Yes, a good point. It’s probably one of the most listless films I’ve seen in a while or like ever. Even the unavoidable fistfights just seem to be completely devoid of any energy whatsoever. What a weird piece of shit. Meh, still preferable to On the Third Day Arrived the Crow (1973) though.
I actually found Savage Guns just kind of boring, but I simply might’ve been in the wrong state of mind and it was my first Fidani at the time, which was maybe why I didn’t make much of it then. My favorite Fidani is probably A Barrel Full of Dollars, which has everything you’d hope to find in a cheapo of this kind. It’s just charming in its simplicity and artlessness.
The instant you begin to descent into the nether regions of the genre, this tactic unfortunately becomes an inevitability. I either do that or browse the internet while the movie plays out in the background.
I have desisted from this lunacy for the time being. Forgive me everybody, it just hurts too goddamn much and my brain needs a rest, it felt like it was starting to decompose owing to all the movie trash I’d suffused it with.
If you haven’t seen Black Killer, please do so, it’s a great trash flick. Very bad, but in a good way.
I’ve re-watched Arizona Colt, Run Man Run and Sonny & Jed. While my thoughts regarding the first two movies haven’t changed much, my appreciation for the latter one has increased insofar as it’s gotten into my Top 10. Just beautiful. One of Corbucci’s best and his most visually enthralling work by far. It’s also his funniest film, it’s such an edgy, raunchy and rowdy picture. I must say The Mercenary’s sense of humor has palled on me in recent years which stands in stark contrast to this film. S&J just works better for some reason even if it’s not dramatically different in its approach to humor in general. Probably a controversial opinion all around and it’s not a movie for everybody, I know, but whatever. Anyway, it’s time to revise my Top 20 and my Alternative Top 20, a lot of new stuff has cropped up, time to catch up.
Was planning on watching a Peter Lee Lawrence Western today, but the dreary weather here in the States had me falling asleep throughout the afternoon. I still might checkout something on YouTube’s Film&Clips channel.
Another early one which just tries to mimic a 50s U.S. western but for some reason I have a soft spot for this one. Bava’s best work was definitely not in this genre and neither was Ken Clark’s but I seem to be able to forgive them both because I enjoy their other stuff so much. Also, no one but Bava would have opted to shoot so much of this in the studio which deserves kudos just for bloody mindedness. And the Koch Media release is a good one as usual so the thing looks great anyway.
22: ‘No Room to Die’ (1969) Una lunga fila di croci (A Long Line of Crosses)
Gave up on this one a few years ago, because when a western is set on the Texas / Mexican border and the locations are wintery Roman countryside, and stone quarry sand pits, it really puts me off … so, having suspended disbelief and assumed a more calm position, I thought give it a go.
Frankly it moves at a snail’s pace, but when the action kicks in, wow! - Most SWs have dime a dozen shootouts and punch-ups which generally get old very quickly … But this has action scenes which are inventive, energetic and genuinely exciting …. in fact if I was rating the movie purely on this aspect alone it would get an eight or nine out of ten.
The highlights are a supercool William Berger, a gorgeous Nicoletta Machiavelli, a likeable slob in Mario Brega … and even the Mighty Steff isn’t bad - He seems to up his game when there are ‘Real actors’ around, rather than do his semi comatose Clint impersonation. Despite unsuitable locations, the photography is above average and is quite atmospheric, also the editing in the action scenes is suitably choppy and unsettling … you really sit up and pay attention when the bullets or machetes start to fly.
SPAGVEMBERFEST 2019: DAY 19
Had to miss yesterday’s movie (Shoot, Gringo, Shoot) thanks to being bitten by a f#king rat dog Chihuahua owned by my wife’s friend who lives a few doors down from us, and having to prat about at the doctor’s getting a tetanus jab. Little bastard. I thought briefly about double-billing yesterday’s and today’s movies as I’ve done many times in the past before quickly thinking, sod that, this Spagvember is tough enough as it is. So I’m straight onto today’s effort which is, appropriately enough, Hate Thy Neighbour (Baldi, 1968). Which I do right now. Them and their f#king rat dog.
I’ve just seen Blu Gang e vissero per sempre felici e ammazzati (1973) and quite honestly, I seriously don’t know what to think of it. On one hand, a lot of film’s aspects are undeniably compelling and atmospheric, I must say Storaro’s cinematography looks quite splendid even in the shitty French TCM version all of us have and I can’t imagine how good this would look in a properly remastered release. On the other hand, the thing is all of these upsides are practically negated by the quasi-nonexistent plot and the completely amorphous structure entailed thereby. It’s hard to talk about any of the main characters because they are as vague as they come; there are no three-dimensional characters to speak of, no character development, no real composition, no narrative purpose or balanced rhythm, nothing.
Things just come and go, the storyline comes out of nowhere and goes nowhere, you don’t feel one way or another about the characters because you don’t really know anything meaningful about them. Everything is so preposterously diluted it almost feels like a three-hour movie which was cut by an hour and a half and all of the remaining pieces were slapped together to sell commercially with no regard for what the final product looked like. It’s hard to understand why this thing even exists, as the underlying purpose of the narrative is completely obscured by horrid writing and the complete lack of focus. It’s a movie that could’ve been really great, which is evident in some nuggets of gold scattered here and there, but all of it is ultimately squandered throughout the perplexing course of narration.
Yeah, that’s the one. It’s just a nice shit flick, I found it quite funny.
With an actual story to tell, this could’ve been a great movie on par with something like Four of the Apocalypse or Sonny & Jed, it reminds me of these two, as a matter of fact, since it has the same balladesque vibe IMHO. It’s fairly well-directed and exquisitely shot for my part, but the writing is genuinely fucking horrible and impossible to ignore unfortunately. What’s the whole point of even making a movie like that, it doesn’t have a proper structure even by impressionistic standards.
It isn’t unfortunately. I had also hoped this would prove to be some kind of a hidden gem (let’s face it, this is why we watch lesser known flicks in the first place), but it’s not. It’s very heavily flawed by its horrid script, there is just no getting around it, the story is that bad, yes.
So maybe it was the priest and his gun from My Name Is Pecos (from December 1966) that insprired The Dirty Outlaws (September 1967) and Black Killer (1971), regarding the hidden gun in bible issue ?
By the way, the priest character was named Morton in My Name Is Pecos (not Pinto which was the same actor’s character in Pecos Cleans Up).
There’s lot of Joes in spaghetti we$tern realm, this one deals heavily in dynamite niche. And what a great start this movie has. It made me wonder “Is this the hidden gem of Spagvember Fest 2019 I’ve been bragging about just few hours ago?” Unfortunately not. After great 20-30 minutes it slowly deteriorates into crap. Well, not into crea/fidani/croccolo crap, it is actually still highly entertaining, but I was just expecting it will keep up with the strong start, so now I’m quite disappointed.
Anyway, Rik Van Nutter plays Dynamite Joe who is hired by US government to deal with the Comancheros. There’s lot of action throughout the movie, especially final third is packed, don’t expect much gunplay though, mostly various spectacular explosions are on the display. Well, mostly. There’s a scene with flood caused by Joe’s expertise, and since this is a italian production from the 60s’, the whole scene looks as ridiculous as it is portrayed on the poster. 5/10
The last 1.5 years have concentrated my SW watching to the nowadays around 40 non-Leone films that I have bought after rather careful research, but here in Spain I have no more of these left (but I will re-rewatch some later and hopefully get a few “new” by post before returning till “Cold land” for skiing) so today I watched A Fistful Of Dollars which may be the first SW I ever watched several decades ago on TV. I also bought a VHS copy last millenium showing a potential for becoming an aficionado. My former 9/10 rating still feels rather well motivated. One may notice that this film, which is said to have started it all, isn’t that extreme in certain or several aspects. I mean for example that the mood can be more depressed and dark in other later SW. And my 10/10 rated Once Upon A Time In The West could even be “accused” of being relatively “American” in style. It is visually so good one sometimes hardly thinks of it as a spaghetti-western, maybe one could argue. But both these two obviously are so well directed, with good stories and very good to extremely good actors so they are hard to beat.
It was nice in the beginning of AFOD to see the location where now the Hotel Cortijo El Sotillo near the Almerian east coast pueblo San José is situated and where I and my wife stayed a little more than a year ago. But most of the movie is shot at or around the now disappeared classic western town “Golden City” less than a kilometer south of the pueblo Hoyo de Manzares about 20 km NNV of Madrid.
