Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

The Return of Ringo Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 17, 2018

Note: This film is available as part of A Pistol for Ringo & The Return of Ringo: Two Films by Duccio Tessari.

Doing some background research for our relatively recent Trinity Twin Pack Blu-ray review led me to the data point that well over six hundred so called “European westerns” were made between 1960 and 1978, and so-called “Spaghetti western experts” C. Courtney Joyner and Henry C. Parke mention at least a few of them in their appealing commentaries on this new “twin pack” combining two (but not the only two) Ringo films. In fact, Joyner and Parke kind of joke about how various entries in the “Euro western” genre were branded with various character names, even when those particular characters were nowhere to be found in the films (one of the odder comments the pair makes is how one of the Ringo film was actually rebranded as a Sartana outing for one foreign market). And while both of these films obviously feature the name Ringo in their titles and many of the same cast and crew (including star Montgomery Wood), these two supposedly linked entries actually have next to nothing in common in terms of either plot or character. A Pistol for Ringo would seem to be establishing a new Euro western hero somewhere in between the laconic tendencies of The Man with No Name and the somewhat more verbose Trinity, but The Return of Ringo eschews much of the first film as it attempts to rework Homer’s immortal Odyssey in a Civil War setting, in an approach that kind of strangely presages the much later Cold Mountain.

Despite having much the same cast, the same director, and the same ostensible title hero, as both Tony Rayns and the commentators on this set discuss in some detail, The Return of Ringo is the return of somebody, though you’d be hard pressed to draw a through line to the exact character portrayed by Montgomery Wood in the first film. Here he’s a returning Civil War captain named Brown, who arrives kind of incognito in a town, where he finds a bunch of Mexican bad guys headed by Esteban Fuentes (Fernando Sancho) in charge. Even worse, it looks like Brown has been pronounced dead due to some underhanded shenanigans, and that Brown’s wife Helen (Hally Hammond) may be about to marry him.

That inherent sadness might make some assume The Return of Ringo is a relentlessly dour affair, and while there is drama aplenty, the film also indulges in some perhaps questionable comedy as well, especially courtesy of a supporting character enamored of flowers. Some of the plot mechanics of this so-called “return” don’t exactly resonate with impeccable emotional accuracy (would no one have recognized Brown, even with his minimal disguises?), but there’s some appealing content here as Brown attempts to reconnect with a family that may no longer be available to him.

The Return of Ringo Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Return of Ringo is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the restorations of both films in this set:

A Pistol for Ringo and The Return of Ringo have been exclusively restored in 2K resolution for this release by Arrow Films and are presented in their original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with mono 1.0 sound.

All restoration work on these new restorations was carried out at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The original 35mm 2-perf Techniscope camera negatives were scanned in 2K resolution on a pin-registered Arriscan with a wetgate and graded on Digital Vision's Nucoda Film Master.

Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and light scratches were removed through a combination of digital restoration tools. Overall image instability and instances of density fluctuation were also improved.

The film's original Italian and English mono soundtracks were transferred from the original 35mm optical sound negatives using the Sondor OMA/E with COSP Xi2K technology to minimise optical noise and produce the best quality results possible. The audio such will appear slightly loose against the picture, due to the fact that the soundtracks were recorded entirely in post-production.

This transfer exhibits almost all of the same positives as A Pistol for Ringo, though there are a couple of very minor differences. What looks like a white hair mars the opening credits sequence in the upper left part of the frame, and, later, a few errant blemishes and minor scratches and white flecks have made it through the restoration guantlet. As with its sibling, the grainfield encounters just a couple of moments of coarseness along the way (typically in bright outdoor scenes where it tends to swarm a bit against deep blue skies), but generally looks great. The palette is once again beautifully lush and saturated, and detail levels remain high throughout the presentation, especially since this film offers a glut of extreme close-ups. If the first film's palette tended to be skewed slightly toward the yellow side of things, this film has a tendency to dwell more in an orange-brown range, especially with regard to flesh tones.

The Return of Ringo Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Once again DTS-HD Master Audio Mono tracks are available in Italian and English. The English track simply sounds a bit too hot to my ears, resulting in some minor but noticeable distortion in the midrange in both dialogue and (perhaps more unfortunately) score (by Ennio Morricone once again). The Italian track doesn't quite have the amplitude of the English track, but sounds relatively more natural and appealing. Synch isn't just "slightly loose", per that description above, it's almost comically loose at times on both the Italian and English versions of the film.

The Return of Ringo Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This is a one disc release, and so both films share supplements:

• Revisiting Ringo (1080p; 37:56) features Tony Rayns, who has been a welcome addition to several recent Arrow releases. Rayns gets into the history of the films and discusses how they're actually not all that related when you get right down to it.


• They Called Him Ringo (1080p; 21:52) is an archival piece with Giuliano Gemma (also known as Montgomery Wood) and Lorella De Luca.


• A Greek Western Tragedy (1080p; 26:32) is another archival piece, this time with Lorella De Luca and camera operator Sergio D'Offizi.


• Audio Commentaries on both films are by "Spaghetti western experts" C. Courtney Joyner and Henry C. Parke.


• Original Trailers

  A Pistol for Ringo Trailer

  U.S. Trailer (1080p; 3:26)

  German Trailer (1080p; 3:14)

  The Return of Ringo Trailer

  U.S. Trailer (1080p; 3:25)

  Italian Trailer (1080p; 3:26)

• Image Gallery (1080p) is culled from the Mike Siegal Archive.

As usual, Arrow has also supplied a nicely appointed insert booklet.

The Return of Ringo Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fans of Cold Mountain may want to check out The Return of Ringo, since this earlier film paints with some of the same broad brushstrokes. That said, this follow up (in name only, literally as it turns out) doesn't quite muster the emotional content it's aiming for, though it's generally interesting and fun. Arrow has provided a release with generally solid technical merits and enjoyable supplements. Recommended.