What do you all think about this 1971 SW by Giuliano Carnimeo ???
It’s always a pleasure to see Gianni Garko acting in a Spaghetti-Western and he’s doing a fine job as Spirito Santo in this one. The cast is nice anyway: Pilar Velasquez, Poldo Bendandi, Chris Huerta, Paul Stevens, George Rigaud, Franco Pesce, Dada Galloti !
The movie and the score (by Bruno Nicolai) remind me of ‘Gli fumavano le Colt … lo chiamavano Camposanto’ (They call him cemetery) also 1971 by Carnimeo, which is by far the better movie of the two.
IMO, Spirito Santo does have too many slapstick/comedy fighting scenes, that I’m not too fond of but the rest of the movie is enjoyable, especially if you like Garko !!!
Yeah with Spanish audio only… Not an option for very many people in here If only those Spaniards would have the common decency to include at least understandable subtitles there would be no problem, but no alas Same goes for Italy, a lot of interesting releases nearly nothing readily useable.
There’s also an Italian disc, don’t know how long or what kind of quality it is. It’s not available at online stores. There was at least once one copy sold at Ebay (I have been looking for more since but no luck ), went for over 50euros if I remember correctly.
Spirito Santo is basically Sartana dressed in white and with a pigeon on his shoulders. Apart from this colorchange (and the slapstick) the film follows the patterns Carnimeo and Garko had already used in their previous works, so who likes the Sartana spags will also find enough moments of joy in this one.
The film was shot (or released) between the 2 Hallelujah films, and the increasing comedy elements in Carnimeo’s westerns became here quite problematic. This is best illustrated in the raid on the mexican fort which is (or better should be) the action climax of the film, but greater parts of this are consisting only of comedy style brawlings, so that the climax is none but only a disappointment (and of course it’s also not funny).
The best english audio version around is a full frame VHS copy with faded colors and danish subs, but probably uncut.
Saw a Luminous DVD-R of this one. Great action Spaghetti like Apocalypse Joe. These twofilms are great additions to my collection as when ever I get tired of my moodily slow paced spaghettis, I’ll just pop eithe of theese two in.
Like mentioned the score is suitable for this Garko western who is on well laid back mode, and has a dove who thinks it is an eagle. Mixture of some serious stuff and less serious stuff and Garko has an interesting dress sense.
Viewed a fan project in around 2.0 widescreen, no subs, english audio and with a running time of around 90 mins, and is an improvement over my old VHS rip.
Here’s a brief review I wrote back in May of 2007. I remember little about it now, though except for a couple of scenes and the overlong balsa wood smashing finale. My copy has greek subs…
Watched HIS NAME IS HOLY GHOST last night and if you enjoyed Garkos SARTANA sequels you’ll enjoy this as it’s cut from the same cloth albeit with an over abundance of humor some of it blackly comical. There’s even a Bud Spencer character that partners with Holy Ghost throughout the movie. Towards the end, however, the comedy goes into overdrive amidst all the explosions and gunfire. Garko has a wide range of weapons this time out. The only disappointing aspect of the film for me was earlier in the picture you’re led to believe that Holy Ghost may in fact be a supernatural gunfighter but by the end you realize he’s just an ordinary guy. The quality is decent on this fullscreen print with greek subs. Only the sound is a bit muffled.
I agree with Angel Face that it’s disappointing the way they set it up in the beginning as if Spirito Santo really IS a ghost but then back down from it as the movie goes on. And for me the humor didn’t really work. Overall I prefer the Sartana movies. But I prefer the 2 Garko Spirito Santo films to the two Garkoless (and doveless) followup flicks.
I was pleasantly surprised by this one, it’s one of the few comedy westerns I’ve actually enjoyed, probably because there’s a lot of really funny lines in the script, although the slapstick stuff is tedious (yet it never reaches Trinity-like proportions).
I love that theme song, so much that i learned how to plya it o guitar. I’ll put up a review for this film this weekend over at Fistful.
The Holy Ghost, in the incarnation of Gianni Garko, is basically Sartana dressed in white (and with a peace dove on his shoulder). Forewarned, Half-Killed… the Word of the Holy Ghost shows how much Carnimeo had developed his visual skills since his first Sartana film, but it also shows how much Trinita like slapstick had conquered the genre by then (with Chris Huerta in the Bud Spencer role). The kill rate is still high, but unfortunately the comedy parts turn up at the oddest moments replacing shoot-outs and destroying thereby partly what should have been the highlights of the film. But accompanied by a fine Bruno Nicolai soundtrack fans of the director and the star will still have their fun.
watched this last night. i don’t like comedy spaghetti westerns ie the trinity films, and this film did nothing to change that. The films come over as silly and stupid, and so does this one. It is preferable to some of the others, but i just don’t like them much. Garko seems to enjoy himself and it has some moments of brutality at the beginning. instantly forgettable although not the worst of it’s type.
About halfway through this. Here’s the good news: Pilar Velázquez
Only one scene was nice so far. The last supper bit.
Can’t agree with Stanton on this. I thoroughly enjoy the Sartana films, but this just ain’t it. The comparison is easily made, as this is also a Garko & Carnimeo teamup. But this is merely an unfunny comedy spaghetti western. Not really looking forward to seeing the rest, but then I wouldn’t be able to review it for my site.
By the way, the audio on the fandub is pretty bad. Picture quality is not great either, but it’s ok.
If only those Spaniards would have the common decency to include at least understandable subtitles there would be no problem, but no alas 
), went for over 50euros if I remember correctly. 