Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead

Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead
Italian theatrical poster
Directed by	Giuseppe Vari
Written by	Adriano Bolzoni
Starring	Klaus Kinski Dante Maggio
Music by	Mario Migliardi
Cinematography	Franco Villa
Edited by	Giuseppe Vari
Production company	Castor Film
Release date	31 August 1971 (1971-08-31)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	Italy
Language	Italian

Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead (Italian: Prega il Morto e Ammazza il Vivo) is the original release title of the 1971 Italian dramatic spaghetti western film directed by Giuseppe Vari, and starring Klaus Kinski and Dante Maggio. With its many international releases, the film had additional English titles of Pray to Kill and Return Alive, To Kill a Jackal, and Renegade Gun. The script by Adriano Bolzoni is inspired by American noir-crime films of the 1930s and 1940s, and Kinski's entry into the scene reprises Edward G. Robinson's presence in Key Largo (1948).

After having robbed a bank for $100,000 in gold bars, Dan Hogan (Klaus Kinski) and his gang meet up at the Jackal's Ranch stagecoach way station near the Mexican border, where Hogan's girlfriend Eleanor (Victoria Zinny) is to surreptitiously bring their stolen gold to them. While they await her arrival, they encounter John Webb (Paolo Casella), a stranger who had shot the man who was to be their guide and who himself wants half their gold in exchange for leading them into Mexico. Hogan agrees and they depart into the desert with the law close behind. In fact, Webb plots to destroy the gang as Hogan, during his earlier days with the Ku Klux Klan, had killed Webb's father.

The film was shot simultaneously with The Last Traitor (Il tredicesimo è sempre Giuda), another spaghetti western that was also directed and written by Vari and Bolzoni.

First released theatrically as Prega il morto e ammazza il vivo in Italy on 31 August 1971, the film was distributed internationally under different titles. In West Germany it was released as Der Mörder des Klans. In its 24 May 1972 French release, it was Priez les morts, tuez les vivants. On release on cable television in Brazil it was titled Mata o Vivo E Reza Pelo Morto. When first released in the United States, it was as Pray to Kill and Return Alive, while its international release title in English was Renegade Gun. Subsequently it was also released as To Kill a Jackal and then Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead. It was released in Finland as Rukous kuolleiden puolesta. In its 19 September 1973 release in Sweden it was as Skjut de levande - bed för de döda, while in Portugal on 28 July 1975, it was as Reza Pelo Morto e Mata o Vivo, and its latest US release was as To Kill a Jackal.