Mutiny at Fort Sharp / Per un dollaro di gloria (Fernando Cerchio, 1966)

At the same time, I think. It was released shortly after Fistful (12.11.64).

But it couldnā€™t have been influenced by the success of FoD.

Traditional style western which I quite enjoyed. Crawford looked terrible though. Very overweight, probably drunk and almost shuffling rather than walking. The other lead actor, Mario Valdemarin, reminded me a lot of Tony Kendall to look at and was quite good I thought.

You are right, but never thought of it before. First time I viewed this one was in the late 80ā€™s on night time on ITV. No ITV 2, 3 etc in these days of course :wink: .

I enjoyed this one a lot but I was hoping for a battle at the end. :grin:

I finally attacked the fort with my tribe:

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

I just read in Casadioā€™s study on the genre that he also speaks of Wichita, not Navajo, so I might have misinterpreted a dialogue. Iā€™ll check asap

I am a big Broderick Crawford fan, from Willie Stark to Johnny Damico to Dan Matthews. Always enjoyed watching episodes of ā€œHighway Patrolā€ and guessing when heā€™s burning a low blue flame.

Iā€™d really like to see this one. As far as being not very SWish, as a fan of 1950s American westerns thatā€™s okay with me. Prefer that to the crummy SWs of the late period (70s).

Just re viewed this one again via a nice 2.35 print. Still an interesting watch this one for me. Full of characters who believe what they are doing is right and when these characters clash its great stuff !

All the film needed was a final battle in my opinion.

Iā€™m fairly new to the forum, fellas (so please be gentle with me), but a long-time contributor to the site, and [have just submitted a new article on this particular film. As such, I was just wondering what the general opinion was of this little-seen flick? Nobody has posted anything on it in almost four years (and even then only 31 posts), but I was surprised to find that many who had seen it responded quite favourably (Iā€™m certainly a fan). There has been no new/legitimate home video release in the interim (at least not to my knowledge), so no real cause for any renewed interest or fresh reappraisal, but I find this film to be a really interesting and entertaining SW, albeit a very obscure, third-or-fourth tier entry. Iā€™d be really interested in hearing further opinion from anyone out there who has experienced this film recently and enjoyed it, or has fond memories of it (or, conversely, just flat-out hates it).

Read it here: https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/French_Revolution:Fernando_Cerchio%E2%80%99s_Mutiny_at_Fort_Sharp(1966)

3 Likes

June 30, 1966

1 Like

Nice review mate. It inspired me to watch the film again after about a decade.

Picture quality of my VHS ripped DVDr is not brilliant but good enough to not spoil the film and I felt much the same about it. Something of an oddity for a spaghetti from 1966 as it is far more ā€œtraditionalā€ in style but actually quite solid and amongst its surprises is that itā€™s really quite good. I shouldnā€™t have left it so long to revisit.

Do like Crawford in his roleā€¦he is obsessed !
This is one of those you stumble across, like I did years ago on the ITV channel, and as you may gather I am a fan.

1 Like

Thanks for this pic, JC. I find the historical advertising to be fascinating, plus I often need reminding that these obscure films once played to a packed house on a Friday night in small, provincial cinemas. Experiencing/discovering/re-watching these films often feels like youā€™ve stumbled upon something lost to time; as if you, personally, have unearthed some kind of unseen cinematic artefact, when the reality is/was, of course, that these films filled picture houses night after night, week after week.

Thanks, Phil. Appreciate you taking the time to read it. Iā€™m really pleased to hear that the film has some enthusiastic support. Iā€™ve got a lot of love for the so-called underdog entries such as this flick, and - as you say - I think Mutiny is actually a very good film, objectively speaking. Your copy sounds very similar to mine, especially in terms of print quality. (Ironically, I normally try and pay mention to aspect ratio when discussing a film, but I completely forgot to do so this time around - I canā€™t even remember what aspect ratio my print was in. Do you happen to recall if your copy was in the full, correct Techniscope ratio?)

Yeah, ENNIO, you absolutely nailed it: Crawford is near-deranged in this one. I kind of like him in the picture, though Iā€™m not sure why. Like I said in the article, Iā€™d have preferred a fiercer, more intimidating and forceful performer in that role, given the choice, but Crawford actually convinces by the end. Interesting that you say the film aired on ITV here in the UK. It seems crazy now that such films were screened on terrestrial television back in the day.

Starting from 2012 this one was broadcast about ten times on Italian TV channels Rai Movie, Iris and Quartarete (a local station), during the night or more rarely around noon, with correct AR.

On February 10, 1966 the original VM14 rating was confirmed on appeal: cuts were discussed but discarded (sometimes it happened), because ā€˜ā€™ Eventuali modifiche per cercare di rendere idoneo tale spettacolo anche ai minori di tale etĆ  dovrebbero essere a giudizio della maggioranza della commissione di tale ampiezza e portata da pregiudicare la configurazione narrativa e stilistica del filmā€™ā€™.

Sadly not, no. Full screen vhs rip with English dub and burnt in Spanish subs

While my watches of spaghetti westerns have slowed down a bit (been having looks into other cult film genres) I still get the odd watch in. This oneā€™s fairly interesting, obviously itā€™s main point of interest being 1) a very tired Crawford and 2) a somewhat novel setup.

Most of these spaghetti westerns from that intermediate post-Fistful pre-Django period tend to feel like awkward half imitations of American western but this felt more like an imitation of period war films than the western, though obviously with a much shorter runtime and nowhere near the same amount of budget or namepower.

Definitely not overbearingly corny like other ā€œcavalryā€ spaghettis though, thereā€™s a nice coat of cynicism.

1 Like

This filmā€™s database entry has been updated to the new layout. Please help us improve it.