Watched this one today and as there was no thread for the film I thought Iād start one.
Former gunman Craig Hill tries to escape his old life but it catches up with him and he feels compelled to pick up his guns again.
Straightforward premise is complicated and made more interesting as we discover that the son Hill and his wife (Gloria Milland) dote on is not actually their own but a lad they stole from the sheriff who accidentally killed theirs some years previously. As a Marchent film it predictably tends to have that āSpanishā rather than Italian feel about it but as I like the Spanish ones this kept me reasonably happy for its rather short running time. Particularly liked how Hillās character shifts from being the pacifist hero to a much darker and more tragic figure who winds up losing our sympathies as he descends into a pit of grudges, ill temper and self pity.
Not from the top tier of the genre by any means but considering I watched this one within hours of a revisit of The Good the Bad and the Ugly it stood up pretty well really.
I have this one but, for the life of me, I canāt remember if I watched. I think itās time to get it out and watch it (maybe watch it again?) I do like Marchentās Spanish feel so Iām expecting it to be pretty good
Donāt remember much about it right now but thatās what I wrote in āLast western you watchedā topic in 2008:
-This one started quite boringly. Apart from nice title sequence and beautiful and strange dream scene it was just like many other early swās which still remind too much american westerns. But during the latter half of the movie it gets much better with some nice action and duelling scenes and the last scene is already pure spaghetti western. Recommended.
Well i watched this last night and i liked it|! it does start off rather clumsy and a little confusing but stay with it and despite having a well worn theme it manages to make it fresh and film has drama and i found it a good film. Not a great fan of Craig Hill films but he is ok but i think gives one of his better performances here and certainly one of his better spaghetti westerns. the second half of the film is what makes it and it is pretty good especially for an early entry in the genre. Have to agree with Bill the ending is iconic and definitely a spaghetti western classic scene. 8/10
A good scene, yes, but I thought this āalternative Russian Roulette sceneā was even better. Makes you clear that thereās something wrong with this Murphy fellow.
[quote=āscherpschutter, post:8, topic:2772ā]A good scene, yes, but I thought this āalternative Russian Roulette sceneā was even better. Makes you clear that thereās something wrong with this Murphy fellow.[/quote]ah yes! agreed a good scene. forgot about that. wonder if Michael Cimono saw this before he did the " Deer Hunter"?
Phil - I canāt believe you havenāt mentioned Lorenzoās sartorially splendid choice of jacket in this ā¦ even though a bullet proof vest might have been more practical
Just ordered the blu ray from Amazon Germany - I found conflicting language info from a Koch Media website, SWDB and Amazon.de but as you say above the German site has English on both the dvd and blu ray.
ā¦ even though a bullet proof vest might have been more practical