Fedra West (Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent, 1968)

[autephex]

@Phil H

I do have a soft spot for these Greek Mythology based westerns but I was still surprised at just how much I enjoyed this one. Great core cast, excellent score from Piccione (possibly his best one for a western?), satisfying Spanish locations and a gripping tragedy of a storyline that is, for the most part, well handled. No action fest by any means, in fact it is much more a family drama, so it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but it pressed a lot of good buttons for me and certainly ranks as one of Joaquin Marchent’s better directorial efforts in my opinion. As mentioned by others, the available print of this is far from pristine and this, along with the distressing jump cuts, do not do the film justice. A complete and restored DVD release would raise its reputation no end I believe. Also, Norma Bengell is on great form here too as in her other Spaghetti outing, The Hellbenders. Man I wish she had made more films in the genre. Such a strong presence.

Watched this one last night in honor of the late Joaquin Romero Marchent.

Pretty much agree with all of Phil’s thoughts here. I was really surprised at how much I liked Fedra West, as I was expecting quite a bore.

Overall much better performances from the cast than is usual for the lesser respected spaghettis. The film had a serious and dark tone that I enjoyed a lot. Although it lost steam around the 1 hour marker, as it floundered a bit too long on character drama scenes, it proceeded to win me back over on the ending.

Also agreed about Norma Bengell - I thought she was excellent here. Although I don’t find her to be a smoking hot spaghetti maiden, she plays the role with great skill

I actually didn’t mind the poor transfer on the Global DVD. I know its kind of silly to enjoy something like this, but all the film artifacts and jump scenes adds a certain appeal to me- makes it kinda novel.