SpagvemberFest!

Not a big issue with me either. I will perhaps chew some more on it later. But for now, more pressing matters at hand, namely

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  1. Black Jack
    Release Date: 24.10.68

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Not in my original plan for Spagvember. But as another of the films I originally picked from the “browse film by year of release”-page turned out to be a 1969 release, and as the WildEast DVD of this 1968 release just dropped into my mailbox (it comes together with The Bell Starr Story), it will be on tonight. Another real nasty Indian in this one I think!

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José María Elorrieta’s Los siete de Pancho Villa, released in 3 AL, isn’t a Western, rather an adventure film set during the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920). Played by Ricardo Palacios, Pancho Villa appears only briefly at the beginning. He is depicted in a very unflattering way, as are his men, probably in keeping with the political agendas and views of dictator Francisco Franco’s right-wing regime. Villa was a revolutionary, after all.

Ricardo Palacios as Pancho Villa

Scherpschutter’s review of Los siete de Pancho Villa hits the mark. As Elorrieta’s two preceding Westerns, El hombre de la diligencia and Fuerte perdido, his Pancho Villa film lacks in narrative coherence, timing, dramaturgy and character development. In other words, it’s a boring affair. Of the three Elorrieta-directed films I’ve watched so far, Fuerte perdido is probably the best one. I already miss the Ro-Ma bros.

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Spagvember#28 Castellari: Kill Them All And Come Back Alone
-I’ve had the WE dvd on my shelf for 10 years and had not watched it until now. One reason for postponing it was that I remembered it as a total crap. But the version I had seen before was almost unwatchable, fullscreen, almost colourless mess so I was pleasantly surprised by the film in decent print. Well yes it is a “Bang crash, bang wallop, biff bosh bash - wallop wallop, kap-ow ping, boof aghhh BANG!” -just action and fistfights from beginning to end but it’s still entertaining. 6/10 (and that’s a quite increase from my original rating of 2/10)

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DAY 27

Getting my Dick Spitfire on once more, this time in the shape of One Damned Day at Dawn… Django Meets Sartana (Fidani, 1970), which feels like a mouthful until you consider that the far more accurate “One Damned Day at No Specific Time… Some Fella Going by the Name of Django (But Not the Django You’re Thinking Of) Meets a Bloke Called Ronson” doesn’t quite have the same razzle dazzle to it. Mr. Spitfire did a bunch of movies in rapid succession with the same cast but the way I manage to distinguish this one from the others is to remember that this one is “The Crap One” which, as you can imagine from the Miles Deem canon, is quite a f*cking statement. Oh well. Wish me luck.

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Si quieres vivir, dispara (“if you want to live, fire”) was released in 11 AL (depósito legal: 1975) or later. Its alleged director, José María Elorrieta, had died the year before, in February 10 AL. The film’s credits don’t mention him as director, only as writer (José M.a Elorrieta). No director is given in the opening credits, and the film ends with this insert:

So it’s anyone’s guess who actually directed Si quieres vivir, dispara (director’s name on the movie poster: J. Lacy). Javier Elorrieta is José María’s son, and he provided the film’s music (nice vocals by a singer named Andrea White). The film tells two parallel stories, one very close to Delmer Daves’s Jubal (9 BL), the other one not really a story but a procession of sequence after sequence of gratuitous violence. Tiresome.

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Btw what does AL mean?

“Anno Leonis” (AL) and “Before Leone” (BL). 1964 = 1 BL, 1965 = 1 AL. Explained above. :nerd_face:

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Ahh, great …

I missed that before, but now I’m a believer …

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  1. And Now… Make Your Peace with God
    Release Date: 26.10.1968

Tonight another breathtaking Fidani! But how did it end? Didn’t quite get it, so I’ll have to give it another look. But the next time I’ll go straight to this scene. Stunning lyrics here. Not to speak about her do. And I’ve seen that chess board somewhere before…

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DAY 28

Ah, now here’s one I’ve been avoiding for a long time: it’s Sartana in the Valley of Death (Mauri, 1970) and I’ve swerved it for as long as I have because tbh I’m not especially fond of William Berger and the perma-smug lop-sided grin on his face. Still, today’s the day, for better or worse.

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Spagvember#28 Sollima: The Big Gundown
-Film I’m starting to like more and more over the years, 9/10. Watching the film in english isn’t that great pleasure though, you have to choose between torso version or composite version where audio changes disturbingly in some scenes almost every line. And watching it with italian dub you miss LVC’s voice. I wish that someone could restore the english track with voice actors and imitators.

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LOL … Know exactly what you mean … re-watched ‘Sabata’ recently and that,‘Aren’t I so cool and handsome?’ expression really gets irritating - why the feck is he so pleased with himself!? :smiley:
However, ‘Sartana in the Valley of Death’, was a lot better than I expected, despite it’s cheapo sandpit look.

Enjoy!

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Nah … that doesn’t work. I hate the dubbing on GBU … apart from Eli Wallach, the voices are terrible. The LVC impersonator is nothing like the original … the restoration people should have shopped around for someone who really could imitate Lee, or just go with subtitles.
Amazing the amount of hours that went into this project, and yet the technicians are tone deaf or apathetic if they think this is satisfactory.

With these films, we’re looking at something vintage/ of it’s time … it should not be tampered with, unless original elements exist.

hmm… It’s been a long time I watched the extended edition with new dubs but I remember liking LVC’s voice best. Wallach’s and Eastwood’s voices sounded too different, too old.

Simon Prescott is the guy. Some lines he sounds pretty close, others he’s way off.

Clint is terrible … how can he not sound like himself!? … he appears to be using a regional accent (slightly Southern) which was never present in the original.

I expect the dubbing people had the two elderly stars for a couple of hours and had to make do with what they captured. Who’s going tell Clint, ‘That’s shit, do it again!’ ?

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Afraid I wasn’t convinced at all - LVC was so unique in his delivery, and sounds to me like he spits the lines out.
As a kid I tried impersonating him, by repeating the line “Not even the bank of San Francisco is that well protected” … bet you can all hear that in your minds ? :laughing:

I also learned to do the Klaus Kinski facial tic … which was great once I got it, but it then started for real when I was anxious. :wink:

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He literally resorted to a stereotypical textbook impression of himself :disappointed:

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No Spaghvember without Giuliano, so my diet was signed Gemma last week

giuliano

Arizona Colt (1966, Michele Lupo)

***½

Probably the Gemma western that I have watched most often. Longer than most spaghs and never boring, but it cannot be denied that it has a few shortcomings: the romantic subplot doesn’t work at all (and Marchand looks ridiculous with that coiffure) and this shootout in the town street could’ve been a lot better. The movie’s coda (the final after the final so to speak), with Gemma and Sancho stalking each other, is quite nice, a bizarre blend of western and horror

California (1977, Michele Lupo)

***

Gemma and Lupo reunited, eleven years after Arizona Colt, for a movie that is almost the direct counter part of the first one: Arizona is playful, whimsical, California is solemn, down-to-earth. I still think this is the best of the Twilight Spaghs along with Keoma, but an atmospheric, well-directed first half is followed by a more traditional and predictable second. The finale has a nice trick with a bottle though.

One Silver Dollar (1965)

***½

Gemma’s breakthrough movie in Italy. It was more successful at the box-office than the two Ringo movies. A bit naïve in spots but it’s easy to see why it made such an impact in a society that was still looking for itself after WWII and its aftermath. Overall it’s a quite sentimental film, but the violent fistfights and sudden shootouts must have impressed international audiences: it was one of the first Italian westerns that was successful abroad. And what a lovely Rotoscope credit sequence

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