Is dub the name of the pony?
Can some one in the U.K. help me, I keep trying to order the Silver Saddle Blu Ray from Amazon de and it keeps trying to charge me more postage than it would normally.
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Not if you compare with a Turkish film I saw once, there was a kid there who had a dub sounding like my grandma!
There is a new Japanese DVD of IMAGICA.
Audio is Italian and Japanese. And with Japanese subtitles.
Saw or review this one.
It still confuses me I SW production was so abruptly stopped in late 70’s, if quality products like this were still possible in the late 70’s. I remember that still in the 80’s SW were still popular both in rental as in local cinemas, as a kid and teen I grow up with these films, and the most popular ones in the rentals and in small towns or suburb cinemas, were the ones made after 1970. Of course overproduction assembly line style took is toll on public interest, but even so there was still a market for this kind of films, if they had some more quality at least in production conditions, and this one is the live example of that. But production companies prefer to profit once again with the same old films in the new video tape market of course it was cheaper than making new ones, they already had the product and could sell it again earning more money with the same films, pretty straightforward stuff in economic terms (they been doing that since then with Laser Disc, DVD, Blue-Ray etc, until the all thing goes down the drain).
Almeria was still there and in production terms, the place wasn’t exactly for millionaires, but it was even cheaper to make things like Ator the invincible or Warriors of the year 3568 and so on, near Rome with some Italian Bodybuilders.
This is a pretty cool SW, by then directors had some more knowledge of how to make this films work and knew all the tricks, Fulci wanted to make a pretty classical SW so he got Gemma maybe the most classical of the SW main actors, Sambrell one of the most classical SW villains, O’brien who was always around, an well known (not a star) US actor, some pretty Italian girls, and mixed it all very well.
The story it’s a nice one for a Spag not to revolutionary, basic SW stuff as we like it, the only social remark comes from one of the whore’s when she’s putting the kid to bed, the action scenes are pretty well done, Fulci was a experienced director, I particular liked that one with the with the carbide water trick Macgyver style (no I’m not saying Macgyver had SW influences), also cool it’s having Geoffrey Lewis aboard, a fine character actor that I do appreciate .
On the drawbacks side, we have the score, I didn’t like it, but I guess it goes with the time, and Morricone by then was certainly tired of doing SW scores, but in any case the main theme wasn’t at least much intrusive.
In the end nothing new (pretty impossible by then in SW terms) but very well put together, nicely made and pleasant to watch, so why didn’t they make more like this one?.
I actually saw in TV a long time ago (remember that, when I saw the kid snake knife scene), it was dubbed in English, or was it another western? (How many scenes like that can exist), the thing is that by then the Western genre was so stylize that you couldn’t tell or see any differences between American or European productions.
In any case 4 stars, and to be honest liked this one more than Quattro dell’apocalisse, being both good films. I’m more of classicist when it comes to SW.
Watched this the other night. I didn’t find the kid as jarring as some of you seem to have, but he did seem a little corny at times. (The tiny pony reminded me of this clip from a 90s sketch show Braveheart's Tiny Pony - YouTube ). I wasn’t entirely convinced by the carbide at the time (it reminded me a bit of an episode of Star Trek where Kirk manages to make gunpowder while fighting a giant reptile), but having looked it up it doesn’t actually seem so implausible.
A few of the locations looked a little unfamiliar. I’m pretty sure the town was one of the usually ones, but it had clearly been changed a bit since the mid 60s). I didn’t recognise trading post/bar where Gemma fought the three guys who were extorting money from the saloon.
I quite liked Gemma’s performance. It was a little more believable than some of his earlier films, where always grinning.
As a confirmed Gemma fan it is no surprise to discover there was plenty in this one for me to enjoy and, as others have said, he still looked great here and, more importantly also still very agile for a guy of around 40. But despite it being Gemma’s film (his main adversaries are all a bit anonymous really) it is Geoffrey Lewis who steals the show. He really should have had more screen time and his character utilised more. This would have improved the film no end. And, as much as I am a fan of Gemma, I am not a fan of kids in westerns. Especially cute blonde ones. To be fair to the boy he was not as annoying as many but building the plot around a kid is never a good idea in my book and it causes the film to sway between a revenge drama and a maudlin family type flick a la Little Lord Fauntleroy. This is the film’s biggest draw back in my opinion and surprises me still that Fulci went for it. Maybe in 1978 they felt that the family audience was the one to go for. I don’t know but I’d like to have seen them just go for a straight western and to hell with it.
As a result, although I enjoyed the ride well enough, California is a far better farewell to the genre and one I’m likely to return to more often than this.
the last great SW!!
I was so moved by the opening scene and the music that played during it. I loved the arrogance of Luke(Donald O’Brien) and that look he gave to the young boy as he just killed his father. To have his guard down and be killed by the boy who rides off with his horse and silver saddle. The irony of it the boy who was in awe seeing this saddle connected with it and ultimately becoming a living legend well known for taking out the gunmen Luke himself being a famous gunslinger and being known for his signature mark the silver saddle. Almost in a way becoming or taking on the role of the man who killed his father but on the other end of the spectrum. I believe this film would have been a top twenty if it was solely up to Fulci and not his compromising with Gemma to make this movie a more family atmosphere instead of a bloody violent one as he intended it to be. Because everyone can see the complete shift the movie took when the boy (Barrett) came in. Overall it’s still a great SW even though it took a 360 degree turn in style.
Finally got around to watching the Koch Blu Ray. It looks really good with but sometimes the faces look a bit pink, they maybe enhanced it a bit too much. I still really enjoy this one, more so than Four Of The Apocalypse.
love the sound of gunshots in this one
I’d not seen this before although I’d had it for years as a Vhs rip, but finally got to see the fantastic quality (non blu ray) dvd.
In six pages of thoughts on this I’d imagine everything’s been said. So, I’ll just agree that the kid was a bit annoying but as they’d built a film around him, had to be endured.
Geoffrey Lewis is great. Gemma’s great. The violence is good.
I’d have been prepared to give this 5 stars if it had carried on as it started moodwise (even though I’m not keen on the song), but it started to fall off in atmosphere and lose its potential as a gritty farewell to the genre.
I was still gonna round up to 4, but eventually rounded down to a 3 after vomiting into my cider at the ridiculously smaltzy last 30 seconds. 
Enjoyable, but California is the far better crepuscular Gemma offering in my book.
[quote=“Yodlaf Peterson, post:110, topic:1241”]Finally got around to watching the Koch Blu Ray. It looks really good with but sometimes the faces look a bit pink, they maybe enhanced it a bit too much. I still really enjoy this one, more so than Four Of The Apocalypse.
[/quote]
also very good cover! much better than dvd black and white, i only like this SW from gemma and arizona colt
You rather like Day of Anger and A Pistol for Ringo too, they’re twenty-third and twenty-seventh respectively in your extended Top 20 list…
i was very bore with them and now it’s out from my collection only the fast paced survives
mercenary dies too…
heh heh, you got love this guy!
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The film strengths are the introductory sequence, Geoffrey Lewis, the score (especially the Snake theme), some effective gunfights and the girls; on the other hand, weak points are all the scenes in which Valsecchi in some way takes the lead, above all the forced, unconvincing final sequence.
After Gino Marturano in A Hole In The Forehead and Pedro Sanchez in Sabata, Aldo Sambrell plays here the third and last Garrincha in the SW world.
Just seen this. A very good film, probably my favourite Fulci’s western. The opening scene is one of the most beautifully looking I’ve seen in some time. Overall, the film sporadically becomes slightly ambivalent and schizophrenic, but Fulci’s mise-en-scène is so adroit and Salvati’s cinematography so stunning that I loved every minute of this film, no matter how flawed it got on a couple of occasions.
I got the Koch dvd after all this time, and really enjoyed this film. Just One Question, who played the gun hired by Barrett in the opening? At first I thought it was a clean shaven Donal O’Brien, but he popped up later in the film.