My second helping of Spag today is the almighty Django (Corbucci, 1966), the fifth spaghetti western I ever saw (almost inevitably behind the Dollars trilogy and OUaTitW) and the first I ever saw knowing what a “spaghetti western” actually was. I’d heard the term before but hadn’t ever given any thought as to what it meant. I must’ve overdone it back in the 90s when I discovered it (a blind purchase on VHS videotape) because, by the time I moseyed on up here to the SWDB, I was kind-of played out with it. But, since acquiring it on Blu-ray - and subsequently on 4K - I’ve found myself well and truly back on the Django train again. Last half-dozen or so times I’ve seen it, I’ve enjoyed it more and more.
And Luis Bacalov’s theme tune is as good as any piece of music that ever came out of the genre, defining the sound of the spaghetti western - for me, at least - every bit as strongly as Morricone did with his most iconic works.
A really fun and well made post Civil War Western. Control of a town bordering between Mexico and the United States never looked better as one man takes on bandits led by a rogue Mexican Colonel looking to wipe out the American population.
Anthony Steffen sports a rare and welcome clean shaven appearance as a gambler who’s also good with a gun. Gentleman Joe is an unlikely hero and Steffen plays it very well
Eduardo Fajardo gives some of his finest smiling villainy as Col. Fernando Ferreras, a man using his rank as a shield to loot and pillage and get every gringo out of what he believes is Mexican territory.
While the tension building in a town slowly being taken over by the bad guys isn’t there, and the ending is controversial, but not uninteresting, this still a fine sit back and enjoy the show style Western.
Day 2: El Cisco (1966) Directed by Sergio Bergonzelli. Starring William Berger, George Wang, Antonella Murgia, and Tom Felleghy. An early SW with William Berger as the titular character, Cisco. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t recall ever reading or hearing about this movie. I looked up the director, Sergio Bergonzelli on IMDB, and his only other credits directing are a few horror movies that he later made in the 1970s. The movie begins with Cisco narrowly escaping being hanged in Dallas by asking the lawman who is present if he could smoke (what turns out to be ) an exploding cigarillo as his last request. Cisco escapes and goes right back into action by playing off the men who set him up to be hanged against one another. They’re a bandito (Wang) and a former bank robber-turned-sheriff (Felleghy) named Burt Challenge. Burt is such a sadistic, violent animal that I couldn’t wait for Cisco to bust a cap in him. Berger did a good job of bringing some depth and energy to the character Cisco. Rating: 2/5.
Pierotti: Heads or Tails
The first 20 minutes are so bad that I almost switched this off but happily it gets much better and the comedic tone swithces to rape, torture, perversions and revenge. Daniela Surina’s widow is one of the best female villains of the genre. 6/10
Third and last from 1964 for this Spagvemberfest and I went back to my favourite almost entirely shot in the studio western featuring people all better suited to other genres. I probably shouldn’t like this film as much as I do but I can’t help myself. Cardboard cactus? Unintelligible pseudo English singing in the theme tune? Trastavere Roman Apaches? Textbook Bava interior lighting? Yes please!
There is nothing particularly substantive to say about the movie other than that it is basically pure slapstick from start to finish. The story recounts the exploits of two imbeciles whose mother gives them a map to a treasure once stolen by their father from his cavalry regiment; it doesn’t really amount to much inasmuch as this vague backstory merely avails as a pretext to embark on an endless cycle of trite vignettes which have little or no connection to the original premise whatsoever. Whenever the parody does provide some sparse chuckles, it is mainly due to Sal Borghese’s intermittently successful take on physical comedy, his attempts at parodying gunfighter’s lore largely panning out in the midsection. The issue consists in that the instant that leitmotif ebbs away, the project fails to supply anything else which could positively differentiate it from a myriad of analogous productions from the mid 1970s, ultimately devolving into forgettable slapstick cloaca. The reason why it remains marginally digestible in spite of its acute fatuity is that it is all confected after a fashion, at least visually resembling a professionally crafted product and hanging together for the most part. If you wish to see something along those lines, yet fashioned with more elan and memorable audacity, you should check out Carnimeo’s Tresette series instead, this one comes out barely watchable in virtue of being essentially plotless and stylistically bland.
Tonight, it’s one of the most “Soag” spags of them all afaic. As I write this I’m presently most of the way through the supercool If You Meet Sartana, Pray For Your Death (Parolini, 1968); for me at least, a defining picture in the genre. I doubt I’ll ever love Franco Pesce’s undertaker (I’ve never been a fan of that Walter Brennan/Joseph Egger-type “comic” character) but, over the years, I have at least come to love William “Double Ham and Cheese” Berger and his lop-sided if-I-was-a-pie-I’d-eat-myself smug grin; in this movie anyway, if not quite yet in the other movies in which he pulls that bloody face (which is to say, all of them). So, you know. Small steps. Anyway: “I am your pallbearer!” You tell ‘em, Sartana.
Day 3 - Ringo, Mark of Vengeance (or, Ringo: Face of Revenge)
2/5
The title is a bit ironic because it isn’t really a “revenge” western, IMO. Okay, okay. There are four-ish people, including Anthony Steffen and Frank Wolff, seeking treasure, and they do betray each other a lot. Wolff’s character is named Tricky, in case you thought he could be trusted behind that thin mustache. Even Steffen’s character’s older mentor/buddy Tim betrays his trust and gets killed for it! Tim is the only guy I’ve seen nibble contemplatively on the ear of a bunny . . .
More on Tim. Because he’s really a Steinbeck character, he’s Lenny. And he gets such a moving eulogy!
“[Tim] would say he was gonna die like a prairie dog, and that the prairie dogs would have a good meal on him. And he’d say that’s what he wanted. Because that’s all he deserved.”
The dialogue seemed suspect to me, but I knew AI would have the facts straight.
Day 3: If You Meet Sartana, Pray for Your Death (1968) Directed by Gianfranco Parolini (a.k.a. Frank Kramer). Starring Gianna Garko, William Berger, Fernando Sancho, and Klaus Kinski.
I always considered myself more of a Sabata girl than Sartana. It had been 10 years since I watched If You Meet Sartana. So, I had a lot of fun watching this first entry in the series about the most feared pall bearer in the world of SW’s. And I will admit that Gianni Garko is really good looking in black .
Like in Sabata (1969), the story is set in motion by a bold robbery. In the case here, a load of gold in a horse drawn carriage is robbed by a General Mendoza’s (Sancho) banditos. However, before they know what happens, they are massacred by Lansky (Berger) and his gang. Then, Lansky cuts down his own men with a gatling gun! All of this happens during the first 5-10 minutes of the movie!! And I didn’t even mention the old man being gunned down in a horse-drawn carriage in front of his wife before the gold shipment gets ambushed by the banditos!!! And also like Sabata, there are multiple dynamics of blackmail and betrayal going on between characters in order to get the gold. Unlike Sabata, the layers of blackmailing and back-stabbing don’t wind up convoluted like the latter movie. I found the musical score by Piero Piccioni hauntingly beautiful. Rating: 4/5.
Surprisingly I haven’t seen this one until now. It’s solid, does exactly what it says on the tin with a few twists of its own, low key but catchy Morricone score, yep.
Enjoyable enough middle of the road tongue-in-cheek early 70’s SW, though I do have to admit I knew near exactly how it was going to end 5 minutes into the film. The cinematography has the film looking more like a 1966 or 1967 SW than an early 70’s one, though Klaus Kinski is sporting long hair in the film.
Gianni Garko is very good as the detective styled bounty hunter Silver, who may act a bit more Eastern and dantie, but is no less crafty and tough than Sartana.
Kinski as Conway spends most of his time behind bars, but right away we know he’s not completely innocent looking and does his usual thing of looking menacing and wild eyed craziness.
The ending is kind of anti climactic, but still satisfying on a certain level.
3.5 out of 5 stars for being an intriguing mystery wrapped around a Western
Cardone: Kidnapping
I thought I had not seen this for a long time but it seems I watched during spagvember -21. My thought are the same as then, it has a interesting storyline in the beginning, Brett Halsey as a drunk ex-lawman gets mixed up in a kidnapping case and is pursued by the sheriff and the lawmen as well as the bandits. During the second half the story becomes ludicrously repetitive as the hero gets caught and escapes 3 or 4 four times. Also the whole shoot out in the cave is really bland. 4/10
I watched this one for the first time few days ago. I ordered the Italian DVD release and was hoping for a hidden gem. While watching I soon realized that the movie is rather lame than exciting. Really nothing special.
Watched it maybe a dozen times now but I am still impressed and the score is among my favourites. Watching the (good) Koch Blu Ray still is nothing compared to 35mm Technicolor in Cinema which pleasure I had three times🤠
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