Any Gun Can Play (1967)

A gang steals $300,000 in gold from a train. One of the gang tries to steal it for himself, hiding it in a location only a medallion he wears will reveal. He gets killed by the bandit leader, the leader then gets caught by the Army.

At this point, the movie's intent to ape The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly becomes even more obvious than it already was in the opening scene, when the bounty hunter called "The Stranger" (that is how he introduces himself when asked) kills three guys with bounties, two of whom are obviously done up to look a lot like Angel Eyes and Blondie. The third guy doesn't look a thing like Tuco, foreshadowing how half-assed this piece of garbage is.

The movie starts an almost 3-card monty shuffling of the pieces. The bandit makes a deal with The Stranger and they split the medallion. But the bandit loses his half in his escape and so the Stranger throws in with the guy from the bank that got it. Then the bandit gets The Stranger's half away from him, but The Stranger steals the book of 18th Century titles from the records office while the banker and the bandit form an alliance. Around and around and around.

There's also an agent of the insurance company whose money was stolen. His role seems to be, after some conversation is finished, the camera pans over to reveal he was listening around the corner (or behind a curtain). Then he arches an eyebrow at us.

Rather than gunfights with long builds that are resolved in quick, sharp sequence, we get extended (and extremely boring) fistfights. The one in the bathhouse is interminable, as the only use of the setting is guys getting punched so they fall and break the cheap tubs. The goons are not any sort of credible threat, but they can all take more punches than Rocky Balboa so it takes forever to conclude, just to reveal, surprise! another double-cross and changing of allegiances.

Part of me thinks it was meant as a parody or spoof, especially given the climactic faceoff between all 3 of them and how it plays out. Except it doesn't fully commit to the bit, like say, Blazing Saddles or Airplane! It wants to mess with audience expectation and maybe laugh about it, but only sometimes. The rest of the time, we seem expected to take it seriously. Well, the best thing to do with shit is bury it, so that's what I recommend here.