SPAGVEMBERFEST 2017 - THE KILLER CALIBRE 30: DAY 8
Yes! Today - right now, in fact - I’m settling down to The Mercenary (Corbucci, 1968), starring Jack Palance’s curly perm and one of Franco Nero’s infamous attempts at being a far more northern European gentleman than he really is (this time out of course, he’s Kowalski: The swarthiest, most Italian man ever to stride out of Poland). It really is a film which was terrific when I first saw it and which seems to improve with every subsequent viewing.
*8 Tessari: Pistol for Ringo
-Film I have started to like more and more over the years. It’s a weird film if you think of the premise: western that’s mainly a hostage film and set during christmas. Thinking of all the “Ringo craze” that followed it’s strange they didn’t do more real Ringo films with Gemma (as it’s obviously different character in Return). It’s a great character, good looking, athletic and heroic but also a slick and opportunist. I also like Nieves Navarro’s role in this one, one of the best female sw roles in my opinion. There’s some really great stunts by Gemma too, I especially like the gunfight in the end where he’s jumping around the room taking cover from bullets. 8/10
Dive and Shoot = 0
Roll and Shoot = 0
Slow Eye Reveal etc = 0
No roll and shoot, no dive and shoot, NO NEED!
Why? Because there’s a fall down the bloody chimney and shoot, that’s why. Genius!
The Steff look in this is something of a departure too. Clean cut, clean shaven, well just plain clean actually. Until he comes down the chimney like some psychotic Santa of course. That goes without saying. But for the most part he is looking pretty dapper and in an assortment of much better hats to boot.
All in all this is a pretty enjoyable Steff outing and his atypical look adds to the pleasure I think. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hadn’t seen it for a long time for some reason and it was like watching a new film for me. I looked back at the film’s thread to see what I had said about it back then and it seems I liked it pretty well then too. In fact it seems I didn’t mind the ending back then but must admit I found it disappointing this time around. But hey, that whole chimney thing was more than enough for me to forgive it’s other failings. The music is pretty nice too.
A false friend for us Dutch speaking, English writing spagheti western fans. For this reason I’ve never used it as far as I know. Dapper means brave in Dutch, so a Dutch dapper man (man is also Dutch) is brave in English. Not a brave, of course.
Second remark: the Chimney
Funny that you mention Santa. The Dutch Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas has a companion (or lots of companions) called Black Pete(r), Zwarte Piet in Dutch, a custom that has led to a lot of controversy in Holland, because some think Black Pete originally was supposed to reperesent a slave and is therefore an atavism, a relic from the dark ages of slavery. In reality there are several theories about the black man’s origins; one of the alternative explanations for him being black is that his black face is the result of climbing down the chimney (to bring children a present on ‘pakjesavond’, the eve of december 6, Saint Nichols birthday)
Dapper here just means smartly dressed. Not sure how the word originated.
And Black Pete? That’s a new one on me. Sounds more like a pirate than one of Santa’s helpers. Sadly, in our tradition the old guy has to do all his deliveries on his own. Probably due to some Conservative party austerity cost cutting directive I shouldn’t wonder.
Dive and Shoot = 1
Roll and Shoot = 2
Slow Eye Reveal = 1
Always been my favourite Steff this one. Has all the elements you could want plus a great turn from Fernando Sancho and a better hat than earlier Steffs but prior to the big black number he eventually settled on. Again, my old review pretty much still serves for my opinion.
Apparently of German, Dutch origin. I checked a few Dutch language reference works as well. Apparently it originally had a different meaning in Dutch, strong, sturdy, but also nimble, agile, quick. The meaning ‘brave’ seems of German origin (Funny how the meaning of a word can vary over the ages (and languages)
As much as I like George Hilton as a womanizer on the run from Eduardo Fajardo and his henchmen in this strange but entertaining Spagh, it’s Frank Wolff that steals the show with his performance as an unhinged bandido. The mix of action and violence is done pretty well, nice scenery and Femi Benussi was very alluring i might had. Good stuff!
Yeah, you know him! Javier Bardem gives a monologue about him in Collateral (Mann, 2004) while he’s bollocking Jamie Foxx - who he thinks is “Vincent” - for losing the list of assassination target profiles.
SPAGVEMBERFEST 2017 - THE KILLER CALIBRE 30: DAY 9
So, yesterday I watched The Mercenary, today it’s… The other one! Mercenary-Lite! Nero Pretends North, Pt. 2! Et cetera! Yes, it’s Companeros (Corbucci, 1970), featuring maybe my favourite sing-it-loud-in-the-shower tune in all of spaghetti westerns. (sings) “Something something, something about sombreroooooos! Bangabangabang, Bangabangabang, companeeerooooooooos!” Precisely.
I fell off the wagon, but I’m hopping on again by scouring films that I haven’t even heard of before…
ENTER: THE REVENGE OF RINGO!
What a horribly made movie, just oh so bad. Every element of the film, the acting, the dubbing, the script, THE EDITING… most everything was so shoddily made that it just might as well have been cobbled together with barbed wire and bubblegum. And I loved every minute of it.
Two things made this slog a little easier: the music, even though there’s only three or four songs in total for the film, and the story, which includes voodoo dolls, cyanide poisoning, and some interesting bits involving a whole town conspiring against a wealthy land owner.
Best quote of the movie is when the main character plugs a bunch of people and quips “I reckon they’re going to be working overtime in hell today.”
Unlike The Revenge of Ringo it was a very solid and enjoyable venture, most excellent was Anthony Steffan’s dubber who did a fantastic job giving a little life into Steffan’s performance. Also something of interest was Benito Steffaneli playing a Mexican, which is pretty noteworthy in my book considering he’s only ever played an American in the many Spag’s I’ve seen.
See, last Spagvember I mostly watched films I’d either never seen or had only seen once, and it was f*cking brutal. I only started to truly enjoy the process towards the end of the month (must’ve had a few good ‘uns on the trot) but most of the month felt like a slog; by the end of the second week I could feel myself flinching from the prospect of another (probably) poor film. I’m loving this year’s challenge though,’ cos I’m mostly only watching tried and tested, much-loved pictures. A third of the way through and it feels to me as though it’s barely begun.
So my advice to you mate would be to try to intersperse your undiscovered pictures with a few guarantees of quality if possible. Definitely helps, I feel.
I like your plan my man, and I’ll definitely keep that in mind as we go through the month, but honestly I need to expand my Spag knowledge a bit. I’ve seen my favorites like Keoma, and Halleujah quite a few times, and each time is a treat of course, but there’s some of the lesser known Spags that have kept nagging my curiosty for years now and I’ve neglected to see due to laziness. Films like Savage Guns, and Little Rita in the West for instance. It’s time to get those films checked off!
Isn’t that the movie with Hargitay dissappearing after twenty minutes or so? I think there was something with his son which made him take the plane and fly back home
No rolls, no dives, no bloody hats to speak of one way or the other apart from the odd moment or two. In so many ways this was as untypical a Steff outing as you could imagine up to this point. Could it be the big guy was beginning to flex his chops and take on some different types of roles? Well this was certainly a departure, whatever the reasoning. But a happy one I think, for the most part.
A light-hearted comedy adventure western but pre-dating the Trinities by a couple of years and avoiding a lot of the slapstick nonsense which made the latter era comedy Spags so tiresome. Steff is a naive bumbler here rather than a steely eyed revenger and he carries it off pretty well. In fact the whole film has a nice balance and is entertaining throughout. The presence of Enrico Maria Salerno helps of course and Mark Damon works well in his part too. Even the bloody car didn’t put me off.
SPAGVEMBERFEST 2017 - THE KILLER CALIBRE 30: DAY 10
"Yooooooooooooooouuuuuu!
(pause) "A looooooooooooooooooooo!
(more pause) "Nansooooooooooooooooooooooo!
(bit more pause, right here) “LitaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaariMAN!”
From the Heaven of yesterday’s theme song I plunge all the way down to the depths of theme song purgatory with Mannaja (Martino, 1977), accompanied as it is by the world’s most hilariously f*ckawful dirge. Good job the movie itself is an absolute cracker. Simple, brutal and ugly: Everything I love most in my spags.
