DAY 12
My Draw at Sundown tonight produced no.28, and that means the acrobatic, high flipping antics of Sabata (Parolini, 1969), in which everybody whom LVC shoots leaps in the air like a Chinook salmon before attempting a triple somersault with a twist. Fancy! Good job Sabata is a generally fun affair or that might start to become irritating.
Spagvemberfest 2022
Day 12
The Grand Duel (Santi / 1972)
Something better from the LVC canon today and looking superb on the Arrow Bluray. Great theme music lifts this one even further and Horst Frank always adds to any party. Definitely better than the past couple
Day 12 - Dynamite Jim (1966)
Another Balcazar film with a similar cast to “Hands of Steel”, sadly this one is the lesser film. Despite the casting of Rosalba Neri and a nice (and ridiculous) opening song, this film is too light and goofy. However there are still several nice scenes which still make this movie bearable.
Spagvember Fest Day 12
El Sabor de la Venganza / I Tre Spietati
First time watch. For an early SW focusing a little more on the Randolph Scott style of Westerns, this was pretty good actually. The ending is quite lackluster, but for the most part I had a good time with the film.
Richard Harrison once again does a solid job in the lead role. While I prefer my SW leads a little more on the morally ambiguous side, Harrison gives enough complexity that he’s not too clean cut. Robert Hundar was also excellent as the bitter hate filled brother of Harrison, roles which I wish he had gotten more of. It was equally refreshing to see Fernando Sancho playing a good guy. He provides a nice amount of humor to balance the action and drama.
Herr Bruckner and his company Explosive Media do another fine job on this release, the Italian audio nice and crisp, and the picture quality was good for the most part though age was more apparent on this film’s print than the others.
Day 12
Los siete de Pancho Villa
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Siete_de_Pancho_Villa,_Los
Third night with a José María Elorrieta’s western. Once again recycling the same locations. Although it’s a quite different story this time. Zapata style. Slow paced. It’s alright.
DAY 13:
Il mio nome è Scopone e faccio sempre cappotto (1972) - Director: Juan Bosch - 3/10
Apart from featuring probably one of the most outlandish as well as synth-heavy soundtracks in the history of the genre, the flick recounts yet another tale revolving around a disputed mine and the crucible emanating from the fact that pretty much everybody wants to lay their hands on that wealth, including our stone-faced pistolero Stiffen. Albeit not nearly as funny as it is intended to be, the film boasts high-spirited Fernando Sancho who exuberantly shows off his fat ass and essays to invigorate the otherwise middling content in any way he can.
This is no masterpiece obviously and the comedy does not work all that much, but it looks like a movie more or less in virtue of its good production values and good cast; considering the latter factor though, this should have been much better and much more amusing. Nevertheless, this one is not too bad. Yeah, it’s still pretty bad, but not that bad in my view and you get to see Sancho’s ass which is a plus I guess? I must say I am rather puzzled by Bosch’s apparent fascination with Sancho’s derrière and by the number of times he is molested in the course of this film.
Day 13
Four Gunmen of the Holy Trinity (1971)
Quattro pistoleri di Santa Trinitá, I - The Spaghetti Western Database (spaghetti-western.net)
Peter Lee Lawrence stole Steve McQueen’s rifle! Every time PLL used his gun, I kept flashing back to old re-reruns of Wanted Dead or Alive and numerous other westerns where this sawed off rifle gimmick was used. This makes my second spaghetti for the fest, along with Stagecoach of the Condemned, that spends a great deal of time in one indoor location. Maybe in honor of @Dean I should also give Shoot the Living, Pray for the Dead a re-watch. 
I can’t say that this is one of my PLL favorites. It is just okay.
You speak sense. I like sense.
It’s Fidani time!
#11 Fidani: Django & Sartana -Showdown in the West
-One of Fidani’s best/worst -depending how you look at it. It’s a turkey for sure but a fun one. 6/10
Day 10 The Deserter
Day 11 Find a place to die
Day 12 Grand Duel
Day 9 - The Return of Ringo
Superb movie by any standards. Morricone’s soundtrack is full of emotion. Arrow delivers a stunning Blu-ray with an awesome audio commentary.
Day 10 - Sugar Colt
Much better than that I thought–comedic but not a comedy. Think “A Pistol for Ringo”. The Koch DVD is pretty good.
Day 11 - Find a Place to Die
Average western following a group of gunfighters hired by a woman who wants to rescue her trapped husband. VCI entertainment’s non-anamorphic DVD is very much a scratchy VHS.
Day 12 - A Pistol for Ringo
Also a great film, though not the mini-masterpiece that it’s “sequel” would turn out to be. Beautiful Arrow blu with another great audio commentary.
DAY 13
Ooh, I’m weirdly excited for this one! My girl grew no.9 today, which on my list is The Deserter (Kennedy, 1970), a movie I think I’ve only seen twice and, both times, I’ve thought it was a pretty bloody good film, but which keeps finding itself bumped back down my list of favourite westerns by other, showier titles receiving sexy new blu-ray presentations and such.
I shall be watching tonight courtesy of the crappy-but-dependable, good old Spaghetti Western 44 Movie Collection from Mill Creek. After I’ve spent an hour locating the movie in the bloody set, of course! Stupid double-sided discs with teeny-tiny writing in the middle of them which I’d struggle to see even if I was using an electron tunnelling microscope mumble grumble etc…
Day 13 - Nevada Joe (1965) Ignacio F. Iquino
Another member of the gigantic family of Joes in spaghetti-land, joining his brothers Navajo, Shanghai, dynamite and many others…
This is an alright-to-pretty-good early paella western starring George Martin who does an unfortunate amount of talking in this one. Too many damn scene of people talking! (It doesn’t help when I don’t understand the language, maybe it’s a hidden masterpiece I’m too stupid to appreciate). It’s got a mine in it and I have a weird love for mines in westerns, so that made me pretty happy.
Spagvember Fest Day 13
Sergio Corbucci’s Gli Specalisti
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Specialisti,_Gli
Rewatch. Like with @LankyGringo, this is my favorite Corbucci Western with Django 2nd and Il Grande Silenzio 3rd. I sure do wish Johnny Halliday had done more more Westerns, he was a natural in the role of Hud. He played the jaded disillusioned loner very well Since Halliday’s pretty much the French equivalent of Elvis, I kinda see this as his Charro!, albeit a million times better than Charro!, though Charro! is entertaining.
Francoise Fabian was great as the SW genre’s first female villain in Virginia Pollicut, she actually felt more ruthless than most of the male baddies. Mario Adorf was equally great as the wacky El Diablo.
I know Corbucci meant for the foursome following Hud to be his harsh take on the Hippie Culture, but I tend to view them as hobos with delusions of grandeur.
Eureka! did an excellent job with their release of this classic, much better than Kino.
Spagvemberfest 2022
Day 13
Day of Anger (Valerii / 1967)
Ah, this is more like it. Classic pupil against master story with LVC perfect as the hard inscrutable Talby forged and finally defeated by his own rules and tricks. Gemma equally perfect as the downtrodden and impressionable Scott Mary and the whole thing wrapped in a wailing frenzy of screaming brass and guitar in the form of Riz Ortolani’s inspired score. Never fails to deliver and makes up for any God’s Gun or Bad Man’s River nonsence all on its own.
Day 14
For a Few Dollars More (1965)
Not much needs to be said about this one. Clint Eastwood…Lee Van Cleef…a small part for Klaus Kinski…and even the briefest of appearances by Peter Lee Lawrence himself. For me, this is the pinnacle of Leone’s work.
Let’s not forget Rosalba Neri in 1966’s Johnny Yuma. Normally, I wouldn’t say anything, but it is Rosalba after all. 
DAY 14:
La caza del oro (1972) - Director: Juan Bosch - 7/10
The recycled score from Go for Broke and cheap locations attest to the low budget, nevertheless, this is where the cheapness ends. Though there is nothing particularly original about the whole entry, every element is balanced perfectly well and Bosch’s rendition turns out quite splendid. There is not a single tedious moment, the whole composition has a really consistent flow to it, the photography exhibits some fine regularity as well as forethought and the mixture of humor as well as action-oriented content works really well here.
The recycled music, which constitutes one of the best scores among the lesser-known soundtracks of the genre, is turned to good account here, as the director knows where to put each piece without introducing any confusion into the action. Anthony Steffen turns in a surprisingly amusing performance, his role is successfully contrasted with the part of the Mexican played by Daniel Martín and lastly, there is quite a bit of chemistry between the two, which makes the entire configuration even more effective. Despite there being nothing out of the ordinary here, all the pieces simply fit, everything just works and there is not a whole lot to complain about here. The most entertaining cheapo of the of the season so far, a pleasant surprise.
DAY 14
Against the odds, the highlights of this SpagvemberFest for me have been Dead Men Don’t Make Shadows and last night’s The Deserter, so I couldn’t be happier when my girl drew no.18 earlier on; another underdog, this time it’s late entry cult favourite God’s Gun (Parolini, 1976), in which the omniscient Lee Van Cleef takes on two roles: One as a holy man with an unholy fright-wig which gains sentience and goes on a terrifying, rmurderous rampage across rural Israel; and one as the laconic gunslinging sidekick sent to help the sentient fright-wig bring down wig-phobic outlaw Jack Palance. Or something.
I’ve got a real blind spot for God’s Gun. I know it’s crap but, at the same time, it’s kind-of brilliant. I’ve always thought it looks like a dead cert for an 88Films blu-ray presentation. It’s their sort of movie.
Day 13: Shango, the Infallible Gun (1970) w/ Anthony Steffen and Eduardo Fajardo. It is the end of the Civil War, and Shango, a Texas Ranger, has hidden gold that both ruthless Confederate soldiers and Mexican bandits want to get their hands on. Though not a great movie, the forested scenery of the film was refreshing. Steffens was his usual brooding, mysterious self. Fajardo’s character Major Droster starting to hallucinate Shango everywhere among the dead after a massacre of villagers was also pretty cool. I give it a 2 1/2 stars out of 5.
