Montana , however, is in the grip of an escalating conflict between the farmers, who want to erect barbed wire fences around their land, and the ranchers, who want the right for their cattle to roam freely. Matters are especially tense in Miles City , the town where Regan ends up - mistaken, due to some decidedly unconvincing events, for the new sheriff (and equipped with essential diminutive, alcoholic, cackling deputy).

His workload is immediately heavy. The ranchers are led by a particularly unappealing individual called Bransbury (Alfonso Rojas), whose hissable credentials are cemented by the way in which he regularly twists the ends of his moustache in a caddish fashion. The farmers, suffering from his unpleasant habit of burning down their property, have formed a resistance group, led by. Trevor Norton. Trevor, despite appearances, believes in peace and seems to be an essentially good man; only willing to fight when pushed into having no options. He also has a pretty niece, Sally (Gloria Osuna), to whom Regan soon takes a shine.

Adding to the already overpopulated story is the fact that Bransbury has also hired a couple of killers, Buck (Jose Luis Lluch) and Sam (Joe Kamel), who were coincidentally members of the original Norton gang. They realise the new identity of their old boss and are determined to find out what exactly has happened to the money that they helped steal.

Despite a typically fine performance from the excellent Frank Wolff (probably the best of the American actors to work regularly in Spaghetti Cinema) and a characteristically moody turn from Anthony Steffen, A Few Dollars for Django remains a steadfastly moderate film. There's nothing specifically wrong; the script is pretty decent (if a bit overly 'American' in it's treatment of the hero figure), the photography reasonable and the music harmless. It's just that it never amounts to any more than the sum of its unarguably average parts. On a more positive note, I did enjoy it a lot more on a second viewing than I had done on my initial encounter a good few years back, so maybe it's a bit of a grower.

Although normally thought of as a Leon Klimovsky film, Enzo Castellari has claimed that this was his first attempt as a full director (he receives the more lowly 'Assistant Director' credit on most prints). This is an eminently believable claim. For one thing it isn't complete crap (as most of Klimovsky's works are) and for another it doesn't feature slow motion zombies / vampires / werewolves / chief - executives - of - privatised - companies drifting through mist with backcombed hair (as most of Klimovsky's works do). What would appear to have happened is that Castellari's name was dropped in order to please the Spanish co-producers (as happened with several films by his dad Marino Girolami - Production Supervisor here). It's not the most auspicious of debuts, but by no means something to be entirely ashamed of.