Jason and Adam are two ciminal brothers with a penchant for jewel heists. Adam (Kinski) is the criminal mastermind, Jason (Gemma) the man of the action. When they're not busy robbing jeweller's shops, they're trying to comfort their alcoholic mother, once a star on Broadway, now unable to cope with the past. One day Jason is betrayed by his older brother, who also steals his girlfriend and cripples his right hand. Jason is left for dead but nursed back to health by a young doctor, who falls in love with him and asks him to forget about what happened in the past ... but the only thing Jason can think of, is his brother and his former girlfriend ...
With the emphasis on revenge, this movie plays very much like a spaghetti western, in 1968 still the dominant genre within the Italian genre industry. The film is indeed set in the West, but it's the contemporary West of the 1960's. Instead horses, we get cars. An exceptionally good cast and an experienced director make the best of an only so so script. There are a couple of well-executed, brutally violent (even sadistic) action scenes, but the film lacks a climax and is marred by a sudden, melodramatic finale.
In the style of the late sixties the cars are fast and the women beautiful. The doctor who nurses Gemma back to health, is portrayed by French actress Claudine Auger (Domino from the Bond movie Thunderball), while the woman who prefers Kinski to Gemma, is British actress Margaret Lee, who really dated Kinski at this time (the following year they would both be in 5 per l'Inferno/Five for Hell). The alcoholic mother is played by the then 50 year old former sex symbol Rita Hayworth, in one of her last screen performances. She seems to have trouble to cope with her own past, therefore some of her scenes are a bit painful to watch.
