Force of Vengeance

Vengeance (Italian: Joko – Invoca Dio... e muori, lit. 'Joko – Invoke God... and Die', German: Fünf blutige Stricke, lit. 'Five Bloody Ropes') is a 1968 spaghetti Western film co-written and directed by Antonio Margheriti. An Italian-West German co-production funded by American interests, it starred Richard Harrison, Claudio Camaso and Špela Rozin. Harrison plays Joko Barrett, an outlaw after the five men who double-crossed him and his crew during a robbery. He finds some distraction from the demise of his psychotic accomplice Mendoza (Camaso) in the company of a traveling woman (Rosin), but keeps pieces of the five ropes they used to quarter his young recruit Richie (Alberto Dell'Acqua), only handing one back to each culprit before killing him. The film has been noted for infusing Gothic influences into the Western, with Mario Bava biographer Leon Hunt describing it as the Western Bava might have made, had he ever attempted one. Today, it is often regarded as one of Margheriti's better efforts although most, including son Edoardo and genre historian Alex Cox, view it as a stepping stone towards his most accomplished Western, 1970's And God Said to Cain.