“Lacks the rigors of Hellman’s other brilliant westerns, sharing the brilliance only in a tight minimalist narrative and in a created humorous absurdist world.

**_Jenny Agutter as a bored wife on a remote ranch in west Texas, 1885_** The original Italian title translates to “Love, Lead, and Fury,” which, needless to say, is an all-around superior name. For video release in the USA, it was called “Gunfire”; in Spain it was named after the protagonist, “Clayton Drumm.” The official title, “China 9, Liberty 37,” makes it sound like a high school football score between two east Texas towns. Speaking of which, there are two such towns northeast of Houston with just such a mileage sign between them, as shown in the opening of the movie, but the location in the film is obviously supposed to be west Texas since the landscapes of southeastern Spain don’t look anything like southeastern Texas. The flick was one of the last Spaghetti Westerns, which were produced for fifteen years from 1964-1978. Of course, like a lot of Spaghettis, this isn’t purely an Italian-Spanish production. For instance, director Monte Hellman, cowriter Jerry Harvey and star Warren Oates were all Americans, and Agutter is English, not to mention American Sam Peckinpah, who has a curious acting cameo. It shoots for eccentricity to distinguish it or try something new, similar to other Westerns from the late 70s: “The Missouri Breaks,” “The Shadow of Chikara,” “Goin' South” and “Eagle’s Wing.” Unlike those, it throws in quite a bit of (tame) nudity, mostly involving Agutt…

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