Update: #Spagvemberfest 2024 has kicked off!
Is this taking place this year? If so, what new titles in your library are looking forward to watching?
The ‘fest’ is celebrated each year, for those observing this sacred holiday.
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@last.caress as master of ceremony, how are festival preparations coming along
Well, last two years I’ve gone random. I pick which 30 movies I’m going to watch across Spagvember, I assign a number to each from 1 to 30 (duh!), I write those numbers on individual pieces of paper, I screw all those pieces up into balls and put them in a plastic tub. Then, each Spagvember morning, I let my daughter pick a number from the tub at random, like a tombola, and that’s the movie I’ll watch that day.
This year I’m going to do that again - my girl loves picking the numbers; she couldn’t care less about the films (yet) but she loves picking the numbers - but I’m going double-random this time. Instead of personally picking the thirty films I intend to watch, I’m going to let the DVD/Blu catalog app on my phone do that part. I set the app to “Spaghetti Western”, give my phone a shake and the app randomly picks a film for me. Do that thirty times and voila! My phone will pick my films, and my girl will pick the days on which I watch them.
I’m calling my theme “Have a Good SpagvemberFest, My Friend… My Daughter Will Pick!”
I almost went a very different way with it. Instead of doing a “31 Days of Halloween” in the traditional sense, this year I’ve eschewed the usual horror staples and gone instead exclusively with sci-fi/creature features from the 50s and 60s. Devil Girl From Mars, The Earth Dies Screaming, that sort of thing. This change of tack tempted me to fiddle with the Spag form for the following month; I was considering picking, say, fifteen actualspags, plus another fifteen movies which weren’t spags but which wore Spag influences on their sleeves to at least some degree: The Hateful Eight, Machete Kills, a couple of episodes of The Mandalorian, maybe even a Lone Wolf and Cub movie or two.
But after a day or two of thinking what a revolutionary idea that was, I suddenly started to feel it might be a dilution too far. Where does that end? Before you know it we’re watching all the Star Trek and Fast & Furious movies for SpagvemberFest. Someone will query if they’re alright to watch The Matrix for Spagvember as long as they promise to do so whilst wearing a poncho. Someone else will ask if, instead of actually watching any films, they could just set the theme to Django as their ring tone for a month. And so on.
So, no. Double-random, but all Spaghetti. That’s how I’m rolling this year. 
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This year I’ve decided to be led by our Hall of Fame. I will watch one film each from all of the 18 men and 12 women currently listed as lead actors and actresses in the HoF. Seemed like too neat a number to ignore
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This will be my first time participating. I’ll make a list of movies this week. I found some good movie ideas from previous years Spagvemberfest posts.
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Welcome to the SWDB, PMM. Hope you enjoy the Spagvemberfest…
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First off, welcome to the Forum @PMM and hope your first Spagvember Fest is a fun one.
My first time watch list for this year’s Spagvember Fest is a little small this year, but I’m making up for that with a few nice Blu Ray upgrades and a couple of rewatches of titles I haven’t seen in quite a while. And after going through gallbladder surgery and recuperation this summer, I’m looking extra forward to this year’s Fest.
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Man I’m excited for this year’s Spagvember. I’ve managed to get some rips of many Spaghettis that have slipped by me over the years so. I’ve purposely not watched them so I could stockpile them for November. I’m also excited to rewatch some classics, especially my favourite spaghetti: Day of Anger.
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Almost time, you steenkeeng sons o’ bitches (ie my fine brethren here at the SWDB). Prepare 30 coffins!
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My first participation in the Spaqvemberfest is under the motto Star Guest.
Week 1: Guiliano Gemma
Week 2: Guglielmo Spoletini
Week 3: Peter Lee Lawrence
Week 4: John Ireland
The transition from one to the other is made by a joint movie.
At the end of the festival THE highlight: Once upon a time in the West for the first time in 4K.
I’m afraid 30 coffins won’t be enough…
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Do we still need a motto?
Maybe:
“Spagvemberfest 2024 - 30 coffins won’t be enough!”
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And a social media banner
Waiting for my Savage Guns box to start Spagvemberfest. The goal is to watch these four movies. And maybe something more.
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I think this year will unlikely see a big amount. But some I will check. The tactic will be to use the recordings from my box that I made months ago when Star Movies broadcast a few dozen titles. As many were more or less unknown titles, I will take the opportunity to review those first.
Starting with this one. Bought the DVD in Italy once but this time I’ll be able to see it with TV Portuguese subtitles.
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Spagvemberfest Day 1:
Ringo and his Golden Pistol
Just ok. Ringo spends half of the movie in a little prison cell so there isn’t much room for excitement.
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Last year I was able to watch 30 SW…let`s see how far I get in busy 2024…main goal is to reduce pile of unwatched Blu Rays 
No 1:
THE STRANGER AND THE GUNFIGHTER
I really liked this mixture of Eastern and SW since my first watch on German TV about 25 years ago. After having VHS and DVD in collection now it was the time for Explosive Media Blu Ray, released in January this year.
I really was looking forward watching this nice enjoyable movie in HD…but I really was a bit disappointed since quality of Explosive BD is not really on a good level. It seems to be same master as old spanish Blu Ray. Faded colours, heavily filtered and way too dark. Really no pleasure to watch. Also back cover information is wrong. There is no Italian audio on BD but Spanish instead.
I watched with German audio but this track also is heavily filtered and sound worse than VHS and DVD.
Thumbs up for still enjoyable movie with Lee Van Cleef and Lo Lieh and some nice ladies. Thumbs down for German Blu Ray.
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Cry of Death (1968) (orig. Carogne si nasce) - Director: Alfonso Brescia - 5/10.
Though film’s storyline about a group of farmers getting terrorized by well-off ranchers is not particularly novel, the movie feels slightly different for a number of reasons: firstly, the settlers are far from being defenseless victims, being ready to have recourse to underhanded tactics to get their own way, e.g. forcing a marshall to sign a document under the threat of being gunned down. Secondly, it is tough to tell who is supposed to be the leading man here in virtue of the character of the deputy marshall turning out rather ambiguous along the line.
Even if the said ambiguity is subsequently clarified in the final act, this introduces quite a bit of variety and adds a pleasing element of surprise in the midsection. Glenn Saxson’s imposing presence additionally carries the part, his somewhat snide disposition going particularly well with his role’s general properties. Gordon Mitchell puts on a great show as well, this being possibly one of his finest appearances in the history of the genre. Though production values are predictably on the cheap side, what with Lallo Gori’s lovably cheesy score and gravel pits galore, Brescia renders the material with adequate focus and verve with most action sequences coming out galvanizing enough. At the end of the day, even if the work is inferior to Brescia’s Days of Violence, it still packs a punch for a relatively undistinguished project.
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