I am a fan of Gatling Gun as well. I donāt think it gets the appreciation it deserves, and I am a fan of Starblack as well which typically doesnāt get a lot of love. I really like the whole serial feel of that one.
Really should give Starblack another shot. I doubt it could beat My Name is Pecos in my rankings, but I bet itās better than I gave it credit for when I first tried it.
You know, imagining Starblack as some kind of serial hero like The Shadow makes me want to watch it a lot more.
Good to know Iām not the only one. I think itās the best Woods spag by some way, even though I do rate El Puro and Blackjack highly.
I love the serial tone too. Itās a bit of a strange film and yet I think the strangeness works wonders.
I think you should definitely give it another go. I think itās good fun.
I think Starblack wouldāve been better if they used a thicker material for his mask. Whenever I watch it I canāt help but giggle seeing his smushed up face peaking through the mask. I guess thatās one of problems of watching it in HD
The mask on the poster looks much better
You should watch the Pecos sequel at some point (I believe itās available on YouTube). It plays more like an Indiana Jones rip-off rather than a spaghetti but itās pretty fun.
Iāve had the Blu for a while but I havenāt watched it yet. I watched it a few years back via a terrible print, but I do plan on rewatching it in HD at some point. Iāll have to get back to you on how the mask looks
Iāve actually had to Koch dvds of the Pecos films for a while so eventually Iāll give the sequel a go.
Looking forward to a first watch of this tonight, which Iām about to start. I checked out the trailer and it looks like my kinda spagh.
In case anyoneās interested, here is a comparison between the Wild East and Arrow blu ray releases. The screenshots are resized to smaller resolution, but you can definitely see the difference is substantial.
Arrow (top) vs WE (bottom)
Just finished viewing & I really liked it. Its a nice blend of traditional spagghetti style and a good amount of grit. No time wasted on stupidity. My only complaint is Robert Woods make up⦠ay, caramba
That early scene in the bar is great, with tequila! and the record player turning on all by itself⦠haha
Joe DāAmato on the camera and even saw Fidani in the credits, although I donāt see him listed in the SWDB credits
Checking out the commentary now with Robert Woods & its also very good. I usually donāt like actor commentaries & especially in these older films it seems like they often donāt even remember much about the movies, but Woods is full of information and seems to be very proud of his work. Much better commentary than the film historian type stuff often on spaghetti releases
A goldmine of info to use that cliche ⦠he is proud of this one, and a few others, but heās also very realistic and scathing about many of the later movies he appeared in especially the Jess Franco garbage of the early 70s ⦠first you work with Fidani, then Franco, then career over!
This movieās page in the SWDb has been updated to the new āSWDb 3.0ā format .
Please have a look and let us know if thereās something you can add (information, trivia, links, pictures, etc.).
New poll for My Name is Pecos, top of the page under the original post!
I re-watched this tonight after probably 30 years. For some reason I thought there was a scene with Woods being staked in the desert to be burnt or blinded by the sun before being saved by a woman, but there is no such scene. Is there any film with Woods that has a scene like I described? My mind is playing tricks on me?
Maybe youāre thinking of Gemma and Fort Yuma Gold?
Iāll have to re-watch that one again (and just received the Mill Creek Blu-ray). It would make sense in so far as they both showed on TV in the early 90s, I believe. Thanks very much for the suggestion.
Couple of odd things on this one:
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What happened to Mary. Sheās not shown again after the explosion. I assume she died but odd that this wasnāt confirmed by a visual. The interview with the actress on the Arrow Blu Ray indicates that Lucidi was spiteful to her after she rejected his advances. Possibly cut for this reason to deny her final close-up. The scene she complains Lucidi made her film twice which involved running a long way isnāt in the film so maybe that was a ājokeā on her.
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That final shot is the same location as the opening shot of For a Few Dollars More and looks to be an outtake from that film. The FAFDM shot begins with the rider further down the path than he is in Pecos so it isnāt footage used for the film. But presumably Leone would have filmed more and then cut it down once he did the post production. Given Pecos was a cheap film lensed in Italy canāt believe they would have gone to Spain to do that single 15s set-up.
Thatās exactly right ⦠it looks a little out of place after all the āsandpitā locations in the main movie.
The film reminded me of A Dollar in the Teeth (A Stranger in Town) quite a lot. A film which I quite like. But I thought this was better.
Update - I realised Lucidi was editor on A Stranger In Town which might explain the similarities. A Stranger in Town must have been made first since it got its censor sign-off about 3 weeks earlier although it was released about 3 weeks later.
One of the earlier posters refers to an unhappy ending changed after adverse preview reaction. Would a cheap film like this have previews? Might that explain the inserted shot from FAFDM?
I hadnāt heard about this before, but quoting from Phil Hardcastleās interesting interview with Robert Woods on this web site :
" As My Name is Pecos became not only one of Woodsā most enduring performances but one of his bigger box office successes in Italy. A success which was almost scuppered by an original ending which saw the hero killed off. This was not an acceptable end for the cinema going public of Naples who first saw the film. Incensed, they ripped up the seats and started throwing them at the screen. The producers reacted rapidly, recut the ending to allow Pecos to survive and re-released it. Woods laughs at the memory of it now. āWelcome to Italy!ā "
Might that unhappy ending still exist ?
Anyhow, those few seconds in the end, āborrowedā from the opening scene of For A Few Dollars More, seem very misplaced and was (as I recall now) the only Spanish location in the film (even if some SWs as I understand have borrowed a lot more from other SWs with scenes from the Tabernas area). Maybe that lovely view though, made the end extra happy
Donāt believe the propaganda that this was a big success.
The top 20 Italian box office list for 1966 published elsewhere on this site stops with Johnny Yuma at L526m. My Name is Pecos took only L347m at the Italian box office and ranks 37th for 1966. Hardly a roaring success although possibly enough to turn a profit. Ranked 197th in Italian westerns 1961-1976 towards the bottom of the second quartile.
The sequel Pecos Cleans Up took slightly more at L355m despite supposedly being a flop according to lore.
The 2 films were released only 3 months apart and must have been filmed virtually back to back. Second one probably started before the film was released and done together as cheap double bill. I have yet to see the sequel.
If the second movie had started before the first was released then Woodsā story about the ending isnāt true.
In any case, I canāt believe a cheap movie like this could have afforded reshoots. None of these movies did reshoots after the event. A few filmed alternative endings at the time. The only likely alternative would have been if Pecos was shot riding off out of town by someone and that was just snipped out.
The success, Robert Woods referred to was for itās international distribution, rather than just itās Italian release - It apparently was very big in South America and Africa.
I do find the story of seats being ripped up in the cinema because of a disappointed preview screening a little hard to swallow.
Were most of these films even previewed? Itās not as if itās a huge Hollywood blockbuster.