Received today and image looks pretty decent I agree.
SWs were mostly criticised back in the 60s for their very sloppy camera work. Critics then were really suffering when they were forced to watch a SW.
I’m also sometimes suffering when I force myself to watch a SW…
Just watched the Koch DVD this evening. I enjoyed it a whole lot more than I expected and it wasn’t as “Americanised” as I thought it would be, pleasing score by Morricone though.
Directed by Mike Perkins ;D
Just finished this one. Not bad for a '64 SW. Of course there’s hardly any spaghetti feel in it, but it was nicely done and without looking cheap. Horst Frank was great and the travel through the hot desert was IMO the film’s best scene. Liked the score too. BTW, did you notice how fast those damn horses ran?
They were only centimeters ahead of the total destruction of planet earth
Haha, they were indeed running as if that was the case.
Not without any reason they picked him in the desert for the cover.
Really corny movie, but with a Winnetou type charm. Horst Frank is one of the best things, but even his bad guy character is naive and gullible like the rest of the characters. I think I like the Santero character (Palmera) even better.
I don’t think of this film as ‘American’ just because it’s corny. Some scenes are very spaghetti. I love the shot with Horst Frank’s corpse and the wind blowing through the bible beside him. Very, very, nice. You don’t see that in an American western.
Rod Cameron comes across dull, a John Wayne type actor with corresponding stiffness.
Caiano comes up with some nice scenery shots.
Overall a quite eclectic film. Not good and not bad. 6/10
I had that feeling too
One reason why I will not buy the Koch Media DVD. 
Yes, a very good scene. I always liked those kind of shots where the corpse is left to rot under the burning sun with no one giving a damn about it. It’s the kind of cynicism and cruelty that you’ll find only in SW’s.
That’s why the corpse got buried here
Hmm, you haven’t seen much US westerns?
I’ve seen one or two. What I’m talking about is the catholic subtext that is present in a lot of spaghetti westerns and not so much in US westerns. It also has a place in Bullets don’t argue, especially Horst Frank’s character. Closure, as far as his character is concerned, comes with the bible quote spoken by Pat Garrett. It’s just something that appealed to me both visually and as a plot device. I don’t come across such scenes in American westerns, at least not the way presented here.
Yes, the catholic subtext is much stronger in SWs, but religious motives are also here and there present in US westerns.
A dead body with a book fluttering by the wind, mostly a bible, was not an uncommon motive in older films, and I’m sure I have seen it also in several older westerns, even if can’t give an example at the moment. A very filmic motive.
I just remember a similar idea, in which the dead body of the gold greedy Richard Widmark is seen on the ground with gold dust (which he carried in his jacket) pouring out of the bullet holes.
I think these are typical motives for which the SW directors liked the US westerns.
Was it? I have seen the movie only once, so I might be wrong.
BTW, I must have seen all the ‘wrong’ US westerns coz frankly I don’t remember any similar scene in the ones I have seen so far. So, recommendations are welcome.
[quote=“Stanton, post:56, topic:918”]Yes, the catholic subtext is much stronger in SWs, but religious motives are also here and there present in US westerns.
A dead body with a book fluttering by the wind, mostly a bible, was not an uncommon motive in older films, and I’m sure I have seen it also in several older westerns, even if can’t give an example at the moment. A very filmic motive.
I just remember a similar idea, in which the dead body of the gold greedy Richard Widmark is seen on the ground with gold dust (which he carried in his jacket) pouring out of the bullet holes.
I think these are typical motives for which the SW directors liked the US westerns.[/quote]
I find it’s typical spaghetti which, in this case, is not Leone inspired. Like ION BRITTON I don’t encounter stuff like that a lot in American westerns. And I’m not just talking the catholic thing, what I also mean is the ability to craft something strong that you can capture in just one single frame.
Another example, from Le due facce del dollaro:
Just beautiful, says more than a thousand words.
This image reminds me even more of the dead Widmark in Yellow Sky who bleeds gold.
You find such ideas already in old US westerns, but surely not as much as in SWs.