James Coburn followed up his role in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dynamite with this less artful but equally watchable spaghetti western. The central conceit pretty much follows that of The Dirty Dozen, with Coburn's disgraced Union officer assembling a ragtag band of desperadoes to join him on a death-or-glory mission. His one ally among the "soiled seven" under his command is that genre regular, the bear-like Bud Spencer, who is given more screen time than the rather wasted, second-billed Telly Savalas. Still, there's plenty of action to be had as Coburn and his gang attempt to retake the fort that he surrendered under duress, while the final confrontation between the two American stars is surprising for its sheer poignancy - especially given the machine-gun bloodbath that precedes it.

A dishonored Union Army officer leads a group of convicts to retake Fort Holman from the Confederate Army.