A Pistol for Ringo & The Return of Ringo: Two Films by Duccio Tessari – Arrow Video (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Dates: Italy/Spain, 1965 (A Pistol for Ringo/The Return of Ringo)
Director: Duccio Tessari (Both Films)
Cast: Giuliano Gemma, Fernando Sancho, Lorella De Luca, Nieves Navarro, Antonio Casas (A Pistol for Ringo), Giuliano Gemma, Fernando Sancho, Lorella De Luca, Nieves Navarro, Antonio Casas, Manuel Muñiz, Mónica Sugranes, Montserrat Prous (The Return of Ringo)

Release Date: March 26th, 2018 (UK), April 24th, 2018 (USA)
Approximate Running Times: 99 Minutes 2 Seconds (A Pistol for Ringo), 96 Minutes 33 Seconds (The Return of Ringo)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC (Both Films)
Rating: 15 (UK), NR (USA)
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English (Both Films)
Subtitles: English, English SDH (Both Films)
Region Coding: Region A,B
Retail Price: £24.99 (UK), $39.95 (USA)

"In A Pistol For Ringo, the eponymous hero, played by Giuliano Gemma (Day of Anger, Tenebrae), infiltrates a ranch of Mexican bandits to save a beautiful hostage (Nieves Navarro, Death Walks on High Heels). In The Return Of Ringo, the gunslinger, now a veteran of war, disguises himself as a Mexican in order to take revenge on outlaws who have stolen his property and taken his wife." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.25/5 (A Pistol for Ringo), 4.5/5 (The Return of Ringo)

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfers, "A Pistol for Ringo and The Return of Ringo have been exclusively restored in 2K resolution for this release by Arrow Films and are presented in their original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with mono 1.0 sound.

All restoration work on these new restorations was carried out at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The original 35mm 2-perf Techniscope camera negatives were scanned in 2K resolution on a pin-registered Arriscan with a wetgate and graded on Digital Vision's Nucoda Film Master.

Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and light scratches were removed through a combination of digital restoration tools. Overall image instability and instances of density fluctuation were also improved."

A Pistol for Ringo and The Return of Ringo come on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 45.2 GB

Feature: 19.5 GB (A Pistol for Ringo), 19.2 GB (The Return of Ringo)

Though the sources used for these two transfers are in great shape, there is some source-related damage that is noticeable in A Pistol for Ringo’s opening sequence. Flesh tones look healthy, colors are nicely saturated, image clarity and compression are solid, black levels are strong throughout, and both transfers look organic.

Audio: 4.25/5 (DTS-HD Mono Italian - A Pistol for Ringo, DTS-HD Mono English - A Pistol for Ringo, DTS-HD Mono Italian - The Return of Ringo), 3.75/5 (DTS-HD Mono English - The Return of Ringo)

Each film comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian and a DTS-HD mono mix in English. Both of the tracks for A Pistol for Ringo and the Italian language track for The Return of Ringo sound clean, clear, and balanced. Range-wise, these three audio tracks do a great job handling ambient sounds and the scores. The English language track has some sibilance issues. That said, dialog comes through clearly on all of these audio tracks. Both films come with removable English subtitles for the Italian language tracks and removable English SDH for the English language tracks.

Extras:

Extras for this release include an image gallery (posters/lobby cards), English language theatrical trailer for A Pistol for Ringo (3 minutes 26 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), German  language theatrical trailer for A Pistol for Ringo (3 minutes 14 seconds, Dolby Digital mono German with removable English subtitles), English language theatrical trailer for The Return of Ringo (3 minutes 25 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), Italian language theatrical trailer for The Return of Ringo (3 minutes 26 seconds, Dolby Digital mono Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with film critic Tony Rayns titled Revisiting Ringo (37 minutes 56 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with actor Giuliano Gemma titled They Called Him Ringo (21 minutes 52 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an archival featurette with actress Lorella de Luca and camera operator Sergio D’Offizi titled A Western Greek Tragedy (26 minutes 32 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an audio commentary with Spaghetti Western experts C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke for A Pistol for Ringo, an audio commentary with Spaghetti Western experts C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke for The Return of Ringo, reversible cover art, and a 44-page booklet (first pressing only) with cast & crew information for A Pistol for Ringo and The Return of Ringo an essay titled Duel Roles; The Ringo Stars written by Howard Hughes, an essay titled Showdowns on Mainstreet: The Esplugas City Story written by Howard Hughes, an interview with Duccio Tessari titled The Myth and the Author, from Homer to Kurosawa and information about the restorations.

Summary:

Duccio Tessari directed A Pistol for Ringo and The Return of Ringo; his other notable films are The Bloodstained Butterfly, Death Occurred Last Night, and Puzzle. Other spaghetti westerns directed by Duccio Tessari are Alive or Preferably Dead and Don’t Turn the Other Cheek.

A Pistol for Ringo: A gang of Mexican bandits trapped on a ranch after a daring bank robbery threatens to kill hostages if their demands are not met. A loner drifter becomes the reluctant hero when he accepts the challenge of infiltrating the ranch in the guise of an outlaw on the run.

The Return of Ringo: Mexican bandits occupying the home of a Union soldier returning from the Civil War become his target when he exacts his vengeance against them for killing his family.

Though A Pistol for Ringo and The Return of Ringo share protagonists with the same name, they are only connected by name. A Pistol for Ringo’s narrative revolves around the all-too-familiar stranger who intervenes scenario, while The Return of Ringo is more of a straight-up revenge scenario.

Another area where A Pistol for Ringo and The Return of Ringo overlap is the casting of Giuliano Gemma (Day of Anger) in the role of Ringo. His portrayal of this character in these two films is like night and day. His performance in A Pistol for Ringo takes on a lighter tone than the more foreboding mood his character takes on in The Return of Ringo.

Besides Giuliano Gemma, there are several other cast members, like Lorella De Luca (Tough Guys), Nieves Navarro (Death Walks at Midnight), Antonio Casas (The Big Gundown), and Fernando Sancho (Hate for Hate). Three of these four portray characters that are similar to the characters they portrayed in the other film. With the only exception being Antonio Casas.

Spaghetti westerns are known for their opening sequences, and A Pistol for Ringo has an excellent shootout sequence that introduces the Ringo character. This sequence also does a great job setting the tone for the story that unfolds. And when it comes to action set pieces, this is another area where the best spaghetti western always excels. Some standout action set pieces in The Return of Ringo include a scene where the Mexican bandits catch Ringo snooping around, and they punish him by breaking the hand he shoots with. And a scene where Ringo ambushes the leader of the Mexican bandits on his wedding day at a church.

From a production standpoint, there is no area where A Pistol for Ringo and The Return of Ringo do not deliver. Though both premises cover well-traveled ground within the spaghetti western genre, the execution of said premises is very good. Also, when it comes to pacing, A Pistol for Ringo and The Return of Ringo do a superb job building moments towards their finales. Other strengths are striking visuals, which heightened the mood, and Ennio Morricone’s scores. That said, A Pistol for Ringo and The Return of Ringo are two solid examples of spaghetti westerns that fans of this genre will thoroughly enjoy.

A Pistol for Ringo & The Return of Ringo: Two Films by Duccio Tessari is an excellent release by Arrow Video that gives both films solid audio/video presentation and informative extras, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer