Lacking Flavour
Following a robbery and a couple of murders, Sergeant Tony Garret (Richard Wyler) finds himself sentenced to be hung when he is wrongly accused of committing the crimes. Managing to escape before the fateful day Tony swears he will find and have his revenge on the real criminal. But with his face now adorning wanted posters Tom is forced to turn outlaw to not only support himself but find the real culprit. It is how he comes to be involved with Riff (William Bogart) and his gang who plan to rob a bank but need someone who is a quicker gun than legendary lawman Bill Manners (Brad Harris).
Have you ever wondered whether a movie could be made where several directors worked together to craft each scene. I know how unlikely that is but as I watched the spaghetti western "Rattler Kid" I thought to myself that whilst director León Klimovsky and cinematographer Julio Ortas have delivered some nice visuals and Francesco De Masi has given the movie some nice music the whole thing lacks anything close to tension and without that it ends up feeling like it is just going through the motions. It literally feels like Klimovsky whilst probably brought this movie in on time and in budget had no real feeling for the story and could have done with someone alongside him suggesting how they could have given the movie some atmosphere.
In truth the storyline of a wrongly convicted man ending up on the run and spending years tracking down the real culprit is in itself pretty ordinary. But whilst this means it makes "Rattler Kid" an obvious movie which you can even take a good guess at how it plays out even if you are unfamiliar with the storyline there is still potential to do things right. But unfortunately the ordinariness of the movie is the most memorable thing about it and quite early on it beats down any expectations you might have with a stunt where a guard falls from a tower having been hit with an arrow, except the whole thing is wrong from the way he falls to the way the side of the tower comes apart.
What this all boils down to is that "Rattler Kid" ends up an okay but ultimately forgettable spaghetti western due to the director's lack of ability to bring out the atmosphere in the movie's story.
