I’ll Sell My Skin Dearly / Vendo cara la pelle (Ettore Maria Fizzarotti, 1968)

[Mickey13]

Copied from the Spagvemberfest 2024 thread:

@Mickey13

Notwithstanding main hero’s sanpaku gaze, Spartaco Conversi’s excellent showing and some occasional nastiness along the line, the movie regrettably does not pan out all that engaging.

Firstly, Shane’s (sic) recovery at steamy widow’s farmhouse accounts for almost one third of the running time and in the course of that lull, the motion picture inevitably has to fall back on drama which comes out bland if not sleep-inducing in virtue of film’s uniformly flat characterization. Secondly, the kid who rescues the protagonist at the beginning figures in project’s proceedings so extensively it becomes somewhat distracting, entering the equation on such a regular basis that the flick almost takes on an appearance of a children’s production at certain points.

Thirdly, in spite of being the region’s top banana, Shane’s arch nemesis seems to have like ten henchmen at his disposal which makes Shane’s endeavor to eliminate him all the more believable, but saps tale’s realism elsewhere, though this admittedly has to do with the scant budget rather than writing or storytelling as such. At the end of the day, it it hard to take umbrage at this offering in view of it having been competently realized in other regards, that being said, it does feel a little too featureless and insipid for my liking.