A Pistol for Ringo

A Pistol for Ringo is a 1965 spaghetti western that takes place during the Christmas season. I love a non-traditional Christmas movie, and this is about as non-traditional as you can get. Many a "Merry Christmas" is called out across the dirt street, and there's talk of presents and a Christmas tree, and someone even says that the kindness of Christmas should last all year instead of being reserved for a single day of the year. Delightful!

Spaghetti-Western.net calls it an "essential spaghetti western from the early days of the genre" and says,

A Pistol for Ringo was one of the most successful films of the early stream of spaghetti westerns. Director Duccio Tessari had been one of the co-authors of Leone's first western, A Fistful of Dollars and Ringo is clearly modeled after the Man with No Name. But he's not a clone. Just look at the way the character is introduced: he's playing with a group of children when he is addressed by four guys. Before we know what is going on, he shoots all four of them. The wonderful scene says: I'm a cheerful fellow, but don't mess with me! A Pistol for Ringo was meant to be a lighter, less cynical version of the western Italian style, with Giuliano Gemma playing a character who is, so to speak, No Name’s more fashionable brother: instead of a poncho, he's wearing a suit (modeled after the clothes Gary Cooper was wearing in High Noon). His knickname would forever be Angel Face.

A Fistful of Pasta recommends it, calling it "a good, solid, entertaining film" and says, "It was well-paced, the acting wasn't over the top as it can often be in these films, the English overdub was well-recorded and ably acted, and there was a good Morricone score. Gemma's got some good screen prescence as always, and it works well in this one."