The Price of Power (1969)

An unusual Spaghetti Western concerning the assassination of a fictional(?)* president in Dallas in the aftermath of the US civil war. Guiliano Gemma stars as the civil war veteran whose father is killed and whose friend (Ray Saunders) is wrongly accused on the murder.

Opinions seem to be divided on this one. It’s an original premise—telling a story which unlike any other western I can think of—and it’s well made throughout. I enjoyed the first half of it (up until the actual assassination): the premise is well set out, the characters are established well (and interesting) and the tension leading up to the shooting is genuine. Beyond that I found it gets a little dull: there isn’t a much political intrigue as the script writers seem to believe there is (and much of it is pretty clearly set out early on). Therefore much of the latter portions of the film seem to consist of revelations of corruption being made that the audience already knows. There’s also some slightly odd and pointless duels held in the dark with cigars, that don’t really make sense in context.

It’s probably worth a watching as an upper-tier spaghetti western that tries to do something different, but I can’t really see this justifying a second watching.

* Some of the internet suggests that it’s President Garfield in a fictional situation. I don’t recall hearing a name. There’s clearly elements of Lincoln (assassinated post civil war) and Kennedy (shot in the street Dallas).