The twisting begins before we even meet the hero. A Union soldier makes his way through the carnage of a battle. Confederate bodies litter the ground, and a Yankee survivor plunders them for gold teeth and various effects. Then he goes to roll the wrong soldier and gets a knife in the belly. The Confederate corporal playing possum (George Hilton) is off, and A Bullet for Sandoval is underway.

Hilton plays John Warner, a rebel soldier who deserts his outfit once he hears his Mexican lover has fallen ill. He picks up a couple of cohorts and a padre and heads to the Sonoran-style town afflicted with cholera and ruled by Don Pedro Sandoval (Ernest Borgnine). Warner arrives only to discover his fiancé has died, and their baby is barely hanging on. Papa Don Pedro banishes Warner from his sight, and Warner and his child search for sanctuary but are turned away once the townsfolk realize the baby has cholera. It’s a mean old world, and in one instance, a station manager throws milk meant for the child on the ground. The baby dies, and when Warner returns to seek retribution, there are a lot of tears over spilled milk.

A Bullet for Sandoval, also known as Those Desperate Men Who Smell of Dirt and Death, is a movie that feels like it could break into something special at any moment but never does. In his commentary track for MVD’s newly remastered and restored Blu-ray release, Alex Cox calls A Bullet for Sandoval, Three Godfathers in reverse. In Three Godfathers—Peter B. Kyne’s 1913 novel that was filmed five different times from 1916 to 1948—three outlaws sacrifice their lives to save the life of a child and thus redeem their souls.

Not here. Here, the kid dies about 20 minutes in, and Warner leads a gang of men on a cruel and sadistic killing spree that ends inside a bullfighting arena. That’s where Sandoval meets his end, too—though not by a bullet. As Cox points out in his commentary track, Sandoval is an unusual villain in the spaghetti western cycle as he gets to express the impetus of his grief. He’s the antagonist, sure, but the emotional reasoning behind his actions puts him on a similar plane as Warner, the movie’s so-called hero.

Cox’s commentary track is invaluable to appreciating A Bullet for Sandoval. Be it his deep knowledge of European westerns and their production history or the way he relishes a good Spanish or Italian name, Cox fills in the gaps and explains why this Blu-ray release holds great significance for those interested in Italian westerns.

Still, A Bullet for Sandoval feels like a stunted movie. The gun battle where director Julio Buchs and cinematographer Francisco Sempere zero in on the guns rather than the faces is really something. So is the final showdown inside the bullring. It’s just that the connective tissue between those two never quite develops in any satisfying or compelling manner.

A Bullet for Sandoval (1970)
Directed by Julio Buchs
Story and screenplay by Julio Buchs, Federico De Urrutia, Ugo Guerra, José Luis Martínez Mollá
Starring: George Hilton, Ernest Borgnine, Alberto de Mendoza, Leo Anchóriz, Annabella Incontrera, Antonio Pica, José Manuel Martín
Universal Marion Corporation, Rated PG, Running time 101 minutes, Opened in the U.S. in May 1970