This is a pretty good Italian western for the undemanding viewer. The first half of the film is extremely intriguing and violent; there's a man buried in the ground up to his neck whose head gets trampled by horses in a most gruesome fashion, a rape of an innocent woman, and much time devoted to the mournful mother of the victims. She walks across the border to Texas to find her other son Fernando, who, along with his sidekick Paco, will avenge his siblings' deaths and kill the evil tyrant Don Enrique, who is responsible for these deaths (and many other atrocities). Fernando returns to find Don Enrique tossing loaves of bread to the poor, oppressed villagers in a most condescending fashion, and one of the tyrant's men even goes so far in his cruelty as to shoot at a baby. Fernando tries to enlist his friend Cipriano, but Cipriano is a notorious "bandito" now, so Fernando has second thoughts. But they team up and that's when things get complicated . . . TOO complicated for the film. From this point on, despite some great scenes and interesting gun battles and fistfights, the film just gets "too busy." Characters disappear; a Gatling gun comes out of nowhere; we see many gallows in Don Enrique's town but no real hangings, etc. The English-dubbed version of "Pray to God . . ." I saw may have been a cut one -- it had an 84 minute running time -- but the jumpy and somewhat illogical second half of the film disappoints a little after a very promising, somewhat stylish first half.
Robert Woods is quite good as Fernando and the supporting cast is effective too despite their sometimes confusingly-motivated characters. All in all, this isn't a top-notch Italian western, but fans of the genre will enjoy it despite its flaws.
Robert Woods is quite good as Fernando and the supporting cast is effective too despite their sometimes confusingly-motivated characters. All in all, this isn't a top-notch Italian western, but fans of the genre will enjoy it despite its flaws.
