(I began writing this text a week ago, but several tie-ups have hindered my participation here, so I guess this will become more of a summary than a realtime-following of my part of this month)
Night of the Serpent (Giulio Petroni, 1969)
Is there any SW director not named Sergio who can compete with Giulio Petroni in terms of constant quality? I don’t think so. Maybe Dallamano, but he only made one entry, while Giulio made five. Out of those, three - his serious ones - have a safe spot in my top 20. This one appears to split opinion a bit, being a slow-paced, character-driven, melancholic story (particularly in the first half) which is obviously not to everyone’s liking. But, these are typical Petroni characteristics and make the film truly stand out from the crowd. Out of Petronis five westerns, this is probably the one most similar to Death Rides A Horse, with similar aesthetics and narrative themes.
The best scene ought to be about 25 minutes in where Luke makes his first attempt to shoot in a long time. It’s a quiet, slow, empathetic sequence that becomes almost heart wrenching when accompanied by the main theme played on a sole nylon guitar. In fact, I would not hesitate to call it one of the very best scenes directed by Petroni, perhaps even second only to Ryan getting released from his chain gang early in Death Rides a Horse.
By the hour mark, the question you keep asking yourself is how come this remarkable SW isn’t represented in any top 20 lists save for a couple. But then unfortunately, things go slightly downwards - probably because this is, as several others have pointed out, where the more standard genre conventions begin to show up. In the half-hour between Manuels abduction and Luke’s prison break it all becomes a little rushed and slightly melodramatic, although it’s still far from a movie killer, especially not as it does a great comeback in the last ten minutes or so. It ends on a positive, even somewhat heartwarming note, as The bad guys are down, Manuel is safe and Luke finally able to move on. It may be a bit too sappy for some, but I think it suits the entire redemption theme to a T (like in DRAH, the redemption and reconciliation themes ultimately overcome the darker ones, which is one of the more humanizing elements I like about Petroni).
Then there’s of course the score. The main theme is really closer to a 1950s Excello Record than your average Spaghetti Western score, but it sets the tone for the story so well that even a slightly altered soundtrack would ruin a part of the experience. It might not be the most complex, epic or ingenious non-Morricone score from the genre. But it might be the most beautiful.
Just make sure you watch it in Italian. The English dub is terrible. With original language it’s an impressive 8/10 (or 7,5/10 if I allowed myself to do half-star ratings).
(My next review is coming soon. I’ll try to catch up with my viewing by the end of this month)