Almost took Day 24 off as I was helping babysit my little cousins, but after seeing P. Periera’s thumbs up for this little SW, I decided to check it out
Fernando Sancho is practically Mr. SW to many of us I think, and almost every film he’s in is good, so I’m expecting the standard fare from him. Stephen Forsyth was underrated in my opinion, and the few SWs I’ve seen him in he’s been good at the part he played.
Thought I’d finished with Craig Hill but realised I’d forgotten this one.
One of the benefits (if you can call it that) of doing challenges like this is it exposes gaps you might have missed before. This film is a case in point. Once I’d realised I’d forgotten it I went to my collection to pick it out and couldn’t for the life of me find it. This made me doubt I’d ever seen it so went to the film’s forum thread and sure enough found no entry from me about it. Luckily it is now available on Amazon Prime so watched it via that.
But here’s the kicker. The more I watched the more I became convinced I’d seen it before so now I’m just doubly confused.
Anyway, it’s an ok Spag with a decent, town based story and a good cast. Fits very squarely in the typical early Craig Hill canon as it’s an enjoyable enough film while being pretty average on the whole and suffering from some pretty clunky dialogue in places. Fajardo is very good as the main villain though and worth seeing for him alone.
Definitely done with Hill for Spagvemberfest now but still deciding where to go for the last handful of days.
It’s weird being able to see so many of those obscure titles one could only dream of seeing some time ago.
Anyway, I’ve just seen The Man Who Shot Billy The Kid (1967) and found it very… okay for the most part. This easily could’ve been a much better movie if it’d had a proper character development and a more taut narrative. The structure of the motion picture seems very episodic and PLL’s shift from a cute boyo to a cold-blooded killer feels rather abrupt and not duly prepared in any way whatsoever.
The idea to accentuate the tragedy of Garrett’s part also points to the potential dormant in the tale, none of that is ever explored though and the whole enchilada ends up being as perfunctory as they come. The flick basically progresses from one scene to another, but no flow and no sense of connection or conceptual coherence is ever established between consecutive scenes and phases of the script; the whole scripting development seems crude, choppy and inadequate.
It’s not a bad movie by any means, but the aforementioned absence of depth in the writing makes all of it very unmemorable in the end. Probably gonna move on to one of Rafael Romero Marchent’s spags now.
Almost watched it yesterday as a last PLL picture. I think, there’s a quantum entaglement between our spagvember sets. Spooky action at a distance - as good old Uncle Al called it.
BTW, be sure to check out 20.000 dollari sul 7, it’s a magnificent masterpiece, resplendently splendorous, something you definitely do not want to miss.
Another fine example of just sitting back and letting the adventure unfold around you. I agree with everyone else’s comments that this is Anthony Steffen’s finest acting performance, something I now wish he’d been able to do more often, but I guess the producers, directors, etc preferred him to have that Eastwood-like stoic expression on his face every time. I heard Mark Damon say once in an interview his period of working in Italian cinema was the best experience of his life, and reinvigorated his wish to be an actor, specifically the comraderies on the sets and he was right as he got much more solid opportunities like here.
I had to work all day yesterday, so I will give my take on Monday’s and Tuesday’s SW’s before segwaying into today’s pick. Monday’s ‘Any Gun Can Play’ (1967) was an unexpectedly complex yet compelling and fun film. George Hilton is increasingly becoming a favorite leading man in my opinion. However, toward the end it appeared that Castellari was borrowing from Leone’s ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’ made the year before. I recommend watching it at least once. Yesterday’s 'Light the Fuse…Sartana Is Coming (1970) with Gianni Garko had its moments but was pretty conventional fare and became too convoluted too follow after a while. Today, I will be watching ‘Fort Yuma Gold’ (1966) with Giuliano Gemma.
Day 25.
Second night with a brother’s revenge movie. Again the one killed in the process is a priest. I know people who hate it and people who loved it. Personally I had no idea what to expect nor particularly interest on it. It was not bad, guess it should have extra points being a pre-Cannon production.
It’s all been far too easy so decided to finish off the last few days of Spagvemberfest by watching some comedies from my to watch pile.
First up was this pre-Leone Paella from '62 which has been laying around for longer than I can remember. Actually, it is harmless fun and quite funny in places. Couldn’t say I would recommend it but I’ve seen worse. Speaking of which, I can feel some Franco & Ciccio coming on.
Taking Day 26 off to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday, check out the parades on TV, and binge the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special. Will be back tomorrow or Saturday depending on the Christmas decorating schedule.
Christian-Jacque: The Legend of Frenchie King
-Another dvd which I still had unopened on my shelf. Silly film but with CC and BB you had to be blind or dead if you’re not at least a little bit entertained with this film. 5/10
So, I’ve had a minor setback this week but I’m not going to let that stop me from seeing out SpagvemberFest which continues tonight with A Fistful of Dollars (Leone, 1964), starring Clint Eastwood as a loveable trash compactor who falls in love with a sanitary bin, I think. Ew.
I think I’m going to go back to the Frayling commentary for my last couple of viewings. I know I’ve heard it a bunch but it feels like the most palatable option to me at this point. Like an old mate jabbering amiably on at me, you know?