I tried to watch this last night but found the jokes lame 
and the action (mexicans attacking the house and the barroom brawl) tiresome. The film never got past 20 minutes before I put something good on (Night of the Serpent) again. Maybe Iāll try again one day, but so far neither early or later comedy westerns are seeming to hit the spot.
You should give it another try Rev.
Although far from the gritty fare I know you prefer this film becomes less comedic as it goes on. In fact I wouldnāt class it as a comedy at all. However, the first 20 minutes (the bits you watched) with the old couple probably give the impression it is a comedy.
In reality it is one of those strange mixtures that is neither Arthur or Martha which Giraldi seemed to make a trademark of. Sugar Colt is the same. A massacre, followed by a silly fist fight, followed by a tense gun battle.
Worth another go anyway. If youāve a mind.
Maybe so - Iāll try again another day. Cheers
Or you could watch Night of The Serpent againā¦
;D
Whiskey and Glory!!!
I re-watched this again this morning. Iām 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. Itās 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: āHarold, thereās a couple of horse thieves that want to talk to you.ā 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 LāAmerica A Roma, Paolo Magalloti (as Paul Carter) plays Kenneth, one of the brothers.
Itās 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 āmuch too softā 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 āboot shotā by Jason Robards in OUATITW is MacGregor brother Johnny.
Georges Riguad, Alberto DellāAcqua, etc, etcā¦
If you pay attention at minute 58:07 on the RHV dvd you can witness a real life ānear deathā 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 doesnāt 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.
āIf my hunch is rightā some will like this, some wonāt, and some will feel both ways.
Hurrah the MacGregors! (Well, kinda.)
Well, I guess I should have read Scherps review BEFORE I posted my comments on the film. :-[
Naturally, as in all his customarily comprehensive reviews, Scherps catches nearly everything.
Scherps are you sure it is actually Sancho who nearly gets decapitated? I (probably wrongly) assumed that Sancho would not perform a stunt like that. Obviously it is his character who is climbing onto the top of the train but is it likely that he would have done such a thing himself? He was not exactly nimble. There were at least two working stuntmen/actors as part of the cast (Paolo Magalotti & Alberto DellāAcqua). Surely there were even more stuntmen available. Just curiousā¦
Thanks
I went back and looked at the near decap again and Scherps is clearly right. It IS Sancho. Wow.
Maybe Iāll get to watch this one day - even if just for this ā¦ 
Where is it that they show that clip of Eli Wallach in GBU, after heās removed Mario Brega from his wrist via a train? They go on about how he was nearly decapitated by the trainās footplate - but this sounds closer to a near death experience :P.
[quote=āReverend Danite, post:29, topic:639ā]Maybe Iāll get to watch this one day - even if just for this ā¦
Where is it that they show that clip of Eli Wallach in GBU, after heās removed Mario Brega from his wrist via a train? They go on about how he was nearly decapitated by the trainās footplate - but this sounds closer to a near death experience :P.[/quote]
Itās in one of the extras on the 2XDVD from GBU
I think Eli is telling the story himself, so it must be one of the interviews
This was a great, fun movie. I especially enjoyed how the younger Macgregors race back to save the oldsters at the beginning, but at the end, itās the elders that come to the younger boys rescue. Wonderful score and a playful nature with a slightly dark comical tone and a fine villain role for Leo Anchoriz, who previously essayed antagonists in a handful of sword and sandal and Italian adventure movies. Itās obvious some money was lavished on this, and seemingly, even more so on the sequel.
The only sad note is that on the RHV disc, the English dub track is out of sync from time to time during the movie. Was this ever corrected?
A Robert Woods focus Iām working on currently has led me to seek out some of his films for the first time as well as revisit some old favourites. This film is one of the latter. I picked up the RHV release in Italy a couple of years ago and it makes entertaining viewing.
As others have said, a good mix of light and dark scenes with lots of good action scenes and a solid cast. I still flinched during the train scene where Fernando Sancho nearly loses his head. That was one hell of a close shave and a great example of the lack of health and safety on those old shoots.
Woods tells an anecdote about filming a fistfight for this film that corroborates what you say. Iāll try to find the exact quote, but basically he was far from happy with the safety precautions - or lack of them.
I think thatās what Phil says:
I also remember Clint talking (I guess itās an extra to GBU) about it to Eli Wallach: he told him not to do anything dangerous. Still Eli was nearly beheaded in one scene with a train (after he has killed Mario Brega).
Hereās the Woods quote I was talking about. Heās not certain this incident took place on the first MacGregors movie, but pretty sure. In any case (and without wishing to denigrate the work of stunt choreographers/performers in general), it illustrates what seems to have been a general laxity:
āIāve always been a rough-and-tumble kind of guy. I liked fighting [laughs]ā¦ A guy cracked my rib once - might have been on MacGregors - so I broke his nose! [Laughs] He was supposed to choreograph all this stuff and, man, did me hit me.ā
Having a hard time getting through this oneā¦anyone big fans of this out there?
Already a thread for this one:
http://www.spaghetti-western.net/forum/index.php/topic,715.0.html
iām not even a small fan of this
Threads merged.
Thanks Silence 
.