-Bruno Corazzari and his gang are in jail waiting for trial and they hire Fernando Sancho’s gang to kill the only witnes. Sancho’s gang end up to take all the passengers of the stagecoach as a hostages in Richard Harrison’s inn because they don’t know which one is the witnes.
Entertaining film and one of the Harrison’s best I think and I have always liked Sancho and here he has lot of screen time. Film takes place most of the time indoors as the bandit gang try to figure it out who is the witnes they need to get rid of. There’s some good tension between the gang and the passengers and Harrison who of course isn’t just a ordinary guy but famous gunslinger.
First half of the film is good but in the latter half the plot starts to fail as Sancho starts to kill the hostages for almost no reason at all. So why don’t they kill 'em all at the first place? Would have saved them the trouble. Oh, and there’s also a scene with one of those infamous annoying kids in the end.
[quote=“LankyFellow, post:2, topic:1762”]I’ve not seen this one,but Bruckner describe it as brutal,in his SW book.[/quote]Not really, it starts with pretty nasty rape scene but all the raping happens offscreen. Few killings and one attempt to scalp a guy but not much of anything you would not see in standard sw
Good film. Bill sums it up. Would’ve been most logical to have killed ‘em all to start with - but then there wouldn’t have been a film.
Richard Harrison looks mean and moody, obviously upset as it’s becoming obvious he’s going a bit thin on top, and does his best ‘angry-eyes >:(’ face throughout. The fisticuffs go on too often and too long … e.g. Harrison’s character chases a bandito into a shed and the fellow hides around the corner and gives him a surprise kicking - then they tumble out again, and we’re treated to the very same antics again - you’d think he’d learn!
There’s plenty of colourful characters trapped from The Stagecoach of the Condemned - which is obviously the more suitable title, as it’s about one of the occupants of said stagecoach being on their way to testify against Bruno Corazzari’s gang, but being waylaid by Fernando Sancho (with an even more ridiculously small hat than Steffen sports elsewhere in spaghetti-land). In this respect (the indoor setting) the film is a little similar to Quinto : Fighting Proud or even more so like Shoot The Living , Pray For The Dead - with much of it being staged inside a waystation. Bruno gets his teeth into a good meaty role, yet again as a rapist murdering coyote, and laughs and snarls to good effect. I’ll Forgive You Before I Kill You is the sillier title. There is a Reverend Green (a different fellah to the one that did it with Miss Scarlet in the Conservatory with a candlestick ;)) - but he don’t do much forgiving, and even less killing. Our Miss Scarlet in this is Erika Blanc in redhead mode, who’s gonna stand by her man (Harrison) - cowardly/reformed/damaged ex-gunslinger - that he is … However, their annoying brat of a son ain’t having none of it, and wants some action!
The moral(? :P) of the story seems to be that you ain’t gonna get much out of life (‘scept an end to it) just by being brave, as a couple of folk find out. Harrison’s character is forced to question and balance things - and allows him to play (as Bill says) one of his best roles - although One After Another beats this for me.
SOTC/IFYBIKY has its faults, but there are enjoyable performances from all the main characters, and some real tension, and these qualities make this a goody in the Rev’s book.
3 an’ a bit stars outa 5 - knock off the ‘bit’ for the annoying kid - an’ we got 3 star fare here amigos.
Watched this one this morning and was pondering my thoughts on the film only to find that the Rev had pretty much encapsulated them perfectly with his mini review above. So I shan’t bother except to say that it is well worth a view for those who haven’t yet but falls squarely in the fair to middling bracket. Sancho does what he does best, Harrison gets one of his better roles and all in all I would count this as one of Juan Bosch’s better efforts.
One of the last Harrison westerns I had to view. Started out with the fandub of the Italian dvd, but soon stopped that disc. No colour in the print even after increasing the colour on my T.V. Was like viewing a black and white film it was that bad. Reverted to plan B and viewed a fandub of a Spanish T.V print, and yes there was colour !
The first part of the film which was set indoors was not on the very exciting side for me, but then I do like my outdoor scenes. Did have a laugh when Fernando Sancho’s character was called Ramon Sartana. But was difficult at first whether Sancho was a 100 percent bad guy at first, we get to know in the end, but the film was not sure re this along the way. Harrison looks bemuzed most of the time…maybe he was worried about his bald patch showing. Things improved in the second half, but on the whole an average affair.
Watched this yesterday, a somewhat unique spagghie in that its a bit claustrophobic with all the screentime inside the one house with the hostages. Can’t really think of any others that are similar in this regard.
I had both of the fandubbed versions, but went with the Italian DVD sourced one because the TV print is all frizzly like watching a bad VHS, and that kind of image really bothers me.
I kinda liked it, but I’m not totally sure why and I don’t have much else to add :P.
Bosch’s first SW, his best yet to come. Best things about it I think are the opening, a nice whistling theme repeated by trumpet and guitar, some good out door camerawork and Bruno Corazzari. Harrison has his right arm mutilated in a flash back duel with Corazzari, so he is left handed throughout the film, as he was naturally (?). In the final shout-out he fires ten rounds without reloading. I never get it, what’s difficult with counting up to six? More often these guys loaded five bullets. Too talkative, this film (when you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk…).
This film opens very promising, then before we know it we are sadly in the middle of the usual saloon brawl, for the occasion accompanied by piano and cancan dancers. Not bad, not Bosch’s best film either.
According to Àngel Comas the film was presented before the Spanish censorship as “Antes te perdona, despues te mato”, which was the title of the Lou Carrigan novel it was based on, and later changed (but kept for the Italian release).
Who was the witness? As I have seen it only with Italian audio (or maybe I didn’t pay attention), I still haven’t figured it out!
The saloon brawl is of course ridiculous. I actually found the first half hour not very compelling, but it picks up afterwards. The witness is … well should I give his identity away?
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