During the making of the Milieu Trilogy (Milan Calibre 9, Man Hunt and The Boss), Fernando di Leo had already prepared, together with Enzo Dell’Aquila, a script in which the noir register was combined with the representation of the gangster world’s lighter and brilliant universe. From this the script for Loaded Gun was elaborated, a sort of humorous remake of A Fistful of Dollars in a gangster style which reproposed the narrative base structure: two gangs at war with each other where a third element intervenes in order to gain profit. What interested di Leo most was the third element represented by a female figure (the role went to Ursula Andress), characterized in the same way in which male characters usually were - in other words capable of boldly acting like a man in the various events which she experienced in her sexual and sentimental life.
A character who was completely free and emancipated, way ahead of her time compared to the social stereotypes and the models fashionable in films at that time. In the script this was clear and obvious whereas on the screen certain aspects had to be softened in order to avoid the risk of excessively shocking the audience.
The battling aspect of Andress which on an exterior level was translated in her ability to fight, fall, shoot and run like an expert stuntman and also her “male” determination for hatching plots and carrying them out with the right dose of cold-bloodedness and cynicism while sacrificing her freedom in the erotic parts which in the original script portrayed her as being happily bisexual.
Loaded Gun, shot in Naples, represented the first chapter of an ideal noir-brilliant trilogy which di Leo went on to complete with Nick the Sting (1975) and Rulers of the City (1976). Also stars Woody Strode, Marc Porel, Isabella Biagini, Lino Banfi & Aldo Giuffrè
Starring Woody Strode and Ursuala Andress
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