Finger on the Trigger (also known as Blue Lightning) is a 1965 Western film directed by Sidney W. Pink and starring Rory Calhoun. It was distributed on VHS by Troma Entertainment.
Contents
Premise
At the end of the American Civil War, a group of discharged federal troops travel west to California to settle the free land offered by the US Government to honorably discharged veterans. These veterans clash with a band of renegade Confederates in a deserted town in Oklahoma.
Production
The film was financed off the back of the success of Lex Barker's Westerns. The script was written in 12 days. It was an Italian-Spanish co production.
The film was meant to star Victor Mature but he pulled out. Pink later sued Mature. He was paid $25,000. According to Sidney Pink, Mature went on a drunken bender when the actor arrived in London and missed the first three weeks of filming. Mature turned up and demanded to be paid his entire fee and the filmmakers refused. Mature was replaced with Rory Calhoun who shot all his scenes in eight days.
Reception
Pink said the film was a "smash hit in Europe and did extremely well in the states".