BLINDMAN (1972) ***
Sometimes you just have to hear a couple of key phrases that make you want to see a movie. With Blindman, all I saw were the words “Spaghetti Western” and “Ringo Starr” and I immediately knew I wanted to watch it. Fortunately for me, it’s actually pretty good. It’s a terrific vehicle for Tony Anthony, who would go on to reunite with director Ferdinando Baldi for the equally great Comin’ At Ya! a decade later.
Anthony plays the blind man was about to escort fifty mail order brides to their rightful owners when his partner stole them under his nose (he is blind after all) and sold them into white slavery. The blind man then has to go find the girls and get them back.
Tony Anthony is awesome as the blind man. His rifle doubles as a walking stick and he uses his horse like a seeing-eye dog. There’s a fun scene where he gets all fifty women back and as he’s making his getaway on a train, he’s mortified to touch their faces and discover that they are the wrong women (and old and ugly to boot).
Like all the great Spaghetti Westerns, there’s a scene where our hero gets the snot kicked out of him by the bad guys, but comes back tougher than ever. It also contains a memorable score by Stelvio (Twitch of the Death Nerve) Cipriani and some great cinematography by Riccardo (Lady Frankenstein) Pallottini. The fifty women in the cast also provide a heck of a lot of nudity, so the flick is almost always easy on the eyes (sorry, blind man).
The only reason I wanted to check it out was for Ringo. He actually does a good job playing the villain’s hotheaded brother. I also liked the scene after he got killed where his grief-stricken brother tried to force a woman to marry Ringo’s corpse!
The real reason to see it though is for Tony Anthony. It’s a shame he didn’t make more movies because he’s a total badass in this. I wish this had been an ongoing series, kind of like the Zatoichi films. It would’ve also been cool seeing him go up against John, Paul, and George at some point.