Fedra West (Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent, 1968)

[ChrisCasey]

@Richard--W

Has anyone seen the Global DVD from Australia? Is that the one filled with jump cuts and a poor picture?

The Global DVD is the one that they are talking about in all of the posts above. Global is…or was…a company out of South Africa, not Australia, run by a fellow named Naushad.
As far as I know, this is the only version (in English) available anywhere.

[I_love_you_M_E_Kay]

It has to be said that despite the poor picture quality and the cuts, the film’s qualities do shine through. At least, that’s how I feel about it.

[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.

[scherpschutter]

Nobody can stop the Germans with their Film Reviews, DVD Reviews (one Wolf howling all the time), unless …

https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Fedra_West_Review

[Phil_H]

Enjoyed this one quite a bit when I watched it a while back. Definitely worthy of a decent release if a copy exists anywhere.

[Bluntwolf]

After reading Scherps. wonderful review last night, I decided to dig this one out and watch it. Well, it’s not the kind of Western I prefer but it was pretty much ok with me. A little bit more action would’ve been nice though.

Picture-qualitywise it was quite a ride. Really nice Grindhouse experience… Fortunately it isn’t like that all the time.

[scherpschutter]

my version was wider (2,35:1), but otherwise had the same problems, a complete circus of scratches in some scenes

[chameleon]

This is the one that I have, with quite a bit print damage. I found the film mediocre at best, will have to revisit again sometime.

[ENNIOO]

Enjoyed this one and hope a better print turns up one day.

[ENNIOO]

@scherpschutter

my version was wider (2,35:1), but otherwise had the same problems, a complete circus of scratches in some scenes

Noticed that torrent had been adjusted from 1.85 to 2.35 ratio, does the print look to squashed now or is it ok ?

[scherpschutter]

Noticed that torrent had been adjusted from 1.85 to 2.35 ratio, does the print look to squashed now or is it ok ?

You have adjust it manually (in VLC Player there are multiple options), but the image still looks a bit squeezed in some scenes (especially near the edges, in the middle it seems okay)

it’w watchable, and I don’t think it will be easy top find a better copy. On a French forum I read that the French VHS has good widescreen image (probably 1,85:1), but it’s not too easy to get and has only french audio.

[ENNIOO]

Cheers, think I will give that copy a try.

[scherpschutter]

Cheers, think I will give that copy a try.

Note that it’s not the torrent that was uploaded a few days ago, that’s in 1,85:1 and has very ugly colors (and spanish audio)

[JonathanCorbett]

@scherpschutter

looked it up in Giusti, he says 85 minutes for the Italian release, but also that there were a lot of censorship problems, bot in Spain and Italy (he doesn’t say for what reasons), so 90 minutes might have been the original running-time without the cuts made;

The correct runtime for the Italian theatrical release called Io non perdono… uccido is 90 minutes (2478 meters), with VM14 rating confirmed on appeal on 13 May 1968 and no cuts.

[Admin (Sebastian)]

This film’s page in the database has been updated to the new layout. Thanks to @LankyGringo for the select. Everyone’s invited to help improve the entry by submitting additions or corrections of any kind.