Spagvemberfest 2022 - the legend continues

I’ve shown Sabata to friends who aren’t SW fans and they always enjoy Wildcat’s gymnastics and Carincha’s bombastic personality!

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Spagvember Fest Day 22

Sonora/Sartana Non Perdona

Rewatch. I haven’t seen this one since I bought it a couple of years ago, and boy it’s grimy and dark atmosphere is well deserved. There’s no punch pulling here, the bad guys are dastardly, the Anti-Heroes are brooding and distant, and the West is shown as a vast land of harshness and uncertainty, almost exactly like how it most likely was.

This is one of those SW’s that’s interesting to watch, but is hard to get into because of the atmosphere.

George Martin does very well in the role of the brooding loner who’s wife’s tragic death has left him nearly a schell of a human being, but he has redeeming qualities in his helping of defenseless women and saving the betrayed Jose. It’s honestly a real shame that Martin didn’t play more characters like this as he had the right face and piercing gaze for it.

Gilbert Roland gets a very interesting role with the part of Kischner. He’s probably the most morally ambiguous character to ever grace an SW as he keeps everything close to his vest, neither the audience and other characters ever really sure of what’s going on in that head of his.

Jack Elam is at his dirtiest, nastiest, and meanest in the role of Slim Kovacs, he’s an absolute scumbag. From the moment you first see him onscreen, you know he’s no good, and Elam’s wandering eye from a boyhood accident makes Slim even seedier.

The DVD from Al!ve AG Entertainment/Wild Coyote isn’t bad at all, but the film could certainly do with a 2K cleanup.

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Day 22-The Ugly Ones (1966) w/Tomas Milian, Richard Wyler, and Ella Karin (A.K.A. The Bounty Killer) In this paella spaghetti, a bountyhunter (Wyler) goes after a Mexican outlaw (Milian) who has been freed from by an inn cook (Karin) who likes his bad boy ways. ‘Ugly’ has shades of the “misunderstood Mexican outlaw” from The Big Gundown and Tepepa. At first I thought it was a knockoff of both, but it is actually Milian’s very first role in the SW genre! Milian brings depth to his character and to a film that seemed to me like it didn’t know where to go and was vanilla. Wyler’s role as the Bounty Hunter was pretty one-dimensional. The director, Eugenio Martin, later directed Pancho Villa (1972) w/Telly Savalas and Horror Express (1972). Rating 2/5.

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Spagvemberfest 2022

Day 22

The Great Silence (Corbucci / 1968)

A disabled hero battling corrupt town boss, a final shoot out at night and an unhappy ending (or otherwise if you want it)? And it’s Corbucci. Have I just rewatched Minnesota Clay? No, of course not. As much as I quite enjoy Minnesota this film is in a totally different league. One of the most beautiful Spaghettis with the magnificent snowbound setting. One of Morricone’s very best and most melancholic scores. Basicly, just one of the very elite group of films that transcend the genre. I never tire of watching it and, in fact, probably appreciate it more and more with every viewing. Just magnificent. And a darn fine Bluray release from Eureka too.

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Day 23

Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead (1971)

Prega il morto e ammazza il vivo - The Spaghetti Western Database (spaghetti-western.net)

After watching Stagecoach of the Condemned and Four Gunmen of the Holy Trinity, I decided to conclude my indoor spaghetti western tribute with this minor classic. And, also, I told @Dean I was going to watch this one. The first 50 minutes or so of this one take place inside a stagecoach station and an argument can be made that this is what makes this one so intriguing. The interaction between the characters and the atmosphere in that station more closely resembles classic noir than a typical spaghetti western. By the time the ensemble sets out from the station, the groundwork of tension has been laid for a truly satisfying conclusion only enhanced by yet another great performance from Klaus Kinsky.

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DAY 23:

Domani passo a salutare la tua vedova… parola di Epidemia (1972) - Director: Juan Bosch - 3/10

More Chris Huerta, great. This one is decent I suppose, Hill fits in comedy westerns better than one would think, he was likewise pretty good in the otherwise execrable Scansati… a Trinità arriva Eldorado. This one is not as excessive as the more overzealously slapsticky outings while still maintaining a firmly tongue-in-cheek tone, so it kind of balances between the two extremes. The comedy proves okay enough, but more in the so-so way: some of the jokes fall flat, others rely on Hill’s good acting skills and on the context of the story.

There are also plenty of scenes in which Chris Huerta gads about en deshabille much to my jubilation of course, nothing makes me jump for joy more than the sight of his saggy tits, his “funny” mannerisms, giggling and and the likes. One of those flicks which are mostly fine as background noise, but nothing particularly memorable and also kind of boring when you think about it really. Only when you have ticked off most of the good genre entries, should you track this down, there is much better stuff out there to check out beforehand.

Quinto: non ammazzare (1969) - Director: León Klimovsky - 4/10

This sounds like something I should enjoy technically, but oddly enough, the solid premise is hardly put to good purpose and most of the potential evaporates by reason of some shoddy editing and somewhat flabby directing. The storyline unfolds in a pretty unremarkable, indifferent fashion without any apparent emphasis in terms of style or narrative purpose. At the very least, the basic components of the story are on the intriguing side and the whodunit mystery displays sufficient vigor, so there is still something take interest in.

With all that being said, even though the underlying idea provides a solid foundation for a juicy, pulpy kind of adventure, the directional approach completely nullifies that point of departure by opting for an almost schmaltzy, corny style of directing which cancels out the grit inhering in the tale, virtually transforming the motion picture into a trite soap opera of sorts. Likewise, Umiliani’s score is reminiscent of Francesco de Masi’s compositions, further conducing to the inordinately old-fashioned feel of the production. Though the work gets much better in the second half, it is hard to come to terms with just how featureless the final product turns out and just how bland the overall craftsmanship is here. What a major disappointment.

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Spagvemberfest 2022

Day 23

Dead Men Don’t Count (Marchent / 1968)

Another excellent Explosive Media Bluray. This one in a Media Book style which would be great if my German extended beyond some basic Duo Lingo level. Anyway, a beautiful package for what is actually a pretty enjoyable film from the Steff and a super smiley Mark Damon. I’ll be nominating him again this year for the Hall of Fame by the way. With all he did in the genre it’s ridiculous he isn’t already in there.

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#18 Rosso: A stranger in Paso Bravo
-Often mentioned as an inspiration for And God Said to Cain but apart from same character names there’s really no connection. I read lots of positive comments from the forum topic but I think this has to be one of Steffen worst. Finally I can agree with one of sartana1968’s legendary comments: “boring and unwatchable”. :rofl:
The music is good though 4/10

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Hope you were on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. Impossible not to be, during that compelling affair.

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If not on the edge of my seat, at least intrigued. :wink:

#Spagvemberfest Late-to-the-duel-Edition / No. 1
The Ugly Ones

This must have been one of the first spaghetti westerns I saw back in the early SWDb days, the all or nothing days, the Vanishing Point days. So I was looking forward to rewatch it.
Better than that old Marketingfilm DVD, I enjoyed it from the Wild East BluRay this time around (which looks okay but the encoding is quite bad and the image suffers from instability and tons of DNR, not sure if the French BluRay is better, but I would hope so). The audio is not great either and often muffled and hard to understand. All in all, it was sufficient but not what a BluRay should be like.
The movie is not bad for an early spaghetti, but it suffers a bit in execution and Milian just simply cannot save this flick as much as he is trying. Cipriani’s score is most probably among his worst, yet Barboni’s camera work very solid if not fantastic, but maybe they should’ve gone for a better director to deliver better pacing for this actually quite intriguing story. Wyler plays it cool.

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The woman singing Jingle Bells… utter ear candy :ok_hand:
I keep mistaking it for Mozart.

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She definitely had a unique interpretation. :rofl:

DAY 23

Well, well. It was always coming sooner or later; I’d rather it had come on a weekend night but, let’s be clear, any night is a good night for this one. My girl drew no.19 from my Spag bowl and that’s the biggest meatball in the pot: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Leone, 1966), for my money the finest spag ever made, the finest western ever made and one of the finest films ever made. I shall be taking it up to bed with me and, since I don’t have a 4K player or 4K telly up there, I shall be forgoing my Kino Lorber UHD disc in favour of the MGM “greeny-yellowy” blu-ray, which tbh I’ve always thought looked absolutely fantastic anyway.

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Spagvember Fest Day 23

La Morte Non Conta i Dollari

https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Morte_non_conta_i_dollari,_La

One of many rewatches. This is my quasi Guilty Pleasure SW, I know it’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but I just have an absolute fun blast time every time I watch it. You can never go wrong with a good old fashioned revenge story with a little clever intrigue thrown in.

Mark Damon and Stephen Forthsye make an interesting duo here, particularly when you learn the game they’re playing with the bad guys. The fight scene between Damon and Nello Pazzafini is the highlight of the finale, especially so because it was all Damon and Pazzafini doing the stunts. Pazzafini’s bad guy might be a little generic, but he does it really good.

The Koch Media (now Plaion Pictures) is really good with a B grade picture quality as unfortunately there was damage in the print they couldn’t clean up. Koch actually got a raw deal with the English dub track, not only was it poor in execution, but whoever they got the rights from didn’t tell them that the track wasn’t taken care of and is borderline unwatchable. While I don’t care for English dubbing, I felt bad that Koch got stuck with poor quality they couldn’t do anything with.

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Haven’t been posting my progress but yes, I’m still in the game. Till now, all new watching except one, which I choose by mistake, didn’t recall much about it.

The early Spanish movies are OK I guess. But all in all, didn’t catch anything worth.

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Spagvemberfest 2022

Day 24

Guns for San Sebastian (Verneuil / 1968)

The purist in me questions whether this is actually a western at all, let alone a spaghetti one but it qualifies on the database so who am I to argue. My main concerns are based around it being made in Mexico and the fact that it is set in the mid 18th century not 19th but I am notoriously pedantic about this stuff so I’ve chosen to ignore myself and go with the flow.

It’s my last unwatched German Bluray and it’s pretty decent if not spectacular. An enjoyable actioner made on a pretty large scale featuring a reluctant priest rather than reluctant revolutionary but it follows similar lines.

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Day 24

Red Sun (1971)

Soleil rouge - The Spaghetti Western Database (spaghetti-western.net)

Toshiro Mifune in a spaghetti western. That in itself makes this one worth watching but this one is fun from start to finish and the rest of the cast isn’t bad either. :wink:

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Yeah, I’ve never understood enthusiasm for this one either. Probably not unwatchable, but undoubtedly very, very boring.

DAY 24:

Il bianco, il giallo, il nero (1974) - Director: Sergio Corbucci - 3/10

It is legitimately hard to believe this came from Corbucci’s hand, never thought I would see a spaghetti western made by Corbucci which would prove inferior to some of the Fidanis. While some of its quips are funny enough, a large majority of the jokes fall completely flat and the film founders almost in every single department throughout its duration. Considering the preposterously brilliant cast, this should have been way, way, way better regardless of the tone of its story. The predominant issue dwells in the fact that it is awkward and jejune to the point of utter ruination and that it progresses at a snail’s pace.

Hence, not only are you exposed to this folderol, but also you have to follow the antics at length, the ineptitude never seems to end, plus there are some more scenes featuring scantily-clad Chris Huerta, the man seems to be haunting me recently. Corbucci was sporadically guilty of latent flashes of iniquitous comedy in some of his renowned works, but here the level of inanity reaches its apogee. The humor is not even inventive or energetic in its goofiness, it simply registers as lazy, cumbersome and thoroughly uncouth; the attempt to shoehorn in a subplot about the displacement of Indians is absolutely pathetic. All in all, unless you want to watch Milian make an utter fool out of himself, playing a part you would expect to see in a nineteenth-century vaudeville aimed at lumpenproletariat, do yourself a favor and skip this one.

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