I have a fondness for Ruthless Four since it was one of the first non-Sergios westerns I watched. I enjoyed the dynamics anong the four as far as who was trustworthy or not. Unfamiliar with Van Heflin at the time (c. 2016), I thought he was a German or Italian actor. I’ve since come to appreciate him in many film noir/crime movies he starred in. I agree that Ruthless Four doesn’t fit the formula of spaghettis that were out at the time.
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I tried watching Sabata the Killer during one past SpagvemberFest, and it didn’t resonate with me at the time. But, I think I may have been at the end stretch of the Fest and was experiencing pasta fatigue. I think I’ll give it another try. Thanks for the review!
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Spagvemberfest Day 14 - Film 6: His Name Was King
Really very ‘meh’ considering its great score and decent cast. So many bloody shots of Harrison just riding his horse, and a stupidly long sequence of some Mexicans going down a hill.
5/10
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Spagvemberfest Day 14 - Film 7: Dead for a Dollar/Trusting is Good…Shooting is Better
These double spag days are helping me to at least make a decent dent into Spagvemberfest this year. Sadly I picked out another complete dud. So incredibly boring and such unimpressive action. Will be completely forgotten from my brain within a few hours.
4/10
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I think the key is to approach it with a light-hearted, not expecting much state of mind. 
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Buckaroo (1967) - Director: Adelchi Bianchi - 3/10.
Even if the motion picture incorporates certain stylistic touches which constitute a tacit nod to Leone’s classics, the work feels more like a pre-Leone oater in that it replicates most of the corny clichés one hopes not to encounter, but this is not as much of a shortcoming as film’s stodgy action, moldy drama and remarkably pedestrian writing which fling it way below the average and render the overall viewing quite listless and forgettable. The editing and overall action directing come out so inert and inanimate that following the gunfights is about as exciting as watching the mandala assembly in slow motion.
The dialogues and the dramatics prove exceedingly corny and sometimes verge on being outright cringeworthy, but what ultimately mummifies the whole narrative is the extremely lazy storyline which helplessly endeavors to combine the tale of an imperious mogul terrorizing the region with the more straightforward revenge yarn. Neither part of the equation appears to be sufficiently developed or compelling enough to stand on its own: the vendetta feels artificially appended in that following the opening scene, the motif completely ebbs away and does not resurface right until the climax. The domineering bigwig is just your customary bully conniving with a bunch of Mexican bandits in order to assert his dominance over the territory. Some other themes come to the fore en route such as the saloon girl subplot, but they all turn out so inchoate, vague and underdeveloped that they hardly merit any mention whatsoever. Subpar material executed in a substandard fashion.
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- The Man Called Noon
Perfectly fine serviceable dish that is well marinated in film-noir ingredients, and me being sucker for genre bending pictures really ate this one up. The unique flavour aroused from joint production of UK, Spain and Italy has lent it with a very atmospheric sensibilities. The central mystery is intriguing and sort of felt like following along pretty damn good puzzle game as a hired killer with memory loss meet up with all sort of strange characters to unearth his true identity, but it wore off on me eventually and a bit nonsense by the end. Also it is too sentimental at time for some of my liking. Lots of eye catching location works here within its limited scope. I particularly like the work done in cave as well as lonely private train station in the middle of desert. This being a film-noir, Spaghetti Western really make it a good entry for this month Spagvember and Noirvember fests I guess. Great one.
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Day 14. Movie 9. Dakota Joe.
This was a fun one, starting with a first rate stagecoach holdup and rolling on from there. More Paella than Spaghetti, and borrows heavily from plot points from all three Eastwood/Leone pics - I could’ve done without yet another trek through a desert - but I found it entertaining throughout.
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Day 14: Beyond the Law
Thoughts:
One of many spaghetti western action-comedies that start lighthearted but end staring into the deep, dark abyss that stares back. Lots of depth-of-field type shots.
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Day 15
Anda muchacho, spara! - The Spaghetti Western Database (spaghetti-western.net)
The half-way point is here!
It is hard to describe how excited I was when I found this in a thrift/charity shop earlier this year. This was one I could not wait for Spagvemberfest to watch but there was nothing saying that I couldn’t watch it again. Often, when you build up a movie in your mind, it turns out to be a bit disappointing. That is not the case with this one as it lives up to every bit of the hype - at least in my opinion.
Our hero, the always great Fabio Testi, escapes from prison and ends up hiding out in a mining community. Unfortunately, the miners are under the thumb of some ruthless businessmen (ain’t that always the case?) who exploit their labor. Testi begins a deadly game in which he plays all sides in an attempt to help the miners and bring an end to the mine owner’s reign.
While the plot of this one is similar to so many others in the genre on the surface, it contains more complexities underneath that sets it apart. The camera work is outstanding and the movie is just chock full of tasty spaghetti western goodness (or badness, I suppose). All in all, it definitely belongs in the upper echelon of the genre.
This one is worthy of and definitely needs a Blu-ray release. Do you hear me, Arrow? 
14 Likes
Spagvember Fest 2023 Day 14
Rewatch
Jesse & Lester
*** 1/2 out of *****
Not counting the Hill/Spencer ones, this Comedy/Western is of the rare breed that’s very entertaining, fun, and does offer a few good laughs along the way. Star Richard Harrison’s first foray as a producer and co-director is a surprising finely homogeneous mix that blends the Comedy and the Western well.
Harrison and Donal O’Brien make a great pair of half brothers who are the ultimate in being completely different from each other: one a likable rogue and playboy with a dream of owning the finest casino/brothel in the Wild West, the other a blustery and bungling Mormon wanting to start his own church.
The various ups and downs of the duo as they try to con each other out of their mutual uncle’s inheritance, and various outlaw gangs who try to rob them of the money is what drives the film and what adventurous mishaps they have.
The Blu Ray of Plaion Pictures when it was still Koch Media is fine looking with audio and picture quality.
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Good to know, lol! Having seen many a silly western since my first viewing, I think I’m ready 
. Thanks, LG
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Days 13 & 14:
Day 13: My Name is Nobody (1973) D-Tonino Valerii. Starring Terence Hill, Henry Fonda, Jean Martin and Piero Lulli. On my Top 10 Spaghetti List. I came to appreciate Terence Hill after watching They Call Me Trinity. After watching him in ‘Nobody,’ I wanted to ask Hill where he’s been my whole life 
. All joking aside, from what I’ve read and heard, Sergio Leone was the brains behind the movie and shot part of it. Rating: 5/5.
Day 14: Three Silver Dollars (1968) D-Mario Amendola. Starring Charles Southwood, Julian Mateos, and Alida Chelli. A gringo gunfighter (Southwood) is told by a dying Confederate officer that the silver dollar on him is one of three that have numbers that represent letters. The letters have a secret message that reveal a hidden cache of millions of dollars. The gunfighter has a quirky Mexican hooligan (Mateos) always wanting to be his tagalong, and a deeply-religious yet murderous bandit (who also knows about the three silver dollars) in hot pursuit. I had a fun time watching Three Silver Dollars and think it would make a great double-feature with The Ruthless Four. Rating: 3/5.
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Spagvemberfest 2023
Number 5
The Dirty Outlaws (Rosetti / 1967)
Watched the excellent Explosive Media BluRay release of this one and it looked stunning. The film is very well shot and a pristine print like this makes it really pop visually. The film definitely goes up in my estimation as a result. Great theme song too. Very enjoyable revisit.
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17: Carlo Lizzani’s Requiescant (1967)
Since after thirteen Spaghetti Westerns I’m already showing signs of wear and tear and fatigue, I’ve decided to simply consult my literature on Requiescant and let the experts have their say.
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My oldest book on Spaghetti Westerns is Laurence Staig and Tony Williams’s Italian Western: The Opera of Violence (1975), but it doesn’t have an index, so I’m skipping it now, as I don’t feel like skimming the whole thing looking for Requiescant. But as far as I can remember, the film is not discussed.
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Christopher Frayling mentions Requiescant in Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone (1981, pp. 58, 137, 237, 260, 265 [2006]) and in Sergio Leone: Something to Do with Death (2000, p. 309 [2012]), but he offers no opinion on Lizzani’s film.
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The next one is Howard Hughes’s Once Upon a Time in the Italian West: The Filmgoers’ Guide to Spaghetti Westerns (2004); it says on page 79 (2012), “Lizzani’s execution of the material was mediocre and misused a talented cast.”
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Alex Cox discusses Lizzani’s second Western in detail in his 10,000 Ways to Die: A Director’s Take on the Spaghetti Western (2009) and finds it “brilliant and compelling” (p. 149 [2012]). According to him, it is “a deeply weird, unconventional Western with remarkable imagery and intense performances” (p. 150 [2012]). In the revised edition from 2019, now a director’s take on the Italian Western, Cox adds, “Requiescant is a grandiose, pretentious, political Western all’italiana” (p. 165).
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In Any Gun Can Play: The Essential Guide to Euro-Westerns (2011), Kevin Grant sees Requiescant as “a minor masterpiece – albeit misshapen by its typically mixed agenda –” and as the “most offbeat of the political westerns” (p. 221 [2013]).
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Austin Fisher describes Requiescant as a “Mexican peasant parable” and adds that “Lizzani and Pasolini were just two of many figures from the world of ‘art’ cinema who saw no contradiction in making Westerns” (Radical Frontiers in the Spaghetti Western: Politics, Violence and Popular Italian Cinema, 2011, p. 40 [2014]). In the book Fisher edited, Spaghetti Westerns at the Crossroads: Studies in Relocation, Transition and Appropriation (2016), no one writes about Requiescant.
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I couldn’t find anything about Lizzani’s second Western in Lee Broughton’s The Euro-Western: Reframing Gender, Race and the ‘Other’ in Film (2016).
So, now my most important Spaghetti Western books have been aired once again. I personally feel the same way about Requiescant as I do about Questi’s Se sei vivo spara: I can’t decide whether to find it great or ridiculous. But what always delights and amuses me is the presence of Pier Paolo Pasolini as the spiritual and intellectual leader of a band of freedom fighters around his beloved Ninetto Davoli—not far removed from real life.
Next: Sergio Corbucci’s Vamos a matar, compañeros (1970).
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After Sartana I watched Film #15: The Executioner of God - I went from having a great time to being bored again 
out of 5
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Giustiziere_di_Dio,_Il
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Day 15:
‘Johnny Yuma’ (1966)
First time I watched this I was underwhelmed to say the least … I didn’t care for Mark Damon’s style or character, hated the theme song … and just wasn’t generally into the story.
Well, I have seen the light, as the ‘Born Again’ say 
… and realize I wasn’t giving it a chance (Bad mood?, fight with GF?, whatever!)
I still hate the theme song, or at least these ‘singers’ rendition of the Nora Orlandi tune … it seemed the polar opposite of what a SW soundtrack should be … like a tired old American TV western song.
This is one tough nasty little flick with possibly the greatest femme fatale in SW history … the beautiful and very dangerous, Rosalba Neri
Once the story gets going I was really into it and will come back to it again ! 7.5/10
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For me the theme song is the best part of Johnny Yuma.
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As John McEnroe used to say, “You can not be serious!?”
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It always reminds me of my old Marty Robbins Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs album I used to listen to when I was a kid. As a matter of fact, Marty would have been perfect for this song and I have to wonder if this album wasn’t Nora Orlandi’s inspiration. I love the song too.
1 Like