Review of “Any Gun Can Play” / “Vado … l’ammazzo e torno” (Enzo G. Castellari, 1967)

Rewatched this one in order to review the Pegasus Entertainment UK release and found I still enjoy this film as much as ever. The obligatory Castellari fist fight scenes aside (far too comic and far too long) this is a fun movie which shows everyone off to their best advantage. DVD review to follow shortly.

DVD review of the UK Pegasus Entertainment release is now up.

http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Any_Gun_Can_Play_DVD_Review

In short, it is pretty much the same as the Mill Creek, St Clair and VCI region 1 releases but with possibly slightly better picture and slightly worse sound. Not a Koch quality release of course but as good as any available for this as far as I can see.

Very fine little movie
I’m happy with the St.Clair version, don’t think this one is much better

Forgot one of the other names of the film was For a Few Bullets More. The British Board of Film Classification list this name as the U.K cinema title.

[quote=“scherpschutter, post:23, topic:1000”]Very fine little movie
I’m happy with the St.Clair version, don’t think this one is much better[/quote]

No, certainly not worth replacing if you have the St Clair release. This is of very similar quality.

Thought so
That St. Clair Vison release is quite good. Okay, Death rides a Horse is fullscreen (but we all have the MGM disc anyway) and a few others aren’t looking great, but The Grand Duel, Johnny Yuma, Any Gun Can Play and Minnesota Clay are more than acceptable.

Which DVD offers Any Gun Can Play in the best picture quality, the correct aspect ratio, and uncut?

A reviewer on amazon says the the VCI double-feature disc (paired with A Bullet for Sandoval) is stretched too wide. That appears to be the case in screen captures I found linked through this website, although I have lost track of the link.

The amazon reviewer goes on to say that VCI’s single disc edition is in the correct aspect ratio. These captures from A Fistful of DVDs show a 2:35-1 frame consistent with Techniscope:

There is no longer a page at amazon, or at VCI, for the single disc edition. It has been discontinued, apparently. Only the double-feature disc is available, with the over-stretched aspect-ratio. Does anyone have this set, and can you confirm it’s over-stretched? Does anyone know if the aspect ratio has been corrected?

Phil H, in his review of the Pegasus U.K. disc, shows captures in the correct aspect ratio and also the cleanest, sharpest print:

http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Any_Gun_Can_Play_DVD_Review

There is a Guillotine disc from Canada and other region 2 discs.
Does anyone know, what is the best edition of Any Gun Can Play in region 1?

Richard

As I said in my review, the image was pretty much identical on the UK Pegasus release as that of the Mill Creek and St Clair Region 1 cheap box set ones which I also have. If you are unsure of the VCI double feature then picking up one of the sets which include Any Gun Can Play should be pretty safe I think. But I’d be surprised if the VCI one wasn’t identical too.

I rewatched this recently. It was a bit better than I remembered. It’s like a light rip-off of a GBU and it doesn’t even try to hide it but makes it a joke in the famous beginning. I think this is the first sw to feature a fight scene in the bath house which became almost like a mandatory scene in the later comedy westerns. It’s a long and cheerful scene which precedes Trinity films in it’s style, and there’s even Hill & Spencer regular Riccardo Pizzuti involved. Not a great film but a good one in every aspect: good cast, good directing, good music…

My rating: 6/10

Watched this last night via the VCI release. Quite enjoyed it, though like with most Spaghetti westerns starts great then steadily gets less interesting. Loved George Hilton in this, id probably say its my favourite Hilton western i’ve seen so far, im not usually a fan of George but he was good in this one. Music was also good. This film really ticks all the Spaghetti western boxes so is a good one to put on if you really feel like a classic Spaghetti style second-rate western. Id give the first half of the film 4 stars then it becomes a 3.

NB- I might’ve liked this film so much since I only paid £1.50 delivered from a seller on Play.com for the Region 0 original VCI release. A/V quality mediocre but watchable, plenty of crackle on the soundtrack.

Any director can play. :slight_smile:

there are a lot of heroes in this movie like Mr Eastwood and Mr Wayne…

Just interested in music.

I’m addicted to the soundtrack for this film. Just ordered the Pegasus Entertainment DVD. I have only watched it on VHS. Not sure whether it’ll be much of an improvement. Is the Pegasus DVD the same as the VCI release?

Just watched this one again. Definitely one of my favourites. It might even be in my top 20.

I’ve just been comparing my inter-ocean video to the DVD. The picture quality on the VHS is immensely superior and also in widescreen.

The DVD is far from great. Can you upload a screenshot from the VHS?

I like this one a lot too, just rewatched it because i wanted to work on the (existing) review. It’s a pity that I don’t have a quality copy of this movie

Unfortunatley I don’t have a device to copy my VHS to the PC. It’s a widescreen print and has much clearer picture quality. It isn’t grainy like the DVD releases.

I wish a company like Koch Media would release a remastered print of this. I think this film deserves it.

There will be another German release of this one, but most likely it will be just another low quality disc, which then will lower the chances for an adequate release.

Most likely it will be a re-release of the older German disc.