Luis Prendes

China 9, Liberty 37 -- Condemned gunman Clayton is given a last minute reprieve on condition he murders rancher Matthew for a railway company.

China 9, Liberty 37 -- A volatile clash between a rancher refusing to sell his ramshackle spread to a railroad line, the gunman hired to kill him and the rancher's wife drawn to both men.

When in Rome, do as they cowboys do. The Sergio Leone 'Spaghetti Westerns' made with Clint Eastwood set off a stampede to create other Mediterranean-sourced sagebrushers - including the tale of lives at the crossroads of China 9, Liberty 37, directed by iconoclastic filmmaker Monte Hellman (Two-Lane Blacktop, The Shooting). Warren Oates, who brought an offbeat intensity to numerous roles throughout the 1970s, is top-billed in this volatile clash between a rancher (Oates) refusing to sell his ramshackle spread to a railroad line, the gunman (Fabio Testi) hired to kill him and the woman (Jenny Agutter) drawn to both men. Also appearing as a scheming author of sensationalized Western novels is Sam 'The Old Iguana' Peckinpah, who directed Oates in The Wild Bunch and other film and TV works.

China 9, Liberty 37 falls halfway between the Hollywood backlot-western school and the Italian "spaghetti" western genre, borrowing the best elements from both. Fabio Testi plays a gunfighter who is saved at the last moment from a hangman's noose. His liberators are a cartel of railroad men who want Testi to kill farmer (and former hired gun) Warren Oates, who has refused all entreaties to sell his land. As part of the scheme, Testi befriends Oates; on his own volition, he sleeps with Oates' wife Jenny Agutter. When the railroad barons insist that Testi go through with his mission, he refuses, and helps the farmer fight off the train moguls' hired thugs. Also known as Gunfire, China 9 Liberty 37 features a cameo by director Monte Hellman's role model, Sam Peckinpah, who plays a bombastic Ned Buntline-style novelist. And the significance of the title? It's the location of Warren Oates' spread: Nine miles from the town of China, 37 miles from the town of Liberty. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi