DAY 2:
Se t’incontro, t’ammazzo (1970) - Director: Gianni Crea - 2/10
While it is probably Crea’s least abominable work all things considered, it’s still an obnoxious mess of a motion picture in that it is terminally marred by its director’s aberrant incompetence. Film’s framing, editing, scene transitions and overall decoupage are all so choppy and cumbersome it is difficult to immerse oneself in the narrative and as if that were not bad enough, most of the storyline revolves around equestrian frolicking in the sandpits and the inveterate fisticuffs, so there is not much to direct one’s attention to.
That being said, the dialogues in the English dub are on the laughable side insofar as they partially cancel out the aforementioned narrative vacuity, plus the fight at the cemetery gives a good laugh. There is no denying that the regularity with which Crea misses the mark regading the visual aspect of his works firmly establishes him as genre’s worst director visually, all his movies look like shit, this thing included. All in all, Crea’s best film probably, that being said, the visual amateurship, the meager plot, the chronic misuse of recycled music as well as general stupidity vitiate the outing to the extent that it is still one of the very worst flicks the genre has to offer and at the length of about 90 minutes, it simply goes on for far too fucking long.
Il lungo giorno del massacro (1968) - Director: Alberto Cardone - 4/10
This one is a lot better than the other two Cardones which I have seen i.e. Mille dollari sul nero, which suffers from severe pacing issues and awful fisticuffs, and 20.000 dollari sul 7, which is afflicted with pretty much every bad thing you could conceive of. The work at hand does not manifest the acute erraticism nor does it get bogged down by silly aspirations; the film is a perfectly watchable cheapo affair with a balanced, leisurely tempo, a straightforward storyline, some neat, muddy landscapes and mean-looking Peter Martell shooting up scores of Mexicans.
Albeit undoubtedly not one of genre’s loftiest moments, it does serve its purpose well as an innocuous piece of entertainment. Cardone’s direction is hardly anything exceptional, but at least he gets the basics right and dials back silliness to an acceptable degree, although there is still a fair amount of fisticuffs, horseriding footage and other padding to be found here, especially in its stagnant second half. If you covet a solid cheapo with some sandpit action, look no further, this one is mostly alright and should fit the bill just fine even if the middle section tends to drag a bit and necessitates some fast-forwarding for an optimal film-viewing experience.