Okay, I badly want to see this film. What are the best DVDs to buy?
Watched the French SNC / Groupe M6 DVD, there seems to be a couple of audio bugs and I would have preferred the credits to be in Italian (ok, that’s nitpicking), but otherwise it’s a great DVD. The film itself, well, it truly deserves its reputation, too bad Margheriti only made two western like this. Also, there was talk about this version having a missing scene and I’m glad that it is, because even though it’s not a bad scene, the film works better without it.
Quite liked the theme song too!
I just watched this movie for the first time a couple days ago, really enjoyed it. To bad for you Hoover, I got the last copy off Cine City, sucker. The theme song is great.
Damn you Spuff!! Hurry up and take some vacation time and bring me this elusive beast known as Cain!
And God Said to Can… (Margheriti/70)
And God Said to Cain… (1969), a Saghetti Western directed by Antonio Margheriti, stars Klaus Kinski, Peter Carsten and Marcella Michelangeli and is the recipient of a startling, innovative script by Antonio Margheriti and Giovanni Addessi that has a hero who prefigures Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter by being a ghost (or is he?). Even in the transcending, transgressive, aggressive genre splicing of the world of Spagheetti Westerns, this is surprising stuff.
The plot has all the hallmarks of tightly-knit Greek tragedy: it takes place in a twenty-four hour time frame as Guy Hamilton (Kinski) mysteriously seeks revenge against the rich, powerful Acombar family.
Crows shriek out whenever Hamilton’s name is spoken and an ominous storms broods over the landscape; this is not so much a Western as a Horror Western. The explanation, the motivation for Hamilton’s insane night of bloodletting is cursory, almost as if the filmmakers felt obliged to try to explain the unexplainable. For the film to succeed then, it has to rest on the strength of Kinski’s performance, which is marvelous, a million miles away from his phone-in cameo role in the previous year “If You Meet Sartana, Pray for Your Death”. The rest of the cast are admirable and the cinematography by Luciano Trasatti and Riccardo Pallottini and direction are both superb.
A Gothic Horror Western that is utterly unexpected, this is diamond that should be displayed much more than it is.
Well said JW.
Thanks, I was impressed by this a lot more than the flawed, if interesting, Django the Bastard which goes along the same lines.
This is a top tier SW for me; the combination of Western and horror elements works well. I’ve got the Franco Cleef disc but keep meaning to buy the French DVD.
I’ve recently saw this and caught something I hadn’t before due to the muffled English dub.
In the least menacing scene in the film Gary explains that he looks forward to a “long rest and lots of sex”.
Please correct me if I’m wrong but that is what I heard this time around. If he does indeed say those words it certainly adds more power to the scene in which his treacherous wife tempts him with her thatch only to be rejected with a slap to the face.
Is there similar dialogue in any of the other languages?
I’m glad that line isn’t in the copy that I have.
Not in the German version, I think
In what scène is he supposed to say this? The stagecoach scene?
It’s not in the version I have either (which is a crappy fullscreen copy), but I’m glad. It sounds too modern and achronistic for that period. But then, when has that ever stopped something being done in a Spaghetti Western?
As far as I remember, not in the Italian version.
Maybe YourPallbearer refers to the words concerning forced labour that Gary says in his first conversation with Jonathan (Giuliano Raffaelli): “Una lunga vacanza con sole e serpi”…
Definitely a worthwhile purchase as it is in the correct aspect ratio as well.
It was mentioned earlier in this thread that it seems to be missing a scene. It’s a very nicely shot one, but basically gives the plot away which possibly explains why it was excluded later.
I also prefer the exclusion of the scene, more mysterious that way.
Edit : lol, I’ve already said so when I first posted about the film and it’s on the same freaking page. Silly me.
The Italian DVD is uncut and with original credits + correct aspect ratio.
Thats good to know. Hope a fandub of the Italian disc comes along then.
The scene in which Gary meets up with the spectacled actor for the first time in the saloon. I just rewatched the scene and I’m certain the line in English is “A long rest, and lots of sex”.
This would make sense as he’s been imprisoned for a decade, making the scene where he rejects the temptation all the more powerful.
They did have sex in them days ya know 
If you’re referring to the crassness of the line then I understand. The Spaghettis were never big on this kind of dialogue even though, historically, those folks did curse like sailors.