Black man returns from the civil war and heads back to his home town to a world full of hatred. Interesting race issues here, especially as regards the main star and his relationship with an Indian woman. Solid supporting cast, especially from the Carradines. Opening credits section reminded me of a Spaghetti western. First time viewed in widescreen which helps the film alot. But what strikes you the most in this one is the hate in the film, and this is what envolves you in this one.
Plot:
A masked rider and two companions travel thru old Mexico fighting supernatural creatures such as a werewolf, A vampire and a headless Horseman.
Phantom’s Review: Definitely falling into the catagory of ‘Weird Western’ this is one of the most hysterically bad movies I have ever seen. God awful FX, terrible acting, a toatally inept hero, and i swear the masked hero must have changed actors in the second part of the film, because he looks taller and thinner. Wonderfully bad Mexican made film. Perfect for a Bad Movie Night.
I got back into spags a few months ago, after a year or so in the wilderness, and kept thinking I’d add a few comments to these re-visits on the appropriate threads. What I then discovered was that I’d already dumped some twaddle about them (which I’d forgotten about) and upon a re-read realised that I hadn’t changed my mind much more than a jot.
But, last night I rewatched Chapaqua’s Gold … and, not only could I not remember much about it from the first viewing, I was obviously too inebriated at the time to add any alco-babble to it’s appropriate thread. This morning I realised I’d jotted a few notes down.
As there’s very little about this film on its dedicated thread, and nothing from my pen, I’ll go and lubricate my prattle-valve in a few mins. and stick the resulting nonsense there. Til later…
Know what you mean re the re visits and comments being much the same, but sometimes I have missed something first time round. So yes stick it on the films thread for sure
As the story goes it was actually John Ford who discovered Wayne, and recommended him to Walsh as lead for The Big Trail.
I’m not exactly sure if TBT was a total flop, but it was an expensive film, and probably lost a lot of money. For Wayne it wasn’t a real breakthrough, but it made him into a lead for cheap serial westerns, with which he spent the 30s until Ford came back to him with the lead for Stagecoach (1939).
[quote=“Stanton, post:11772, topic:141”]As the story goes it was actually John Ford who discovered Wayne, and recommended him to Walsh as lead for The Big Trail.
I’m not exactly sure if TBT was a total flop, but it was an expensive film, and probably lost a lot of money. For Wayne it wasn’t a real breakthrough, but it made him into a lead for cheap serial westerns, with which he spent the 30s until Ford came back to him with the lead for Stagecoach (1939).[/quote]
Some say Ford discovered him, others (for instance Gary Wills, Wayne’s biographer, and Paul Simpson, the author of the Rough Guide to westerns) say Walsh did. Walsh gave him his first leading role, so it seems to me he deserves more credit. It’s more or less the Eastwood-Leone story: who did what and who had this or that idea?
I remember reading that The Big Trail was not a real failure, but suffered from the fact that few cinemas were able to show the widescreen version. I’ll check things tonight, it’s probably all in Wills’s book.
Yes, but there was also a fullscreen version, which was shot parallel to the widescreen version, and parallel to the 3 language versions. The German version (with German leads) was probably a big success.
Wayne had already a few very small roles in 3 or 4 Ford films, and also made some stunt work in these. I only know the story of Ford introducing him to Walsh.
The story goes that Wayne was doing some cleaning in the set of a film (while still a unversity student), when he was discovered by Ford he then put him in some small parts (uncredited ones).
Just watched Meek’s Cutoff (Reichardt, 2010). Incredibly sparse loose account of hired guide Stephen Meek’s attempt to wing it across the Cascade mountains of Oregon in 1845 (I think that in reality, Meek took over 1000 emigrants along his route; here, the party is boiled down to three families). Unbelievably slow-moving, but tense stuff. Wagon trails are usually the jolly montage in the middle of a story which takes place at both point A, and then point B. This film looks unblinkingly and unromantically at how f*cking tough these trails must have been, particularly when there’s a high chance that your guide doesn’t actually know where he’s going. Michelle Williams (Shutter Island) is the focal point and she excels in the role. Meek’s Cutoff is not the easy, fun watch that many westerns are but it’s well worth at least one look.
Watched my first “new” (ie “as yet unseen by me”) Spag in roughly five months today, with A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die (Valerii, 1972). “Slow” is probably the wrong word, because it’s tense when it needs to be and the story certainly moves along, but it seems to manage this without an awful lot happening, an explosive finale notwithstanding. I also liked how this spag seemed to get the comedy notes just right without turning the whole thing into a bloody parody. And I feared that Telly Savalas might look somewhat distracting in the middle of a Spag but he was very good indeed, as were the rest of the principals.
Today, I wallowed in the modern western revival with Slow West (Maclean, 2015). A stunningly good-looking picture, its deliberate pace is frequently punctuated with bursts of violence, and for a film so downbeat on the face of it, a surprising amount of the violence is doled out with lashings of black humour. Michael Fassbender is as reliably strong as ever, and it was nice to see Sandor “The Hound” Clegane from Game of Thrones make an appearance.
Slow West is indeed a pretty good western with some 70s style, without looking old fashioned. It begins more like one of these “realistic” westerns, but becomes more genre bound towards the end. At the end the dream becomes true, but only after the paradise was destroyed. 8/10
Zabalza: Bullets over Dallas[url]http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Plomo_sobre_Dallas[/url]
-Spanish western from 1970 which looks and feels like a film from 64-65. Not much action or violence but lots of talking. The title sequence was funny and well done as the hero enters the town which seems to be completely abandoned and tries in vain to get service in saloon and hotel. Apart from this scene it’s a forgettable film. Claudia Gravy has the female lead role but her role is really insignificant.
