Spagvemberfest 2023
Number 1
$10,000 for a Massacre (Guerrieri/1967)
I’m listing these by number this year as I’m away in China from tomorrow so won’t be able to watch one every day but rather here and there with some double bills and binges to get to the magic number 30 by month’s end.
And starting with a classic which never fails and which I haven’t checked out from the Arrow box set yet. It has never looked better and was a great way to start the fest.
Bring it on!
Day 2: A Cannon for Cordoba
American western shot in Spain, spaghetti western imitation. Enjoyable enough but just a bit lackluster. George Peppard chomps cigars. Things explode. Seeing Cris Huerta in the back of some group shots makes me remember that he did occasionally appear in supporting roles in “serious” spaghetti westerns and he didn’t just manifest into existence to be in shoddy and crap Trinity clones.
Day 2. Django, Prepare a Coffin (Baldi, 1968)
This was sadly not quite as great as I remembered it being but it’s still a highly entertaining entry in the spaghetti cannon. My 3 highlights are;
1- The concept of an army of undead people who take revenge on those who wronged them.
2- The cemeteries who had a big presence in the film.
3- The fire stunt where Lucas’ character dies in a blaze.
I did feel however that the film’s qualities were undermined by its focus on very cliched narrative beats which ended up taking more space than it’s gothic elements that were quickly dealt with.
Day 2. Between God The Devil And A Winchester.
While it had a few moments here and there, a mostly dull affair. And some of the worst filmed fist fights I can remember.
Day 2: Tepepa
This is the first time I have seen Tepepa. This film is great and much more complex than most spaghetti westerns. I like the non-linear structure of the story and the rather complex characters, complemented with beautiful shots of the Tabernas desert and Morricone´s great score. A solid 8.5/10
(By the was, I feel the SWDb description of the film is a little too revealing of the plot. Mabye it could be slightly rewritten?)
Spagvember Fest 2023 Day 2
Una Bara per lo Sceriffo
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Bara_per_lo_sceriffo,_Una
Rewatch. **** out of *****. I had a lot more fun with this little gem the 2nd time around, it’s just a pure fun mix of the American and Italian tropes of the Western genre. The revenge story mixed in with the undercover lawman plot line works very well here, and isn’t boring at all.
The film’s also notable for being the first pairing of Anthony Steffen and Eduardo Fajardo, which continued for another 4 films I believe, and they played so well off of each other, though not fully until the last 15 minutes. Armando Calvo is a blast as bandit leader Lupe Rojo, he’s a great slimeball.
Day 2:
‘Sonny & Jed’ (1972)
I still can’t get a handle on this one … there are some really great bits and it’s very well photographed and directed - plus Milian is brilliant, giving it 100% throughout - but what the feck is it all about ??? … it sort of feels like it isn’t fully formed, or a lot of scenes were removed - there’s just something about it that doesn’t feel like a finished or satisfying film.
However I still give it 6/10
I totally agree with you. I get the feeling it is trying to imitate all the US revisionist westerns, which were “counterculture sympathetic”. But of course Corbucci famously disliked hippies. I do find the characters pretty dislikable in this one.
As far as I’m concerned, only “The White, the Yellow, and the Black” is a worse entry from Sergio C.'s catalog.
Wrath of the Wind (1970) is on the new Arrow Savage Guns.
The plan? Wealthy landowner Don Antonio (Fernando Rey) wanted Marcos (Terence Hill) and Jacobo (Mario Pardo) to put a stop to the revolutionaries that threaten his profits. Marcos will kill anyone for money and easily does his job before he figures out that he did wrong. What helps is that he gets interested in a gorgeous woman connected to them named Soledad (Miss Italy 1959 Maria Grazia Buccella) and then decides to work on the side of the common man.
Directed by Mario Camus, who wrote this with Manuel Marinero and Mario Cecchi Gori, who would go on to script Il Postino, this may be a movie more interesting for the titles it went under than what it actually is. Also known as The Wind’s Anger, The Wind’s Fierce and — sold as a comedy and it isn’t — Trinity Sees Red,* this is the last non-comedy that Terence Hill would make for a bit. Hence this being sold as a Trinity movie.
*In Germany, it was called Der Teufel kennt kein Halleluja (The Devil Doesn’t Know Hallelujah), Trinity: I Open Graves With My Pistol in Greece and Vultures Are Waiting in Finland.
Day 1: Bounty Hunter in Trinity (1972) D: Aristide Massaccesi. Jeff Cameron plays a bounty hunter/life insurance salesman who is hired by town leaders to rid their municipality of Mexican bandits preying upon it. For some reason, I got this movie mixed up with Black Killer (1971), starring Klaus Kinski. Both have very similar plots, and a scene that is virtually identical in them. Black Killer is the one I favor more out of the two. Bounty Hunter is pretty formulaic and forgettable. Rating: 2/5
Tepepa is one of my favorite Zapatista westerns, and Italian westerns in general. Great pick!
Day 2: The Forgotten Pistolero (1969) D: Ferdinando Baldi. Also known as ‘Gunman of Ave Maria.’ An Italian western retelling of the Greek myth of Orestes. If it isn’t the beautiful cinematography of the film that gets me, it’s the great storyline and fine performances from the cast, including Peter Martell, Leonard Mann, and Piero Lulli. One of my Top 10 favorite spag westerns. Rating: 5/5.
I seem to really love these Zapata-westerns, especially because they seem to mix the Mexican revolution with Italian politics of the 60s (whcih I find fascinating) and with the spaghetti tropes and action.
Bounty Killer on Trinity recycled some stuff from Black Killer, right? Or am I mixing up the titles?
29: Gianni Puccini’s Dove si spara di più (1967)
If you were to watch Dove si spara di più without any prior knowledge, i.e. without having read about the film beforehand, it would be difficult to realize during the first half that this Italian Western was based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. So many genre topoi are used that you would only recognize Romeo when Juliet appears.
Without the Shakespeare reference, Dove si spara di più is not a terribly exciting Western, but after (re)reading the original drama it gains in wit and entertainment value, mainly due to the twists, turns and reversals that Puccini and his authors apply to the original’s characters. One wishes Puccini had worked a little more carefully on a technical level—the many editing and continuity errors make his only Western seem sloppy and shot with little love for the genre.
The film’s last words are spoken off-screen and taken from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “Il resto è silenzio.”
For those who read German, I have written a detailed comparison between the play and the film, entitled “Shakespeare Never Did This.”
Next: Un treno per Durango, directed by Mario Caiano.
This film is also known as ‘Ballad of Death Valley’ (1970)
I’d only watched this once before, years ago, and don’t remember being bowled over by it. On a second viewing yesterday, I rather enjoyed it - although there were parts of the film that didn’t make sense. In one scene, the William Berger character is fine, and a second later, he has mysteriously had the crap beaten out of him! I must have been watching a butchered version. The running time on my ‘C’est La Vie’ DVD is 1.18.
Also, no real ‘Sartana’ in this one - the main character played excellently by Berger is called Lee Galloway…
On the plus side, the baddie is portrayed by the ever-reliable Wayde Preston.
Also known as a Sartana in the gravel pit of death. But yeah, that c’est la vie dvd is badly cut.
Film #3: A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die- Rewatch 
- 
out of 5
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Minuto_per_pregare,_un_istante_per_morire,_Un
Day 2 - The Tramplers
7/10
Cattle drives are very rare in Euro westerns, but this genre-blending western has 'em, and not just in stock footage! This one reminds me a little of the great Spencer Tracy western “Broken Lance” (which is loosely based on Shakespeare’s “King Lear”) and deals primarily with family feuds. What makes this interesting is that Gordon Scott and James Mitchum break away from their overbearing father (Joseph Cotton) and three other brothers, but also take along two of their sisters! And one of them marries a an almost entirely nonviolent Franco Nero, in a romantic role. The other–in a very quick side plot–marries a cattle driver that reminds me vaguely of Charlie Goodnight.
Unlike Keoma, where there’s just the one neglected step-child, this is a full on family split between bloodlines. Mitchum’s character gets way more interesting once he looses an arm and goes from the soft-hearted baby brother to wearing the black jacket.
The filming and dialogue can sound really traditional, like aping an American western. And there are so many subplots (cattle drives, romances, sibling rivalry, civil war legacy, toxic patriarchy) that it’s a little messy. But not boring.
I’m going to rewatch The Hellbenders next, to see just how closely these oft-compared films really line up. From what I remember, they do so only in a basic “greedy confederate father dooms his family” plot.
