This is the last western Sergio Leone was involved in. Not only did he come up with the idea for the movie, he also produced and supervised it, and directed the the pre-credits sequence. But …
really? I think he’s a great character. This movie kinda sucks, but Hill is really a great screen presence. I, like many others of my generation, grew up with him and Spencer’s movies on Tv. they are part of my upbringing so to say
Thanks for the review, Scherp. Interesting to know about the background of the film, I have always assumed it’s meant to be just a sequel to My name is Nobody. Film has it’s moments but the director doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing and the result it’s frustratingly confusing. Usually I love all Kinski appearances in sw’s but I don’t really like him in this one. He looks so uncomfortable to be in the film.
[quote=“lordradish, post:2, topic:1036”]Although anything with Hill in it tends to make me want to stay away.[/quote]I wouldn’ stay away from such a classic, great films as God Gorgives I don’t, Viva Django, My name is Nobody, Ace High…
I am not a fan of these comedy SW’s one bit, i prefer the hard -edged violent ones & the obscure ones like Cutthroats Nine & And God Said To Cain for example.
I agree with Bill San Antonio re-Kinski’s involvement with this movie, this is one movie Klaus obviously did for the money.
I originally had a VHS copy called Nobody’s The Greatest and i thought it was the sequel until i got it.
I have the dvd of it now under it’s proper English translated title.
I posted the comment that I had viewed Cut Throats Nine recently and was not that much impressed. I also aired the view it seemed to be cut a fair bit.
Anyway watched something else shortly afterwards and realised that scenes I knew were in this film were being skipped. My bleeding DVD player was up the creek. Rewatching Cut Throats Nine today on a new DVD player and already makes much more sense and is far easier to follow when all of it is included…doh! Still do not see much point to the gore and not one of the films I have most enjoyed but much better than the last viewing.
And God Said To Cain was superb would not mind watching that again.
Not a good movie. I wonder how the result would have been if there had been no footage stolen. What I remember best is how Kinski literally rides out of the picture, never to return. I mean, you have Kinski on the set! Why not use him properly? Most ideas in this incoherent film don’t work and I remember it as being too long as well. I’ll give it a rewatch sometime, but not anytime soon I think.
I’ve seen this a couple of times and am in fact going to watch it again this Saturday with the family (my son is at the moment hooked on Spencer/Hill-movies, so we watch one from the collection each week). This aint a half-bad movie. Watched My Name Is Nobody last Saturday and that is for me a more solid movie but Genius is still fun watching. Certainly in the good half of the spaghetti westerns I’ve watched so far and would probably even make my Top 50.
Great music too, Morricone know what he is doing this time out too.
scherpschutter mentioned it above really. A lot of the footage for the finished film was stolen so had to to glue another finished film together from secondary footage and workprints and what not giving the movie a very uneven look. Some shots look fantastic and others are very grainy.
Frayling says that the complete original negative was stolen, so that they had to recut the film out of alternative takes.
A funny thing is, that even with Leone again producing and directing (only one scene, the opening sequence), Un genio was, in contrast to My Name Is Nobody, never suspected to be (more or less) another Leone movie.
It was always a great (and unexpected) disappointment for me to watch this film, and I’ve tried it 3 times to see anything interesting in Un genio, but was always so bored that I was happy when it was over again.
You can’t mean that. That leaves no room for the really bad spaghettis How about Sartana in the Valley of Death or On The Third Day Arrived The Crow (two of my baddies), do they get like -7 / 10 ?
German Nobody/Genius DVD box set has a documentary called “Leone’s Last Western” which says that the only negatives stolen were from scenes near the end, so they had to use 2nd camera material which has worse quality, film is more grainy etc.
I agree with Bad Lieutenant that Genius is very incoherent. Storyline is very confusing and starts only after 50 minutes or so, before that it’s just bunch of scenes that do not really fit together, characters introduced to viewer (Like Kinski’s Doc or the priest) disappear after only few scenes and so forth. “Funny” voices given to characters in dubbing process are not funny and Miou Miou is just irritating. Morricone’s score doesn’t work at all - the song built around Beethoven’s Für Elise (already mentioned by scherp in his review) is in my oppinion like a parody of Big Gundown’s soundtrack gone horribly wrong. When Genius is good it’s just great, better than Nobody, but when it’s bad it’s allmost unwatchable. I have seen Genius half dozen times and I still don’t know if I like it or not, great scenes during second half almost make me forgive all the irritating/confusing ones. Maybe I should watch it once more and try to make up my mind.
I remeber reading that Leone was quick distance himself from the film after it got bad reviews. Before that he had no problems with Damiani having his own style.
I wouldn' stay away from such a classic, great films as God Gorgives I don't, Viva Django, My name is Nobody, Ace High...
You’re right, I forgot about those. I just tend to have a kneejerk reaction to Hill that says “bad comedy”. He could have easily gone the serious route and stayed with it and been quite successful, no doubt.
How about Sartana in the Valley of Death or On The Third Day Arrived The Crow (two of my baddies), do they get like -7 / 10 ?