No. 30:
MERCENARIO
Finished this year with one of my alltime faves.
This time from 16mm Cinemascope copy. Colours faded a little to red/brown but who cares 
The duel is my second favourite after GBU and the score is so great. I prefer MERCENARIO to COMPANEROS but this is a never ending high level discussion
Look forward to 2025…it was a pleasure 
That’s a wrap everyone. Please post any of yesterday’s watchings that you haven’t, yet, later today I will do a final update of the lettergoxd and icheckmovies lists
And the summary of 2024
Spagvemberfest Day 30
Sabata (Parolini / 1969)
With unforgettable music from Marcello Giombini the final member of our current Hall of Fame is successfully ticked off! Wasn’t sure I was going to be able to manage that but made it on the last day. In hindsight, I should have watched this one first as it would have ticked off 7 in one go but a nice way to finish off with so many Hall of Famers on show and Linda Veras getting a better outing than she was afforded in Face to Face. Peter Martell ended up being the only member whose appearance was too brief. I’ll make that up with one of his starring vehicles soon.
The Hall of Fame theme was a good one which I would recommend for anyone else. It tended to lead me towards soild films all month and also made me reconsider who has and has not made the list up to this point. There’s a bunch of artists I think have more than earned their place in the Hall who are not there plus one or two anomalies. I will raise this further in the Hall of Fame thread.
You can dare. But be prepared for a shoot out
My last watch on Spaqvemberfest 2024:
Hate for hate
John Ireland and Antonio Sabato
Yes, German Dub unfortunately seems to be lost forever. Anyway there is a fan version available with German subs.
Spagvember Fest 2024
2nd Half Recap
Il Rittorno di Ringo (The Return of Ringo) - Duccio Tessari (1965) ****
all’Ombra di una Colt (In a Colt’s Shadow) - Giovanni Grimaldi (1965) ****
7 Dollari sul Rosso (Seven Dollars on the Red) - Alberto Cardone (as Albert Cardiff) (1966) ****1/2
10,000 Dollari per un Massacro ($10,000 for a Massacre/$10,000 Blood Money) - Romolo Guerrieri (1967) *****
Oggi a Me… Domani a Te! (Today it’s You… Tomorrow it’s Me!/Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die!) - Tonino Cervi (1968) ****1/2
Un Dollaro Tra i Denti (A Dollar Between the Teeth/A Stranger in Town) - Luigi Vanzi (as Vance Lewis) (1966) *****
Un Uomo, un Cavallo, una Pistola (A Man, A Horse, and a Gun/The Stranger Returns) - Lugi Vanzi (as Vance Lewis) (1967) ****
La Sfida dei MacKenna (Challange of the McKenna) - Leon Klimovsky (1970) ***/12
Sono Sartana, il Vostro Becchino (I am Sartana, Your Angel of Death) - Giuliano Carnimeo (as Antony Ascot) (1969) ****1/2
Buon Funerale Amigos, Paga Sartana (Have a Good Funeral My Friend, Sartana Will Pay) - Giuliano Carnimeo (as Anthony Ascot) (1970) ****
Una Nuvola di Polvere… un Grido di Morte… Arriva Sartana (A Cloud of Dust… A Cry of Death… Sartana is Here/Light the Fuse… Sartana is Coming) - Giuliano Carnimeo (as Anthony Ascot) (1970) ****1/2
Bandidos - Massimo Dallamano (as Max Dillman) (1967) *****
Una Pistola per Ringo (A Pistol for Ringo) - Duccio Tessari (1965) *****
All in all, a very impressive Sapgvember this year. I admit I did start hitting the wall at day 21 or 22, but I did push to make it to Ringo. Hope everyone else had fun too.
After a far too busy holiday week, I did manage to watch one last spaghetti Saturday night!
#16 Beyond the Law (1968)
2/5
First watch in over a decade, so I didn’t recall much. Lee Van Cleef plays a criminal turned marshal in this redemption story that is a bit too light-hearted to become seriously dramatic.
Maybe if the quality of the print I viewed was better my opinion would change slightly, but this is bottom tier Lee Van Cleef for me, above Bad Man’s River and God’s Gun, but below Captain Apache and Kid Vengeance.
I didn’t like Beyond the Law as much as LVC’s other movies. It may sound weird but I found it difficult to follow at times.
Ouch!
Run Man Run (Sergio Sollima, 1968)
I’m in some kind of deja vu here. Once again i’ve been too lazy too write down short reports on my viewings this Spagvember, and once again i’m writing this down at the start of december because of that. Well, i hope nobody’s taking annoyment in that (last time it was OK, as far as i understood) so i reckon i’ll just keep posting my few belated short reviews left until Marshal Sebastian puts me under arrest for Spagvembering without license. So;
Since i wacthed The Big Gundown during spagvember in 2022 and Face to Face in 2023, i thought it was logical to revisit Run Man Run this November. The third, last, and according to general consensus, least of the three westerns in the Sergio Sollima Italowestern box (which i am a lucky owner of), revisiting it was an improvement for me. When i first viewed it a couple of years ago i felt somewhat letdown by the relatively simplistic story compared to The Big Gundown and Face to Face, and the weakest link of the film upon this revisit remains the straightforward and not very ambitous storyline, which leaves you a bit unsatisfied by the time the credits roll (was that it? No deeper themes about the revolution by the otherwise deeply political Sollima? No return of John Ireland and his revolutionaries for the climax?), but as a simpler treasure hunt adventure western, it’s greatly entertaining. It should be said, though, that my tendency to begin my watchings late caused me some problems with this one - i had to pause it just after the John Ireland scene to avoid being a zombie the next day, and apparently the film loses momentum if you begin watching again around the entrance in Burton City if you have not the previous events very fresh in mind, which weakens the coherency of the “Ramirez dying wish” plot. Unfortunately, this caused a bit of distraction from time to time during the last 45 minutes for me (but that’s of course an excuse to flash through and enjoy some parts again). That said, this film stands as much above your average SW as Sollima’s other westerns in terms of direction and production value, so putting it way below those would lump it in with films technically and executively far inferior, which doesn’t feel quite right.
It’s not merely a paler follow-up to the two grand classics which came before, however. As some have pointed out, the action holds up at least as well as in those, and is actually the one possible improvement in some ways. A few such sequences show glimpses of approaching Leone heights (yes, the maestro’s action scenes at their weakest, while never poor of course, fail to hold up against the best stuff here). The scene that follows Ramirez death is one, the knife stalking of the bandit gang at night in Burton City is another one.
This quality is of course also in no small part constructed by the actors. While there’s hardly a bad acting performance from anyone, i would like to single out Donald O’Brien, who’s sometimes been accused of being a poor man’s Lee Van Cleef in this one. That reasoning doesn’t make much sense to me: Nathaniel Cassidy is a completely different character than Jonathan Corbett, but he provides several highlights here as the no-nonsense, slightly disillusioned but ultimately rightful lawman, a great foil to Cuchillo, who by all means is played well here, a bit more laid-back and reflexive than in the predecessor (not that it was much of an issue in TBG, as he wasn’t the clear lead there). On a smaller note, we also get Gianni Rizzo of Sabata and Face to Face fame in a rare (somewhat) sympathetic role.
Obviously recommended.
@Gingerbread80 Maybe it’s a little hard to follow because character motivations are a bit bizarre… there seems to be some of the 70’s hippie-wandering-misfits vibe already encroaching on the genre, and the film never strikes a consistent tone for LVC as the reformed man. (My feeling is that the reformed man should have a darker past–we basically get a lovable conman turned righteous lawman.) My attention span was also wavering–there’s an overlong brawl among the baddies and a plodding shootout towards the end.
@Phil_H I haven’t watched The Stranger and the Gunfighter in many years, so maybe Beyond the Law can beat that–but I’m not holding my breath. 
Now that Spagvember is over, and many films were revisited, maybe some here may want to revise their top 20s, or create their first one.
2025 will actually be the 20th year of the voting, and the 20th birthday will be then Jan 2026, as the voting started in Jan 2006.
I will do the next update in Jan 2025, so feel free to contribute. The more new or modified lists the more the list reflects the taste of the present. years.
also the 20th birthday of the SWDb at the same time… we need to think of some big festivities all year next year, fly in Garko, Nero, Hill, etc
