I was just looking at some screencaps of the 4k. I’m hoping for a US/UK release in 2026, or else I’ll bite. It looks gorgeous. The Film Movement blu-ray does a great job overall, but it is really missing that Eastman color vibe.
What language version did you watch? I’m a native English speaker but usually I go with Italian audio, English subs. This time I went back to the English dub. The Italian dialogue is certainly better… we all love this genre and know the dubbing is sometimes a bit off, but I felt like the Italian dub track is just really “off” sync, a shame for such a classic. Silenzio himself doesn’t suffer from the dubbing, at least.
1965 - A Lone and Angry Man / A Coffin for the Sheriff
3/5
Rewatch. Most the soundtrack is better than the actual movie! It’s a really good score. The movie itself is a familiar plot: revenge, robbery, etc. The initiation that Anthony Steffen’s protag goes through to join Lupe’s gang is memorable for being spaghetti-sauce sadistic. He must kill another member in a treacherous, winding trench.
I had the Film Movement Blu-ray, but I ended up selling it. I just couldn’t really get into the way it looked. The Filmjuwelen version has way better color grading, it fits the darker mood of the movie a lot more. I watched it in Italian with English subtitles. And yeah — Silenzio is perfectly silent no matter which dub you choose.
This is still a really good and really entertaining revenge Western with a solid cast. The family feud element between the Macdonald’s and Stuart’s doesn’t get a whole lot of time, but it’s indicated in the confrontation scene between Cjamango and the Stuart patriarch that it went on for some time, and that the paid killings were a last effort. In a way this works out better because Cjamango can focus on getting revenge on the Smart brothers and their gang.
Giorgio “George” Ardisson gives quite the intense performance as Cjamango Macdonald who will let no obstacle prevent him from getting the men who mercilessly butchered his father, sister, and brother. Ardisson’s blonde hair and blue eyes add to the performance. He gets extra points for shedding tears after finding his family massacred.
Anthony Ghidra, one of the few Slavic actors to be a star in the genre, does great against type as a pure villain in the role of Dick Smart. He doesn’t say much, but when de does, people stop and listen. He has no qualms about killing anybody, especially the Stuart patriarch who intended to let him and his men be the cannon fodder to Cjamango’s rage and revenge. Pietro Martellaza/Peter Martell gives a fine, if brief, turn as the hot head drunken younger brother Jack Smart who is gun downed so fast it’s almost funny.
Ignazio Spalla, better known as Pedro Sanchez, provides welcome comic relief as Garcia “Barrica” Ramirez. At first he comes off as a complete opportunistic leach with profiting off of Cjamango’s vendetta against the Smart gang, but he ends up being the best ally the man could want.
I often wonder though if Gaetano “Tanio” Cimarosa’s character hadn’t tried to kill Cjamango after revealing Old Man Stuart had hired the Smart brothers to kill his family, would Cjamango have let him live. Interesting what if.
Day 8: Apocalypse Joe (1970) Starring Anthony Steffen and Eduardo Fajardo. First time watch. LOVED it!!! The Steff was great as the youthful Joe, aspiring thespian and inheritor of his deceased uncle’s gold mine. Fajardo is the villainous town thug Berg, whose gang murdered Joe’s uncle for the mine. Things get explosive . Rating: 4/5.
Day 9: Ringo, It’s Massacre Time (a.k.a. Wanted Ringo) (1970) Starring Mickey Hargitay and Jean Louis. Ringo (Jean Louis) is narrator while searching for his brother Mike (Hargitay) in a shoestring budget production that I found difficult to finish. Rating: 1/5.
No. 10 : COLPO MAESTRO AL SERVIZIO DI SUA MAESTA BRITANNICA
A little trick to avoid getting tired of daily SW.
For sure this ist not a SW but a fine Crime/Eurospy movie from Michele Lupo. But the first minutes are SW because mainactor Richard Harrisons role is a Western movie actor. Because he looks like an important Manager some gangsters come to the set to offer him a job for a big coup with Kidnapping, diamonds,etc.
This is really a very entertaining 60`s Spy movie with many fantastic actors like Adolfo Celi, Eduardo Fajardo, Margret Lee, Livio Lorenzon,etc. Really tricky with many plot twists. Recommended
While not technically a Western due to the setting being a nameless Latin American country, it still has a lot of the hallmarks of what would later become the Zapata Westerns of the late 1960’s, in particular the unwavering dedication to a cause that at some point will lose its glitter and meaning. This go around has a revolutionary leader kidnap a dictator’s daughter in the hopes of making the man flee the country, but problems arise when his most loyal men realize the revolution is a lost cause.
Robert Hossein, playing the lead as well as co authoring the screenplay and directing, does a very excellent job as the revolutionary leader Perez. He’s so dedicated to the unseen general of the rebel forces that nothing, including his family and fiancé, matters or must get in the way of the grand and glorious cause. It is only when certain truths begin hitting him in the face that Perez realizes he may have sacrificed everything for a pittance or nothing at all.
Giovanna Ralli, one of the lesser known, but no less impressive and talented Italian actresses, is an alluring and enigmatic presence as Maria, daughter of the unnamed nation’s dictator. She doesn’t say much throughout the film, but her presence is key to the story and fates of the characters.While at first hoping to get away, she soon starts to feel empathy and compassion for the men fighting for freedom, though also pities the hollow victory they may find.
Mario Adorf, the Swiss-German Italian character actor, does a fine job as Chamaco, one of Perez’s men. While wholly dedicated to the rebel cause at the beginning, he begins to see the revolution’s flaw when the dictator’s daughter is made hostage, more aware of the target put on their backs than Perez is. Self survival becomes imperative to him, but may cost him.
Hossein’s underrated as an auteur in my opinion, talented both in front of, and behind the camera.
Martín: The Bounty Killer
-Nice surprise for spagvember to notice that I had wrapped Explosive Media bluray on my shelf. A film I’d call a minor classic. There’s not so many locations or not that many actors but it’s well made character driven film. Richard “Rattler Kid” Wyler is as wooden as ever but that’s ok because we have Tomas Milian at his best. With someone else in the role of José this might be totally forgotten film but Milian is just so good here. 7/10
Mulargia: Go With God, Gringo
-Mulargia’s directing is quite good here and the film looks mostly nice (Grjngo version from youtube) but I didn’t care about the film that much overall. Pre-title sequence is really strong but then the plot takes different turn and it makes you wonder if the first scene had anything to do with the plot. I think it would have worked better if they had ditched the revenge plot and concentrated on the road movie style. But then again, then the first scene would had to go. 5/10
I like it as well, but maybe my “reserved” 6/10 rating is due to the “face” of the antihero which seems a bit non-traditional tough
64 Any Gun Can Play (Enzo G. Castellari) music Francesco De Masi 1967 65 May God Forgive You … But I Won’t (Vincenzo Musolino) music Felice Di Stefano 1968
x66 Thunder Over El Paso/Revenge In El Paso (Roberto Bianchi Montero) 1972
67 Cjamango (Edoardo Mulargia) music Felice Di Stefano 1967
68 The Brute And The Beast/Massacre Time (Lucio Fulci) music Coriolano Gori 1966
x69 Death Played the Flute /Requiem For A Bounty Killer/Requiem For A Bounty Hunter (Angelo Pannaccio) 1972
70 I Want Him Dead (Paolo Bianchini) 1968 music Nico Fidenco
Another I like 7/10 especially the “mother - over theatrical “ parts and Garko so good ! Only some boring fist fights IMO.
48 Long Days Of Vengeance (Florestano Vancini ) music Armando Trovajoli/Ennio Morricone 1967
49 The Grand Duel/Storm Rider/The Big Showdown (Giancarlo Santi) 1972 50 Blood At Sundown/One Thousand Dollars on the Black (Alberto Cardone) music Michele Lacerenza 1966
51 One After Another/Day After Tomorrow (Nick Nostro) music Fred Bongusto, Berto Pisano 1968
x52 Django The Last Killer (Giuseppe Vari) music Roberto Pregadio 1967
Nice little Giuseppe Vari movie from the 70’s with psychotic Klaus Kinski. Ultra low budget as nearly half of the movie plays in a post station. It was not available in Germany until 1993 when a TV Station showed it for the first time with a then new German Dub.
Love this French and Italian co production so much, such a gem. Robert Hossein crafted a Western that also feels the most Western after GBU and OUATITW, not only in the story, characters, and setting, but in the atmosphere too. Hossein managed to create a an epic feeling film without going too lavish.
Revenge and love have never looked better than Maria Caine, with the help of her first love Manuel, gets revenge on the Rogers family for forcing her husband and his brothers to turn to robbery.
Both Hossein and Michele Mercier carry the film with absolute ease, both giving amazing performances and while the dialogue is minimal, they say so much more with their facial expressions and eyes than words could ever express.
Daniele Vargas, Michel Lemoine, Serge Marquand, and Guido Lollobrigida offer great supporting roles.
While the ending is a somber and dark one, the way Hossein pieces it all together leaves the audience not feeling down or upset, giving a Shakespearean and Grecian vibe.
Both the Arrow Video and Plaion Pictures Blu Rays are worth having, and I honestly wouldn’t mind having a 4K release as well.
. Rating: 4/5.
