Tepepa

1969 film

13 April 1969 (1969-04-13)

Running time

132 minutesCountriesItaly
SpainLanguagesItalian
Spanish
English

Tepepa, also known as Blood and Guns, is an Italian epic Zapata Western film starring Tomas Milian and Orson Welles. The film was directed by Giulio Petroni. It was co-produced with Spain, where the film was released with the title Tepepa... Viva La Revolución.^[1]

Plot

The government of "comrade" Madero does not satisfy the peon Tepepa, who continues his guerilla battle as a revolutionary, against the government troops together with a group of faithful fighters. Tepepa is feeling mocked by the ex-revolutionary Madero, who is now head of state. Tepepa finds himself several times facing the fearsome chief of police, Colonel Cascorro, and is constantly persecuted by an English doctor, Henry Price, eager to avenge a girl from a rich family, with whom the doctor was in love, and whom Tepepa had raped, causing her to suicide.

During the last fight Cascorro finally manages to wound Tepepa, who has escaped him several times, but in the decisive battle Cascarro is killed by the revolutionary. Meanwhile, the doctor, who despite his hatred for Tepepa had remained at the side of the revolutionaries, manages to take revenge on the peon, killing him with a scalpel immediately after extracting the bullet from his wound.

The Doctor then packs his horse to leave, only to be shot by Paquito.

The death of Tepepa, however, does not mark the end of the revolution, and others will continue the battle in his place.

Cast

Tomas Milian as Jesus Maria "Tepepa" Moran
Orson Welles as Colonel Cascorro
John Steiner as Doctor Henry Price
José Torres as Pedro "El Piojo" Pereira
Luciano Casamonica as Paquito
Annamaria Lanciaprima as Maria Virgen Escalande
George Wang as Mr. Chu
Paco Sanz as President Madero
Clara Colosimo as Sergeant's Wife
Giancarlo Badessi as Sergeant
Rafael Hernández as Pedro
Paloma Cela as Consuelo
Ángel Ortiz as Urelio

Production

The film stars Tomas Milian and Orson Welles in opposing roles. Director Giulio Petroni expressed disappointment with Welles. Petroni claimed that the atmosphere on the set was "terrible," and that Welles called Milian (who idolized Welles) a "dirty Cuban".^[2]

References

^ Roberto Poppi, Mario Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film. Gremese Editore, 2007. ISBN 8884405033.
^ Maria Pia Fusco (5 August 2007). "Quelle sfide sul set tra Orson Welles e Tomas Milian" (in Italian). La Repubblica. Retrieved 22 November 2011.