Awkward Hands / Manos torpes (Rafael Romero Marchent, 1970)

[runner]

@Phil_H

RF’s decscription above tells you all you need to know really but I will add that it is one of the strangest mixtures I’ve ever seen in a spaghetti western. Genuinely tragic storyline surrounding Dorothy (Pilar Velazquez), bizarre middle section with the Chinese gun master plus an interesting and quite sudden twist at the end.
The problem with the film is its unevenness. Good acting, interesting storyline and pure whackiness is offset by a poor score, cheesy opening scenes and unexplained shift of character in the lead man.

I have now accepted the lighthearted beginning scenes and the music there, knowing that better times will come in both respects. The changes in mood have even become more appealing to me and overall the different music themes are very effective and mostly likeable for their on sake.
Peter Lee Lawrence’s character is never part of a comedy so I find his childish style in the beginning just is a charming or at least acceptable contrast to his later tougher appearance with revenge in his mind.
The transition phase at the Chinese guru’s (secret?) forrest place has a nice feeling with the special back ground music. Maybe it not is realistic but some unrealistic ideas and themes could be part of many good SWs.
More difficult to understand are the motifs of the character in black played by Alberto De Mendoza…
Finally just the appearance of the beautiful Pilar Velázquez and her charisma is hard to resist

For me the entertaining value still renders a 7/10 but now with increased rank 27 after some 5 watchings.

25 Django (Sergio Corbucci)
26 The Dirty Outlaws / El desperado (Franco Rossetti) music Gianni Ferrio
27 Awkward Hands (Rafael Romero Marchent) music Antón García Abril
28 Johnny Hamlet/The Wild And The Dirty (Enzo G. Castellari)
29 Death Sentence (Mario Lanfranchi)

[LankyGringo (Brian)]

While returning home from a couple of weeks up North visiting the wife’s family and attending her cousin’s wedding, we stopped at a truck stop/convenience store in LeRoy, Illinois. While she took our dog Elsie to do her business, I filled up the car with gas and then headed inside to do my business and grab a couple of rotisserie hot dogs. As I approached the door, there was a gentleman approaching his car who stopped dead in his tracks and began staring at my t-shirt which featured an Italian movie poster of Any Gun Can Play. I continued inside, completed my tasks, then headed back outside to find the man waiting for me. After commenting on how much he liked my shirt, he told me that he was himself a fan of spaghetti westerns which led to a very nice conversation - up until the time he told me how much he disliked the films of PLL. This was followed by a stunned silence on my part as I debated on whether to punch him in the face and take off running toward the car where my wife was patiently waiting or to call the police and report an insane man driving a blue Toyota Rav 4 with Ontario, Canada license plates. Just as I was about to slowly start edging away from the man, he added, “Except for Awkward Hands.”

After this, I came to believe him to be only mildly deranged and stayed a safe distance away to have a discussion with him about the film as my wife began to glare at me from the passenger seat of our vehicle.

This conversation, in turn, prompted me to give the film a re-watch this morning and I have to say, as much as I enjoyed the film before, I enjoyed even more this time around. Sure, it is a hodgepodge to say the least, but I think that is part of what makes the film work so well. In many ways, it is a perfect transition film from the 60s to the even more far out movies of the 70s. A pacifist who becomes a gunfighter after being mentored by a Chinese wise man? That is good stuff! It has moved up dramatically on my list of PLL films and it is probably R.R. Marchent’s best work in the genre IMHO.

On a side note, if a Canadian with an intense dislike of PLL suddenly shows up on here…well…that is probably my fault.

[Toscano]

Great little anecdote, Brian…

Now trying to imagine your response if he had said he didn’t like Clint Eastwood’s ‘Dollars Trilogy’!

[LankyGringo (Brian)]

[Phil_H]

@Toscano

Now trying to imagine your response if he had said he didn’t like Clint Eastwood’s ‘Dollars Trilogy’!

Or if this guy had bumped into @Dean and said that Shoot the Living, Pray for the Dead was over rated

[Dean]

@Phil_H

Or if this guy had bumped into @Dean and said that Shoot the Living, Pray for the Dead was over rated

I can forgive someone for not recognising perfection when they first see it
I have every frame of that film on a t-shirt, so if you see me in the streets, you can make-believe you’re watching it.

[ElDavido]

Do wear this pink polo on a regular basis?

[Mickey13]

Copied from the Spagvemberfest 2022 thread:

@Mickey13

Moody, grim and outlandish. The movie seems to be in the same vain as other experimental spags such as El Puro or Matalo, but the experimentation here predominantly appertains to its narration as opposed to some other psychedelic touches. It is true that the storytelling exhibits a rather ephemeral disposition and may seem a bit all over the place at a glance, but in the context of this film, this characteristic appears to be purposefully utilized with a view to painting the overall picture in a certain way and enduing the canvas with a very distinctive feel.

Hence, instead of the customarily balanced narration, we get the frenzied stream of a narrative characterized by broad brush strokes and a sort of narrative expressionism denoted by its rapid edits and frenetic focus, which imparts a rather stark appearance to the tout ensemble. Aside from the somewhat unremarkable soundtrack, the motion picture displays some very stylish inclinations in spite of its salient shortcomings and sets about the tale in a manner completely divergent from other genre entries. A must-see work for any seasoned spaghetti western aficionado and another film which should have been released officially by now.

[Bill_Willer]

Also watched this one for the first time the other night and also liked it. I agree with previous sentiments that it’s a bit uneven, but I thought it was fairly well directed and I thought Lawrence was well cast in the lead. Not my favourite Lawrence film (that’d go to …Johnny Kidd) but as for Marchent I think it was a big step up from the less than average Garringo. Time well spent I thought.

[Admin (Sebastian)]

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