I agree about Palmara’s acting skills: he’s okay, but nothing special, but not aon Richardson’s acting. I don’t see his greatness. But appreciations are like … everybody has one !
We are the craziest ones, we still watch this shit, what, 50 years after their original release? Fidani would probably laugh his goddamn ass off if he was still alive and saw this.
I’ve just re-watched Four of the Apocalypse again and man, this movie truly gets weirder and better at the same time with every single viewing, it’s crazy. It feels like an Italian El Topo to my way of thinking, which also reminds me I have to re-watch that one too. Salvati’s cinematography is out of this world, that’s probably the intention too, undoubtedly one of the most distinctively looking spags out there. Now I’ve gotta re-watch A Fistful of Dollars just to know where things stand, haven’t seen it in ages.
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Don’t worry, Gianni Crea is still alive and knows about your Crea marathon and is laughing so hard he can’t hold his liquer.
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It’s possible and that’s a nice way to look at it, but there are many people who make really bad art and are still convinced they are talented and legit - anyone with half an eye can see that his films stink … but yet he continued to make them - He probably thought they were good or at least ok.
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Why only title scene? The rest is also 10/10. (But don’t forget cognac).
I think of him as a fairly skilled craftsman who would make movies with virtually zero resources and still succeed in churning out fairly diverting romps with their own distinct charm. They were not intended to function on some arbitrary arthouse plane, these were specifically made for the domestic market and the merriment of juvenile male viewers in smelly Italian theatres filled with cigarette smoke, shouting, laughter of the audience and the smell of beer and cheap booze. If you divorce his movies from this specific context and hold his oeuvre to the same standards as Sollima or Petroni, I suppose you could then call his movies ‘stinky’, but I don’t see any point in trying to view his films in this manner, it just doesn’t make much sense. Their whole charm dwells in the fact they’re scuzzy, cheap and ridiculous, yes, of course, they’re kind of bad in certain respects, it’s obvious, everybody knows that.
I think there is a degree of cinematic self-awareness coming through in the way the ridiculous stunts are done and the plots of these flicks are constructed and so on; I would say there is definitely an element of facetiousness found here to a certain extent, but I could be wrong for all I know and he indeed fancied himself as some sort of cinematic genius, I honestly doubt that though.
His movies are a bit of an in-house joke around here and while our appreciation for some of his work may be quite puzzling to outsiders, some of them are quite decent in consideration of their extremely meager budgets and in comparison with the genre’s most wretched entries, which then really make you appreciate how relatively well-made these Fidani’s cheesefests are for what they ultimately are. If I were forced to choose between a CGI snoozefest and some old-school romp of this kind, I would readily pick the latter simply because of the human element found in these movies and their cheapo charm, which makes us ignore some of their technical deficiencies entailed by budgetary constraints. It’s all about fun and charm. In my view, Fidani’s flicks are a lot more fun than some of the more bland early-period spags without any particularly distinguishing factors. Are these early genre examples superior to Fidani’s ventures on the technical level? Possibly, but who cares. I like watching movies like that from time to time, they’re good diversion and they feel different, they have a different flavor overall and hey that’s cool.
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Watched Bill il Taciturno (Django Kills Softly) this afternoon.
Very much on the average scale for an SW, but George Eastman has a nice enough smile to fool his enemies into thinking he’s a pushover, and it’s nice seeing a secondary/supporting actor like Luciano Rossi aka Edward Ross and Lou Kamante get to play the main bad guy.
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SPAGVEMBERFEST 2019: DAY 25
Going with a relatively big one today in the form of Georgio Ferroni’s Wanted (1967). Might be the “biggest” picture I haven’t yet seen, possibly. I’m expecting something competently made, unexciting and comfy. Like a pair of old man slippers.
As determined as I am to finish SpagvemberFest, and I will, I’m sorely tempted to see out the last week by swapping the mediocre fare I had planned to watch for some genuine quality titles. My box-sets haven’t seen a flurry of activity like this in five or six years and I’m happy to have finally gotten a neglected stack of spags watched, but my soul is crying out for some Leone, some Sollima, some (good) Corbucci. I’m going to need a spaghettithon just to recover from Spagvember!
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Spagvemberfest 2019 - Day 22
Django Shoots First (De Martino / 1966)
An early Django rip off that obviously has nothing to do with Django but a pretty enjoyable film which is well directed, looks great in parts and benefits from a killer one-two punch of Spaghetti beauties in Ida Galli and Erika Blanc.
This was one of those releases that has sat neglected on my shelf for ages but was well worth the revisit. Saxon doesn’t quite do it for me in the lead role but was athletic enough to look the part and he was far from awful. the supporting cast more than made up for him and overall an enjoyable ride.
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I think I’ve got that release. Is it in Italian with English subtitles?
Had this one lined up too … I originally watched the Italian dub with Eng subs, but watched the English version later released by ‘Dorado’ - was very disappointed that Fernando Sancho was not dubbed by his usual ‘voice artist!’
I think Glenn Saxon did ok, plus now he reminds me rather of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, ‘Rick Dalton’ 
Ida looks fab, as always!
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- Apache Woman (Giorgio Mariuzzo, 1976)
Enjoyable late twilight spagh, similar to Soldier Blue and Scalps. Great score. Just avoid youtube versions.
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I re-rewatched Yankee which I received just 2 weeks ago.
With a good image quality, nice colours, OK outdoor scenes from for me still unknown landscapes of the Barcelona province and a fine atmosphere Yankee at least LOOKS very good.
The rather unusal plot is a bit simple with the - also a bit odd I think - antihero for example literally playing hide and seek with the Great Concho (a character similar to the corresponding baddies in Pecos Cleans Up and Death Walks in Laredo).
The latter big villian is by the way in a short scene tortoring a man and I think his daughter by letting her hang in a rope while standing on his shoulders, a scene that I guess could I have inspired the corresponding flashback scene in Once Upon A Time In The West which I watched yesterday.
Another scene could have inspired Leonardo da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper, or was it the other way around ?
The carefree main music theme in whistling mode maybe could be interpreted as the antihero just was drifting in the beginning and got himself in a little adventure and made up a scheme to outwit the Great Concho. But there was also much more typical very good hispanic type trumpet music.
The leading actor Philippe Leroy was only 36 years old here but I think he looks significantly older and could have played an accountant or the like, but I think he is acceptable as a different kind of antihero. It is the same actor who later portrayed an elderly industrialist in a wheelchair and who owned a mine in Mannaja a decade later. The Great Concho was played by Adolfo Celi who I have seen in one of the 4 parts of Death Sentence where he was a similar type of evil big character (but in that case another unholy churchman).
I have rated Yankee as a 6 out of 10 and if it wasn’t for the rather thin story it could be a 7/10, but I must confess that after this 3rd watching it grew a bit more so it may advance some positions among the 6/10 rated on my SW Top 40.
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25. His Name was King (1971)
“At first glance it’s all there: the violence, the hate, the Mexicans, the rednecks, the señoritas, the … you name it. But there’s no real enchantment. It may not be the worst movie of its kind you’ll ever see - I’ve seen far worse - but the sparks won’t fly.” ( scherpschutter) Nothing really to add to that. Except cheesy song.
5/10
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Blindman has dropped out of my Top 20 and Keoma has gotten back in. While I don’t dislike Keoma’s soundtrack as much as some people do, I do believe it should’ve focused on instrumentals more, since these are pretty good on their own, female vocalist’s meowing and wailing gets distracting as well as repetitive after a while and lastly, male singer’s Italian accent is just way too conspicuous. I like atonal stuff every once in a while and it can definitely enrich any movie’s atmosphere when used sparingly, but this thing here is just out of tune and isn’t used sparingly at all. Likewise, a lot of the singing is unnecessarily obtrusive, simply superfluous and easily could’ve been done away with. The final act is easily the best part of the film.
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I think this marathon challenge is starting to get to me, I just didn’t have the energy to pop an SW in my player today and I’ve seen most of the good ones on Film&Clips on YouTube. I do plan to call the challenge officially over for myself Thanksgiving Day and conclude with Una Pistola per Ringo (A Pistol for Ringo), as it coincides with the upcoming Holiday season.
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Are you sure? Only two more days to go to November 30? If you’re running out of films, you’ll find some interesting stuff on another YouTube channell:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjY5y1JFEqzq-iJoMF9MqTA/videos
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It’s just a bit of fun, amigo - as much as we love this genre, I think we all feel the strain after a while ! Well done for taking part 
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26. Chapagua’s Gold (1970)
Yesterday I did two films. Starting on the second, my confusion was complete. Isn’t this the film that I watched a minute ago? Same director, same openings theme? Bu no, not the same. The director Giancarlo Romitelli made this one in 1970, and then His Name was King in 1971, recycling Bacalov’s score as well as some scenes from Chapagua.
Chapagua by the way opens with a spectacular poker scene. There are four players and, after the draw, the following hands: full house with queens and aces, full house with aces and kings, straight flush with the ace of heart on top (the supposedly winning hand) and four aces. How many aces was that again? Ten. And who took it home? The guys with their guns ready under the table, of course.
5/10
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SPAGVEMBERFEST 2019: DAY 26
Going with Ben and Charlie (Lupo, 1972) today, a movie which I think has been on at least a couple of other peoples’ Spagvember lists this year. With Giuliano on “Trinity” duty here I’m somewhat concerned that this’ll be little more than A Sky Full of Stars For a Roof 2: Sky Harder but I want to check it off of my “to do” list anyway. It’s waited long enough.
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