movie is on Amazon Prime. If you’re a fan of spaghetti westerns, check this one out. I think you’ll see that Musolino had the chops, but sadly died too soon.

Next week, Quly continues and travels to the mysterious isles of New Zealand for one of the great science fiction films from the 80s, Geoff Murphy’s The Quiet Earth. Make sure you get here to read all about it. Before you do that, tomorrow, there’s another new episode of B-Movie Enema: The Series! This week, it’s the incredibly repetitive action exploitation schlockfest Kill Squad! Be sure to check that out here at the site, or in the various places like YouTube or Vimeo that you can find on the right side of your screen. Or… Hey, if you have a Roku, why not go to the Channel Store and find the B-Movie Enema Roku channel and catch up on episodes there!

Until next week, I will see you around, mi amigos!