The Ruthless Four (1968)

Sam Cooper (Van Heflin) is a grizzled prospector who is operating a gold mine when he is betrayed by his partner and forced to kill the partner. To get the gold out Cooper enlists the help of his one-time adopted son (George Hilton). The adopted son is followed by a mysterious preacher-type figure (Klaus Kinski) who insists on tagging along. To keep the two in check, Cooper enlists his old friend/now nemisis, Mason (Gilbert Roland) to come along for the trip too, and they all set off to find the gold.

It’s something of an unusual spaghetti western. The hero comes across as a good (or atleast neutral) person for the most part – slightly gold obsessed, but not to the point of betraying any of his friends or partners. He is more the stereotype of the traditional elderly prospector than the traditional spaghetti western hero. Despite this, everyone assumes the worst in him and is inately suspicious, especially Mason, who blames Cooper for a past betray when they were in the army (it’s somewhat ambiguous as to whether the betrayal was real or imagined – I tended to side with imagined, but it’s hard to tell). The character of the adopted son is also an interesting one: there’s a real emotional attachment between him and Cooper that was understandably broken off when the son grew tired of searching for gold. There’s also the ambiguous relationship between the Hilton and Kinski and why Kinski is allowed to come along on the trip: it’s implied that they might be in love, but it’s also possible it might be blackmail, physical coercion, or a combination of all three.

The acting for the main cast is largely pretty good: Van Heflin is old, grizzled and likebly enough for the prospector role; George Hilton has a somewhat unusual role for him (i.e. not an invincible gunfighter) but portrays the vulnrability of his character well; Klaus Kinsky is shifty as usual, but has a decent sized role (in contrast to many of his other “walk on” roles). I’m rarely hugely convinced by Gilbert Roland – he doesn’t quite seem to fit in the genre – but he certainly isn’t terrible. Roland’s character is suffering from a case of stage malaria, which comes on suddenly and is quickly treated, but that’s a script problem rather than an acting problem.

The production values are also obviously reasonably decent. One thing I often use to judge the production of spaghetti Westerns for is whether the landscape looks grey and gravelly (low budget) or yellow and deserty (higher budget). I’m not sure what the actual difference was in terms of how they were made – they often use the same landscape but manage to make it appear different. Here it alternates between the two cases a little, but at least some parts of the film look warm and attractive, suggesting a decent budget.

Pictures