Whiskey and Glory!!!
I re-watched this again this morning. I’m of mixed feelings about this one. Somewhere in between the Rev & Phil. While I did enjoy it, I found myself inadvertently checking the time to see how much of the movie was left. I did this four or five times during the last half of the film. It’s funny that the Rev mentioned Night of the Serpent, I watched that right before I watched this.
For me the comedic elements are too strong NOT to call this a comedy. Yes, there are juxtaposed moments of brutality (often handled with black humor) but the movie never seems serious to me. But it is a weird hybrid at the least.
I love some of the lines (Tessari at work?). Old Biddy: “Harold, there’s a couple of horse thieves that want to talk to you.” Cue the shotgun blast.
It is a fun movie and the rambunctious score drives that home in a literally resounding way.
It has a wonderful cast.
The wall-eyed Victor Israel has a tiny but eccentric part as a saloon piano player who takes advantage of a barroom brawl to play the classical music he prefers instead of the customary honky-tonk. He does so sublimely.
Always on the lookout for the boys from L’America A Roma, Paolo Magalloti (as Paul Carter) plays Kenneth, one of the brothers.
It’s two-for-one on banditos as Fernando Sancho this time plays the second in command although he carries a lovely golden scepter for part of the film and wears a gaudy uniform jacket with tasseled epaulettes. The terrific Leo Anchorez plays the vicious leader Santillana who perishes in yet another waterwheel related Spaghetti fatality.
The “much too soft” Chris Huerta makes a brief appearance and a fiery exit.
Antonio Molino Rojo is the corrupt and not too bright sheriff.
Saturno Cerra, who gets “boot shot” by Jason Robards in OUATITW is MacGregor brother Johnny.
Georges Riguad, Alberto Dell’Acqua, etc, etc…
If you pay attention at minute 58:07 on the RHV dvd you can witness a real life “near death” experience. One of the stuntmen is climbing onto the top of a moving train just as it starts to pass underneath a low-clearance trestle bridge. As he comes to the top of the railcar, he puts his head down to keep his hat from blowing off in the wind and doesn’t see the bridge approaching. The bridge clears the top of his head by what appears to be just inches.
Yikes, I almost jumped out of my chair.
Oh yeah, Robert Woods punches Agatha Flory twice in this one. Rough.
“If my hunch is right” some will like this, some won’t, and some will feel both ways.
Hurrah the MacGregors! (Well, kinda.)
