A Western

Spaghetti western with Garner atypically cast as a wanted bad guy who heads a vicious gang out to steal gold held in a top prison. It's always a pleasure to watch the great James Garner, however this is stretching things to the limit. He is miscast in this ridiculous western which is just about bearable until about three quarters of the way through when the plot takes a series of bizarre turns starting with a long and daft plot devise montage section looking at the dangers of gambling and then hues downhill from there. Utterly stupid.

Two kinds of movies we like are (1) westerns, and (2) movies from 30 or 40 years ago. We ought to have liked A Man Called Sledge; BUT..... BUT... this picture is disagreeable, annoying and stupid from start to finish. Since there is nobody in the story (good or bad) to warm up to, there is nobody to motivate the necessary suspense to keep the viewer interested. No camaraderie among the guys trying to steal the gold, and no camaraderie among those trying to protect it. Sledge has a pretty girl friend, but there's no reason why she slobbers all over the guy or why she wants to be in the same room with this no-account pig. The film also suffers from an intrusive and gawdawful musical score, and from extremely bad writing and direction by Vic Morrow. Of the last 30 older movies rented from Netflix or Video Vault, this was the rock bottom, the only true dud in the bunch.

A MAN CALLED SLEDGE is a US/Italian western featuring a starring role for TV actor James Garner. It very much feels like a US rather than a spaghetti western, and it has a notably dark and nihilistic streak that makes it worth a look for those who think they've seen everything the genre has to offer. Garner plays the usual sharpshooter who teams up with a few ne'er-do-wells (including character actors Claude Akins and Dennis Weaver) in order to rob a gold shipment that's heavily guarded. The most entertaining part of the movie is the midsection which sees Garner going undercover in prison in order to effect a breakout. There are some memorably kooky character creations here and oodles of suspense. The film gets grimmer and grimmer as it goes on, building to a climactic shoot-out which works well and fits the subject matter like a glove.

If nothing else can be said about it, A Man Called Sledge is a slightly above average spaghetti western. It boasts James Garner,playing against type, as Luther Sledge, a brutal robber who gets involved in a plot to steal a shipment of gold stored in a prison.It's a departure from his usual easygoing roles and he gets good support from TV western stars Dennis Weaver,Claude Akins,and Wayde Preston. It's also directed by veteran TV actor, Vic Morrow. It's okay,overall, and worth a look the next time it comes on TV.