I will be on a sick leave for a couple of days, meaning I will be able to watch more than I otherwise would.
And His Name Was Holy Ghost (1971) (orig. …e lo chiamarono Spirito Santo) - Director: Roberto Mauri - 6/10.
Though combining a heist story with a revenge arc might not sound too good on paper, the flick in question succeeds for a number of reasons: firstly, it furnishes plenty of secondary characters whose characterological quirks and idiosyncrasies come to apply detail, rendering the storyline rather memorable and shedding some additional light on the protagonist along the way; this can be seen for instance in the characters of the machine-gun-toting organist played by Torres or the (literally) lousy old-timer who is friends with the main hero. Secondly, the plot likewise includes elements of romance and family drama both of which turn out surprisingly effective in spite of their relative superficiality and brevity, making tale’s progression substantially more engaging along the line.
These various stabs at overall variegation and character development all coalesce into a surprisingly robust backdrop which appears all the more remarkable in view of the fact that what one is dealing with here is basically a piece of ultra-low-budgeted genre moviemaking with little to nothing in the way of resources or shooting locations. Both of the two main narrative pillars revolving around the heist scheme and the vengeance subplot are handled reasonably well too, meaning that both the foreground and the background prove entirely agreeable, all of which is additionally bolstered by the fine performances given by Karis, Palmara and Powers. Outside of film’s slower pacing in the midsection, occasionally mediocre camerawork and poor production values, it is hard to think of anything which could have been helmed better here, especially in light of project’s acutely limited budget. On the whole, a bit of a tour de force in low-budget genre filmmaking and Mauri’s best western by far.