Day 21. Movie 15. Four Bullets For Joe.
More whodunnit mystery than western, but with impossibly long, tedious tracking shots; right at the opening of the picture, a character on horseback gets shot and killed, and the body stays in the saddle as the horse trudges along sideways then towards the camera for dang near four minutes. Four! And that might be the highlight of this turgid affair.
10 Likes
Day 21: Find a Place to Die
Thoughts:
Snarling Jeffery Hunter and some absolute rat bastards get paid by Pascale Petit try and rescue Piero Lulli. Has a strong sense of atmosphere and some neat use of locations, but the script feels a bit undercooked, the two lead characters feeling underdeveloped compared to the supporting cast, and the tone is a bit wobbly. Still, pretty tight stuff.
10 Likes
Tonight, I sat through ‘Wild East’s’ very first DVD…and boy! It was fun…
Volume two tomorrow night…once I stock up on some Spanish ‘San Miguel’ lager.
12 Likes
Day 21: The Law of Violence (1969) D-Gianni Crea. Starring Giorgio Cerioni, Igli Villani, Angel Aranda. Another spaghetti/paella western from the director of ‘And on the Third Day, Arrived the Crow’ and ‘Finder’s Killers.’ Probably my favorite of Crea’s movies I’ve seen thus far, which isn’t saying much. However, I thought the story had a clever twist, which kept my attention. Jack Barrow/Sparrow (Cerioni) returns to Red Rock, the town where he was wrongly convicted and sent to prison. After getting rid of the corrupt Sheriff Buck (who had him sent away), Jack uses force to make himself one of the town’s patrician class. He appoints as sheriff, Chris (Aranda), the man who saved him after Sheriff Buck’s murder attempt. However, as the new town ruler, Jack runs an oppressive protection racket with hired thugs against the citizenry. However, Jack underestimates Chris, who believes in the rule of law, and not the “law of violence.” The clash over the heart and soul of Red Rock stands in the balance as both men ultimately must face each other and their visions. That’s what Crea was striving to achieve in this movie. Crea’s overall bad filmmaking skills get in the way, and the results are unintentionally comedic. The beginning credits are the longest I recall ever seeing for a movie. Let alone, a movie with the budget and scale of Crea’s. Fights and general movement of actors are poorly choreographed at times. I asked myself where the editor was in many scenes with characters giving questionably long pauses while delivering lines to one other. I think ‘Law’ is worth a watch. If for no other reason, then some laughs.
6 Likes
Day 22
Plomo sobre Dallas - The Spaghetti Western Database (spaghetti-western.net)
Another Tubi night with another one that I’ve never had the opportunity to see before. Although it didn’t deliver in the end, this one drew me in right off the bat. Our hero, Carlos Quiney (whose entire career was primarily made up of appearing in the films of Jose Maria Zabalza, the director of this one, and Jose Luis Merino) arrives in the town of Tombstone. He immediately begins to make inquiries about a man named Ralston who was the owner of the 3-Crosses Ranch. Not only does everyone claim to have never heard of Ralston, they also claim to have never heard of the ranch. Even our heroine, the lovely Claudia Gravy, does her best to side step the subject.
This sets up an intriguing mystery but the delivery ends up bordering on the ridiculous at times and becomes really hard to follow. It was as if thirty minutes into the movie Zabalza completely lost the story and was never able to get it back on track. Still, I was invested enough that it kept my attention all the way to the end.
Something that did surprise me about this one was that even though it was made on a shoe-string budget, it contained some really impressive camera work at times - utilizing some unique angles and shots that aren’t always seen in this genre.
11 Likes
** The Unholy Four (1970)**
Ciakmull L’uomo della vendetta (Ciakmull the Vengeful Man) was directed by Enzo Barboni, the director of the Trinity movies and Even Angels Eat Beans. He replaced Ferdinando Baldi, who was fired by the producer Manolo Bolognini because they fought over Baldi wanting Annabella Incontrera to play Sheila, the role that went to Ida Galli, who is also known as Evelyn Stewart.
Chuck Mool (Leonard Mann) escapes the institution he’s been in thanks to three men, Woody (Woody Strode), Silver (Pietro Martellanza) and Hondo (George Eastman). Chuck has no idea who he is and the men decide to ride with him in the hopes that he can get his memory back. He makes it to a town where he was supposedly the best gunfighter and is being counted on to choose sides in a war between the Caldwells, whose leader John (Helmuth Schneider) might be Chuck’s father and the Udos, whose leader tries to convince Chuck that he’s really his father. Turns out that Chuck’s half-brother Tom Udo (Lucio Rosato) has always hated him for being illegitimate and he was supposed to stay out of the way.
Pietro Martellanza and George Eastman were Barberi’s original picks to play Trinity and Bambino. There are hints of that movie here as some of the fights are comical and in the way that Hondo can shuffle cards, not to mention a bean eating sequence.
By the end, this movie finally remembers to have some action, but it’s helped along by the cast and a sparkling Riz Orlotani jazz score. It’s great!
The AKA for this is The Bastard of Dodge City which spoils one of the movie’s reveals.
9 Likes
Spagvember Fest 2023 Day 21
Proper first time watch
Il Mio Nome e Shanghai Joe
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Mio_nome_è_Shanghai_Joe,_Il
*** 1/2 out of *****
OK, I’m just gonna be honest here, Shanghai Joe is a mixed bag for me. On the one hand the story, fight sequences, and Chen Lee’s encounters with genre heavyweights Piero Lulli, Klaus Kinski, Gordon Mitchell, and Robert Hundar are fantastic, but some of the racism the lead character faces from mainly the minor characters seems almost absurd at times
Now I don’t find this concept uncomfortable to watch, stuff like this did happen and we need to know about it and learn from it, but it feels like Caiano didn’t know whether to play it up for dramatic effect or to poke some fun at the bigotry people felt in those days. I just don’t know what to make of it.
Cauldron Films did a great job with their restoration and presentation of the film, and Mike Hauss does some great commentary.
6 Likes
With respect, you sound like you’re coming from a rather sheltered or naive background, if you find this extreme or absurd. This is lightweight for entertainment purposes … and the director is absolutely not promoting any racist attitudes.
We don’t do politics here, but as it’s a question being raised … you should be aware that casual racism was absolutely rife at the time the film was made, and if anything the filmmaker is protesting against that attitude … but he’s also using the situation to tell a dramatic story.
2 Likes
10: Il mercenario (1968), directed by Sergio Corbucci
Corbucci’s eighth Western adopts the Mexican setting from ¿Quién sabe?, the constellation of characters from Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, expanded to include a strong female character, Columba, the dove, played by Giovanna Ralli, and it conducts a simplified discourse on the possibility or impossibility of a revolution, much in the spirit of the subversive movements of 1968. The eponymous mercenary, called il polacco (Franco Nero), a cynical, smug, detached opportunist, finds himself nolens volens in an uneasy partnership with Francisco Román, known as Paco (Tony Musante), a naïve Mexican rube; they are united by their common enemy, the aptly named gun for hire Ricciolo (curly in Italian, played with gusto by Jack Palance), who has such a rotten character that he would sell his own grandmother to the devil without batting an eyelid.
Premiered in Italy at the same time as C’era una volta il West, December 1968, Il mercenario almost seems like a panorama of the most typical and popular elements of Spaghetti Westerns, a best-of in a sense (the characters, the setting, Ennio Morricone’s score, the simple political messages, the meanness and violence, the ritualized final duel, et cetera). Not as original as Django and Il grande silenzio, but technically very carefully realized – Corbucci’s usual sloppiness is almost completely absent – it marks one of the high and at the same time end points of the Italian Western.
Next: Giulio Petroni’s Tepepa (1969).
12 Likes
Grinders no.22:
NON ASPETTARE DJANGO, SPARA
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Non_aspettare_Django,_spara
Staying with Sean Todd second day in a row.
Hm, this is my rewatch no. 5 or 6 I guess.
In principal I like Mulargias movies but i never got along with this here. Actors, atmosphere and score i like very much and also settings are good and with some nice details if you consider the very low budget.
But to me story is that kinda boring that - in Germany we say - it stretches like chewing gum 
84 minutes can be VERY long I now learned again…
Also Rada Rassimov is more or less wasted in her role. Only lamenting “Django”…
Putting Mulargias Spaghetti Westerns in a list NON ASPETTARE is close to the bottom:
- EL PURO
- W DJANGO!
- PERCHÈ UCCIDI ANCORA
- PREGA DIO … E SCAVATI LA FOSSA! (if directed by him)
- SHANGO
- CJAMANGO
- VAYA CON DIOS GRINGO!
- NON ASPETTARE DJANGO, SPARA
9.RIMASE UNO SOLO E FU LA MORTE PER TUTTI!
Nevertheless the nice German Poster is on my wall:
Watched this time a fan DVD-r with better picture quality than old German DVD.
10 Likes
My poster collection is mainly about the artwork, rather than the content … that means the poster is doing it’s job 
3 Likes
Day 22:
La più grande rapina del west
(The Greatest Robbery in the West)
aka, ‘Halleluja for Django’ (1967)
Directed by Maurizio Lucidi who gave us both ‘Pecos’ movies, and similarly this film has a dark cynical humour and some tough violent scenes.
A small border town is held hostage by a gang of bank robbers led by, Walter Barnes - the gang wants to lie low until the sheriff’s posse gives up on them, and a local tracker arrives, who can guide them through the desert to safety.
The gang comprises of some of the best Italian SW baddies, including, Sal Borgese, Rick Boyd, Mario Brega, Luciano Catenacci and Bruno Corazzari … all faces you know, even if the names aren’t familiar.
So, of course tensions rise and incidents occurr … and it’s up to town drunk, George Hilton to sober up and save the day.
A little slow at times but full of good actors and supporting cast, make this an easy enjoyable watch.
7/10
PS: There is no ‘Django’ in the film despite the English title
12 Likes
Regarding ‘Ploma sobre Dallas’ … did this have an English soundtrack ?
1 Like
No, it was subtitled…and not very well either at times as parts of words were cut off.
1 Like
No offence taken at all @aldo, I did spend the majority of my childhood sheltered, had lot to do with me being on the Autistic Spectrum. Actually, I was relieved to see what Mario Caiano was doing with the film once I got to the middle section. I really do need to do another viewing to get what Caiano was going for.
2 Likes
I’m sure that you can rest easy regarding 99.9% of film content with scenes of racial injustice -
Many directors get accused of being this or that because they have tackled difficult subjects, and some people forget that it’s a story that’s being told to expose these horrible negative attitudes.
Most of the time the ‘bad guys’ get their comeuppance, at least in the movies!
2 Likes
Thanks for that, LG … only Spanish and Italian dubs available from my sources.
1 Like
Anche nel West c’era una volta Dio (1968) - Director: Marino Girolami - 4/10.
The literary source material perforce confers a degree of class and dignity to the motion picture and though Girolami’s execution evidently does not rise to the full potential of the tale, at the very least he does not muff the deal and handles the narrative in a moderately balanced fashion. The movie works best as a sort of old-school adventure in that it features both the treasure hunt as well as the laggard journey sporadically disrupted by shootouts and doublecrossings en route. The itinerary nature of the plot renders the narration somewhat different in that it does not pivot around some town getting overwhelmed by banditry as usual, but rather lays out the quest for the treasure trove in a pretty pleasing fashion.
The cast consisting of Roland, Camardiel and Baldassarre among others turns out decent enough, though with the exception of Roland, the performances do not stand out in any way, shape or form which is in line with the middling quality of Girolami’s execution as well as lackluster appearance of film’s locations. There is no denying that the movie fails to introduce much in the way of novelty into the equation, but the storyline flows just fine and the work is not too bad for a marathon of this sort; it might not score high in terms of its originality or quality of overall craftsmanship, but the material here is rendered in a predominantly acceptable manner and albeit bland, the flick does not veer off course and stays rather coherent throughout.
8 Likes
Spagvemberfest Day 22 - FIlm 12: Gentleman Killer
Was kinda vibing with this one until it’s super dissapointing end. The main henchman gets killed by being pushed down a set of stairs and the main baddie is killed by soldiers rather than the hero? Massive letdown.
5/10
8 Likes
Do you like this version better than Companeros?