Captain Clive Norton (Craig Hill) is appointed, by his superior officer, to track down and retrieve gold that was stolen from an army convoy by the bandit Billy ‘The Gun’ (Giovanni Cianfriglia alias Ken Wood). Norton requests the partnership of tracker Chaleco Hunter (Etorre Manni) to aid him in his mission but is denied due to Hunter being court marshalled and sentenced to hang for war crimes. Not too surprisingly, Norton goes against his superior’s wishes and rescues Chaleco during his execution ceremony and the two set out to seek out Billy ‘The Gun’ and get back the stolen gold.
This spaghetti outing is entertaining but it tends to frustrate all too often. There are far too many scenes of characters (mostly the two protagonists) riding around on horseback for several minutes at a time. No dialogue exchanges are present during these segments and to add insult to injury we’re subjected to irritating marching music as the characters take their time to ride off frame.
Another thing that bothers me is after saving Chaleco, Norton doesn’t reveal who he wants tracked down. He deliberately withholds the information for no apparent reason at all, allowing a long and pointless segment of an uninterested Chaleco trying to escape from the Captain’s rifle range. Eventually Norton does reveal that they are after Billy ‘The Gun’, a man Chaleco has some personal beef with. One wonders why Cap’n Norton didn’t just tell Chaleco who they were after in the first place? It would have saved him the hassle of Chaleco trying to ditch him.
In its defense, every one thing it does wrong it does two things right.
There is a good amount of action in the film. Plenty of shootouts and poorly choreographed fist fights (ya know? The usual stuff). There is even an extensive knife fight which is, shamefully, a rare occurence in these movies.
Craig Hill does his usual posturing, Manni plays the standard “less than trustworthy side-kick” and Cianfriglia plays a pretty formidable bad guy but it’s the stuntmen that really steal the show here. Those guys were great! There is a whole scene dedicated to stunt work (town massacre) and the stuntmen pull no punches. Diving off here, falling there. Great stuff!
The music is pleasent but there isn’t one tune you’ll remember after ejecting the movie from your player.
Fanboys with sharp eyes will recognize Spaghetti regulars Jose Torres and Lorenzo Robledo in crowd scenes.
They each have split second screen time. Very unusual.
6/10
Note Italian db states that it has an 88 minute running time.
According to Marco Giusti (Dizionario del Western all’Italiana), original running time is 102 min, 91 min for the international version
I wouldn’t rely on the Italian db on these things; it’s a good site, but they’re not very concerned on exact running times etc.
I have the French Evidis disc (I’ll check running time tonight)
I watched the movie about a year ago but have already forgotten most of it, so you can say that it didn’t make a lasting impression
Just had a quick look at my dvd (cool musical score over the opening credits)which is taken from an English vhs source and also runs at 93 minutes.
I’m a bit of a Craig Hill fan,great blues eyes,and this is one of his better movies,good story and plenty of action.Can’t remember having the same misgivings as Pallbearer about this and i see elsewhere i gave it a 7.5 out of 10 rating.
saw this one last night and i’m sorry but i thought it very bland and below average, although having said that it’s not the worst of it’s type and there is a fair amount of action.this is only about the third poor spaghetti western i’ve seen out of about 30 in the last three months so it’s not a bad ratio.bury them deep is a lot better than " white comanche" and that piece of cinematic shit " trinity and sartana".film just didn’t do anything for me and i also can’t remember much about it.the music seemed out of place at times as well. a long way from the best of the genre.
Just finished this one a little while ago… I wasn’t too impressed. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good either. It’s not unique or even memorable, but it’s watchable… I thought the music was terrible and I didn’t like the lighter almost comedic (but not) parts. My man Joe D’Amato is the cameraman but you wouldn’t be able to tell as his style is evident nowhere.
Haha, btw I failed to mention that about 60 minutes in (maybe it was 58, I don’t remember exactly) … Etorre Manni falls up the stairs in the background as he’s going offscreen… I don’t think it was supposed to happen, haha, they just kept it in.
Watched this one tonight, an ok spaghetti, nice score and lots of action, the massacre in the town is like one of those show in a western theme-park! I don´t doubt there´s a longer version of this as in places the scenechanges are pretty abrubt.
The old Swedish vhs-release i have is somewhat of a mess though, allthough a nice widescreen print. On the sleeve the label have it mixed up with Death At Owell Rock, calling it “Owell - dödsklippan” (translates as “Owell- the rock of death”, Death at Owell Rock is on the same label, as “Gräv först dö sen” = “Dig first, die later”, that´s a cool title!) and a couple of reels in the middle are in wrong order, making it a bit confusing…
Pretty good one, starts strong… loses it’s way a bit in the middle, but ends with a bang (love that fight at the end with the 3 guys, one of the best action scenes i’ve seen in a SW)
I have watched the movie yesterday.
Average. The movie will probably be with anyone in the top 20.
But he is a good choice for in between.
It has something of a Buddy Movie. Craig Hill and Ettore Manni remember a little of Terance Hill and Bud Spencer. Also remarkable here is that gravel pits look. Especially at the end, the location will always be cheaper. Maybe at the end of the budget went to an end. To start because there is the same Western City as in Navajo Joe and FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE.
The score: He alternates between very good and average.
I liked this one more than I expected to after reading Scherps’ review. It certainly is patchy and the locations in particular seem to have no continuity whatsoever but, for all that, I thought the film had a certain charm and I found myself willing to forgive its little transgressions. In particular I thought Ettore Manni turns in his best performance and it was nice to see what he could do with a decent prominent role.
3 stars from this hombre.
As a side note, having watched this one and Fidani’s Dead Men Don’t Make Shadows in quick succession I was amazed at how much weight Manni seemed to have put on in the two years that separated these two flicks. Talk about who ate all the pies!! :o
[quote=“Phil H, post:12, topic:1161”]I liked this one more than I expected to after reading Scherps’ review. It certainly is patchy and the locations in particular seem to have no continuity whatsoever but, for all that, I thought the film had a certain charm and I found myself willing to forgive its little transgressions. In particular I thought Ettore Manni turns in his best performance and it was nice to see what he could do with a decent prominent role.
3 stars from this hombre.
As a side note, having watched this one and Fidani’s Dead Men Don’t Make Shadows in quick succession I was amazed at how much weight Manni seemed to have put on in the two years that separated these two flicks. Talk about who ate all the pies!! :o[/quote]
Was I that negative?
The extra weight wasn’t just the cookies or the pies; I read somewhere that he was a very, very heavy drinker, alcohol completely ruined his health.
Well I just watch this one. Despite the lack of Craig Hill’s facial expressions I like him, so I’d expect a little more. His role here is too small, but in the other hand I guess every character here needed some extra development.
Some scenes are stretched to the limit in order to enlarge the run time of the movie, some others doesn’t even deserve to be included (fights, snakes, horse ridding). Which is not a very smart thing to do. I actually believe the plot idea if well executed could have been decent, but this is just boring.
Sat through this one tonight, crummy fullscreen transfer. The first time through was kind of tedious but out of needing something on in the background I played it again. And I gotta say it’s a pretty interesting music score if nothing else & it got me to watch it again. There’s a sense of humor going on that’s not evident at first while you sit there waiting for something to happen. It also has a marvelous fakeness to its look with lots of familiar looking locations & sets. Like the holodeck its comprised of bits of other things combined together to make something just like them. Would enjoy seeing it widescreen.
[quote=“JonathanCorbett, post:16, topic:1161”]Scherp, are the closing credits incomplete or missing from the French DVD? The Italian TV version is about 45 seconds longer.
The film was put together piecemeal. The opening bank robbery with the fake cavaly is from A Taste for Killing with Jose Canalejas. You’ll also see Lorenzo Robeledo in two shots, one where he’s killed, which was also taken from A Taste for Killing and a couple of Hill riding in the ramblas which was also taken from A Taste for Killing. The soldiers massacre at the end is from $4.00 for Revenge with Robert Woods. Lots of riding scenes help fill in time (an old Fidani trick) and plenty of slow moving scenes to stretch the length out the film. Even the music is taken from several of Fidenco’s previous recordings. Hill, Wood and Manni are what keeps your interest but it’s far to patchy and long which gets bothersome after awhile.
Yeah people falling off buildings going through wooden panels… I was impressed with the action and stunt work, never found it slow this time (viewed the widescreen copy)… 8/10
Especially at the end, the location will always be cheaper. Maybe at the end of the budget went to an end. To start because there is the same Western City as in Navajo Joe and FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE.
