Savage Guns / Era Sam Wallash! … Lo chiamavano … E così sia! (Demofilo Fidani, 1971)

Aha, now we know who Santa Stanta is …

A connection I also made …

But there was more as my above post was interrupted by everyday life, which the following post has to demonstrate as insight from the outside.

Yes, one of Fid’s better outings, with several memorable moments (and not all of them were also silly).

At first there was lots of time to watch at Simone’s long legs (mostly in stockings), and, surprise, surprise, after her zero-acting performance in one of Fid’s worst films (it was this Sartana & Django sheeeet), Simone is really acting here, and it was a pleasure to watch her facial expressions (of course that’s only when I was able to focus away from her legs). It was even interesting to look at here, when the focus of the scene was elsewhere (and now I’m not talking about legs).

I forgot what the story was about, but that’s no greater problem, as several unconnected Fid-typical-don’t-know-why scenes only prove, that Fid possibly also had often forgotten what the film was about.
A highlight of these was the scene which introduced Peter Martell, Gordon Mitchell and Lincoln Tate (funnily under their actual names) as a trio of famous and ruthless killers, only to let them disappear thereafter, without mentioning them again. Ha ha, so wonderful, if this had been in a film by Sergio L., he would have got all the applause for this risky idea, but Fid got only the laughter. And I fear, the laugh was mainly about him, not with him.

Oh, and the revenging lead is given us by Robert Woods, who is in the beginning the only survivor of a massacre (don’t know why they all were killed), and spends the rest of the film’s 89 mins in mild Black Jack manner with killing the killers. One of the unconnected motives sees him burdened with a psychological trauma, which is introduced and explained, but never tied together with the revenge plot. But it was connected, without disturbing too much, with one of these lovely leggy scenes.

The two charming dancing scenes (a rather short one with an oldtimer and a rather long one with a saloon dancer) should also get an extra mentioning, as they both showed a strange beauty, and had of course absolutely no narrative function. Contrary to your expectations, the saloon dancer wasn’t Simone, but her face and legs were nevertheless on the spot and thereby adding to the general pleasure.

Sometimes I got the notion that all these throw-in-for-free things were only there to fill the time.
But then, then I think maybe we all do injustice to Fid, maybe it were the gaps in his films he was really caring for, maybe the conventional western plot was only the bait for us, maybe the lovely sculptured gaps are in fact connected with an unconscious band we fail to see staring only at the obviously uninteresting plot, maybe he, all the time, was just like Hitch only affectionately shaping the vase while we were only judging him for the (mostly withered) flowers in it, maybe he’s the real cinematic SW anarchist. But maybe not.

But, but apart from all these entertaining moments, the intentional as well as the unintentional ones, the sorry truth is, apart from them, the film was mostly a bore. And by this fits the author theory very well.

Whatever

[quote=“Bill san Antonio, post:6, topic:434”]…many memorable and weird scenes:
-Long and terribly bad saloon song and dance
-Fidanis’ best joke ever; hired killers called Peter Martell, Gordon Mitchell and Lincoln tate. greatest cameo-appearances in spaghetti westerns. The scene itself doesn’t have anything to do with the plot of the film.
-Dancing old guy :smiley:
-Long boxing match (again nothing to do with the plot of the film)
-Robert Woods’ strange trauma about clapping doors. and this is some weird shit!!! and so unintentionally funny! I’ts especially great when he kills three bandits only because they laugh at his strange behaviour.
-Almost surreal saloon fight in slow motion.
-good twist at the end.[/quote]

Watched the movie for the first time last night and all these scenes had me laughing and thinking:“Me oh my, could it get any cheesier???” If you like thrashy films, you have to see this one. I especially liked Dino Strano’s performance once again. He’s just such a gifted actor! :wink:
There’s a great cast anyway (on trash-level, of course):

Robert Woods (Well, he actually starred in some really good movies)

Dino Strano (as Dean Stratford)
Benito Pacifico (as Dennis Colt)
Amerigo Leoni (as Custer Gail)
Simonetta Vitelli (as Simone Blondell)
Piera Bruni (saloon girl)
Lincoln Tate (Lincoln Tate)
Peter Martell (Peter Martell - played in some decent spags)
Gordon Mitchell (Gordon Mitchell)

… even though the last three only appear for a few seconds! Apart from Woods/Martell these actors/actresses are pretty much Fidani or Crea bound. I missed Hunt Powers and Donal O’Brien though… :smiley: :wink:

I must say I think this is a terrible film but still a lot of fun :). At least much better than Shadow of Sartana, Shadow of Your Death (which is build up on totally useless scenes that doesn’t have to do with the movie).

The first time i saw this a coupl’a years ago, i did not know who Fidani was, but i knew i was in the presence of greatness. ;D Love it.

:smiley:
I have to face Sam soon,nice prospects

I’ll have to look up Robert Woods’ opinion on the cameos in an old interview I did with him. I do remember his offhand comment about Martell’s involvement: “He was probably screwing Simone Blondell.”

He was kidding, I think…

I might have guessed it.
It makes no sense to recite all the incredible scenes of this bawler.
It’s just a Fidani …

Re viewed this one. Woods adds a bit of class on brooding mode. Dean Stratford adds the other end of the spectrum. Best bit is when the three gunfighters visit Dean. They say nothing, but are named; Lincoln Tate, Gordon Mitchell and Peter Martell. A good average one :smiley: .

The best of this is that they have nothing to do with the movie. They appear, introduce themselves and then are gone forever.

Haven’t watched it yet, but it looks terrible.
Well, I try to avoid Fidani’s films, but I guess I have to watch at least one. ::slight_smile:

Don’t avoid them, they’re entertaining in an undescribable way! I Fidani’s films you will find a hero with a door clapping phobia, bounty hunters who go by the actors real names, a bad guy who fights with his mirror and an old gray haired Django! How could you go wrong?

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Well, I watched bar brawling from it and I must say I was astonished. I can’t describe it. I felt as if I had been hypnotized… ;D
Didn’t know if I should laugh or do something else…

Try Inginocchiati straniero… i cadaveri non fanno ombra/Dead Men Don’t Make Shadows first…

I have a problem with the term so-bad-it’s-good as I can’t help but associate bad with mediocre or boring and His Name Was Sam Walbash, But They Call Him Amen is anything but boring or mediocre. But I guess since I can’t find a better term, I’ve got to say this is a true so-bad-it’s-good film (often those so-called so-bad-it’s-good films are just plain bad), what a wild and delightful beast this is! My first Fidani and I’m loving his crazy bombastic style. The film’s best moments have already been brought up, but seriously, the clapping doors freakouts are freaking incredible and that slow-mo saloon fight with the laughing dude, the weird cameos and that flashback scene… just wow. So did Flannigan also killed Sam Wallach’s parents or did the film’s craziness planted that idea in my brain? I mean he should be older then, but the masked Flannigan at the beginning looked like one of the killers, didn’t he? Anyways, great entertainment - I had way more fun with this supposed “bottom of the barrel” SW then with the other much more respected SW I saw today.

So I went back to check and I’m pretty sure I’m right about Flannigan. Also I tried to count the gunshots during the flashback scene, I probably missed a few, but I arrived at the count of 108! OMG, that is so overkill, man, they really wanted that guy dead!

;D

I haven’t seen His Name was Pot…They Call Him Allegria, but did Fidani just take a scene from said film and put it in Era Sam Wallach, or did the three stars (Martell, Tate, and Mitchell) actually come in and do a cameo? Both films were shown to have spawned from 1971. I suspect the former.

A flashback including an auditive flashforward with gunshots in the background and machine gun as most dominant sound: hats off to Fidani! ;D

Il suo nome era Pot is one I haven’t seen yet, maybe Bad Lieutenant can clarify this point… :wink: