DIAMANTE LOBO/ GOD’S GUN

Israel/Italy, 1976, 93 minutes, Colour.
Lee Van Cleef, Jack Palance, Leif Garrett, Richard Boone, Sybil Danning.
Directed by Frank Kramer (Gianfranco Parolini).

God’s Gun comes rather late in the development of the spaghetti western. In fact, it is an Italian-Israeli? production. It comes from Golan Globus, the company for many derivative action films and comedies in the 1970s and 1980s.
It provides a star vehicle for Lee Van Cleef. He had been a star in several spaghetti westerns, principally, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Here he has a double role. He is introduced as the priest in a western town, dressed in cassock, collar, and a hat. He is seen praying in the street, he is respected by the people. He shows the young boy in the town how to throw horseshoes. He keeps a gun under the altar, though he does not use it. We see him diligently cleaning the church with the young boy. Courageously, he confronts the Clayton gang after they have robbed a bank and caused mayhem in the town. As he prays in the street, he is gunned down.
The young boy immediately rides to Mexico to find the priest’s twin brother. This offers Lee Van Cleef the opportunity for a double role. The boy is pursued by gunmen, outwits them, but loses his voice.
The twin is a gambler and a gun man. He tells the boy the story of his brother, providing some flashbacks and the opportunity to see the priest again. The brothers had grown up learning to shoot, but one day one brother was inspired by the bible and became a priest. The other twin gambled, was involved in shootouts, but was persuaded to give up his guns.
The rest of the film shows the boy and the gun man coming to the town. There is some imagination in the way that revenge is shown. The gun man puts on the cassock and hats, is filmed in the shadows, suggesting that the gang will see him as a ghost. Needless to say, the gang are eliminated (one being disguised as the priest in front of the altar, and shot by the gang).
Matters are complicated when the owner of the saloon tells Clayton that the boy is his son. Clayton wants his son back, captures him and his mother, takes them to the cemetery when he has the money from the bank robbery. There is a confrontation between the brother and Clayton, ending, of course, in Clayton’s death.
The film has an Italian director as well as Italian and Israeli cast. However, the stars are American. Jack Palance is Clayton, Richard Boone is the sheriff, Sybil Danning is the owner of the saloon and Leif Garrett her son. Some of the voices are dubbed. And, a lot of the acting is very weak or a parody of spaghetti western styles.
The basic idea of the priest and his twin brother is a good one and some of the aspects are quite inventive. However, this is an average to below average spaghetti western.