SpagvemberFest!

13. DJANGO, PREPARE A COFFIN (1968)

I’ve never been impressed with Terence Hill much as an actor, but in this Spagh he’s pretty good as a gunfighter looking for revenge.

14.FIND A PLACE TO DIE (1968)

This is an easy one for me to like. It’s a simple story that I enjoy watching and I do like Jeffrey Hunter in this, but I much prefer the lady’s (Pascale Petit,Daniela Giordano) though.

15.DEAD MEN RIDE (1971)

This is an enjoyable Spagh with good action and a good Fabio Testi. One that I return to from time to time.

16.KILL THE WICKEDS (1967)

Rod Dana is the reason to watch this average Spagh, he keeps it lively.

17.A MINUTE TO PRAY, A SECOND TO DIE (1968)

Alex Cord’s only Spaghetti Western and it’s a damned good one. Good story/plot with a decent cast.

18.DEATH RIDES ALONG (1967)

First time watching this, had it on my watch pile for a long time. It’s German audio only which I don’t understand, but it’s easy to follow. Something to do with Mike Marshall riding in to town with a message to reveal crooked townfolk. Claudio Undari his good as a baddie and Hélène Chanel is fine, she’s definately eye candy.

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[quote=“Lone_Gringo, post:642, topic:3590”]
DJANGO, PREPARE A COFFIN[/quote]

It’s frustrating how Hill looked far more dark and intimidating in the Colizzi trilogy than while playing Django.

*21. Zurli: Thompson 1880
-Another one of these I remembered practically nothing about (excep for the ending which is also spoiled on the Koch Media dvd’s menu). Not that good film but I found it rather entertaining nevertheless. Gordon Mitchell’s character was the highlight of the film. 5/10

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STEFF 22

W Django! (Mulargia / 1971)

Dive and Shoot = 1
Roll and Shoot = 1
Slow Eye Reveal = 1

Very much a Steff by numbers film for me and am always surprised by how many people seem to rate it as one of their favourites. In many ways it is just a patchwork of ideas done better and first in other films. That goes from plot (for what it’s worth) to individual set pieces. Having so recently watched Apocalypse Joe it felt like I was watching the same film all over again only not as good. The plank set piece is lifted directly from Joe and we also get Steff dressed as a monk again.

All in all it just lacks any originality and appears to be one excuse for a cat and mouse shoot fest after another. Christ only knows how many men Jeff had in his bloody gang but judging by the body count there must have been hundreds of them. No wonder there was no room left in town for anybody else.

And then they went and put a sodding car in it as well.

Maybe if I hadn’t seen a Steff for a while I might have had more fun with it but having just sat through 22 of the fuckers this one pales in comparison. I think one of my least favourites so far.

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[quote=“Phil_H, post:645, topic:3590”]
just sat through 22 of the fuckers[/quote]

You are a man of much fortitude, Phil.

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Now you are entering into the especially insidious post-Trinity area… :relaxed:

STEFF 23

Too Much Gold for One Gringo (Bosch / 1972)

Dive and Shoot = 2
Roll and Shoot = 1
Slow Eye Reveal = 0

The first of these that I’ve had to watch on a substandard print but to be honest I don’t think a pristine Bluray would have helped it that much. It seems that the quality of Steff’s westerns, like most others in the 1970s sadly, was on a downward spiral. He didn’t even get any roll and shoots. The only one in the film was given to one of the bad guy gang. W Django! just moved up a place in my ratings.

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*22. Bergonzelli: Hands Up Dead Man! You’re Under Arrest
-Film starts with beautifully gloomy scene where Aldo Sambrell rides through battlefied executing wounded soldiers. Then it turns out to be more regular story where bad guys are forcing farmers out of their land because of the coming railroad. PLL is accompanied with Espartaco Santoni’s cool bounty killer character and Franco Agostino’s monk who makes his best to turn the last battle scene from violent action to total slapstick. 5/10

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SPAGVEMBERFEST 2017 - THE KILLER CALIBRE 30: DAY 23

Wow, I thought I was going to miss today’s pick! Bloody relatives over meant I couldn’t get my Spagvember on, but they’ve finally f*cked off and thank God, because today is Cemetery Without Crosses (Hossein, 1969) day, and I really don’t want to skip this one. Well, maybe I’ll just skip that bloody Scott Walker tune. Oooh-WAP! Oooh-WAP!

https://imgur.com/w3a0wAb.jpg

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SPAGVEMBERFEST 2017 - THE KILLER CALIBRE 30: DAY 24

The final week? Already? Sadly yes! Still, I’m punctuating this weekend with Spag royalty in the form of the Dollars trilogy, kicking off of course with the Godfather of Spaghetti: A Fistful of Dollars (Leone, 1964). It’s a picture which obviously requires no introduction but, time permitting, I might attempt one (of sorts) anyway by double-billing it with Yojimbo (Kurosawa, 1961). An old spag and an even older Samurai flick? On a Friday night? I’m such a party animal. The wife’s going to love me. :slight_smile: It’ll also be my 30th spag of the month so even if I screw up the rest of this week Ive already done the challenge, technically. First time I’ve managed thirty spags in Spagvember too, I think.

https://imgur.com/CiBe5dZ.jpg

STEFF 24

Tequila (Demicheli / 1973)

Dive and Shoot = 1
Roll and Shoot = 0
Slow Eye Reveal = 0

Looked back at what I said about this film in it’s thread and pretty much stand by it still:

Harmless but uninspired late period Spaghetti.
The western sets are all looking tired and run down by this time which adds a tinge of sadness to what is otherwise a largely lightweight semi comedic affair. Steffen is in one of his big hat roles and Camardiel is in lovable side kick mode while Fajardo is badly under utilised. Not terrible but everyone concerned has done better work elsewhere.

Although to be fair I think I probably enjoyed it a tad more this time around. There’s a couple of nice touches; the dive and shoot is actually a dive through the legs and shoot which is a welcome variation, the shooting through a chicken and a valise is also good fun. But my favourite bit was definitely when the bad guy family refer to Steff’s “Sissy Coat”. Camardial looks at him as if to say “They’ve got a point” and Steff shrugs and says something like “Well, it’s the times”. I had been wondering what the hell he was doing wearing his girlfriend’s coat the whole movie and this cracked me up.

Lighthearted and funny without descending into slapstick and no bloody cars. Extra points for that from me.

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*23. Bava: The Road to Fort Alamo
-Film that’s not bad it’s just too regular soldiers vs indians story. 4/10

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So far I’ve been watching only Koch Media releases this spagvember but even though my Koch dvd’s are not running out the rest of the films are titles I’ve seen too recently (or not that interested at moment) so I changed to Wild East this night.

*24. Marchent: Two Crosses at Danger Pass
-Nice, gritty revenge western. The first half of the film is quite dull (and -at least in the WE’s print- very dark all the time) but during the second half it gets much better. I liked the idea of pacifist quaker brother who tries to stop the violence (in vain of course). 6/10

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A TRAIN FOR DURANGO (Caiano - 1968)

Dunno. Dunno what to think of it. It feels very much like a Tessari-Gemma movie that is harmed by not casting Gemma (but casting Steffen instead) and having Di Leo rewriting Tessari’s script: it’s very noisy now, with people talking or shouting most of the time, like in Di Leo’s crime thrillers. On the plus side it is well-paced and has several good, violent acting scenes plus a bizarre variation on Russian Roulette. Worth watching but could’ve been better

https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/A_Train_for_Durango_Review

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19.THE SPECIALISTS (1969)

Don’t think i’ll ever watch this again. I didn’t like the french poodle Johnny Hallyday in this, he just didn’t look the part at all and practically ruins the film for me. Someone else in the likes of Mark Damon or Anthony Steffen would have made this a much better film then what it is. Pffffft!

3 Likes

SPAGVEMBERFEST 2017 - THE KILLER CALIBRE 30: DAY 25

It’s my penultimate double-bill day today and I’m kicking off in a minute with the incomparable For a Few Dollars More (Leone, 1965) , not only one of the greatest (if not the greatest) spags of all time but one of the greatest movies of any genre.

https://imgur.com/EOqMy34.jpg

Then, later on, rather than finish off the Dollars trilogy (I’ll be doing that tomorrow) I shall be adhering to Sir Elton John’s assertion that Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting and getting a little action in in the form of Chuck Connors’ men-on-a-mission gem Kill Them All and Come Back Alone (Castellari, 1968). Mmm, relentless!

https://imgur.com/TRjBcxK.jpg

STEFF 25

Dallas (Bosch / 1974)

Dive and Shoot = 0
Roll and Shoot = 0
Slow Eye Reveal = 0

The final film in my Steff marathon and not a very good one to end on. Definitely in the post Trinity mold but it wasn’t as bad as I had feared. Maybe I’m getting desensitized but for a light-hearted western it wasn’t as irritating as it could have been. In fact I quite enjoyed it really. The presence of Sancho and Hundar certainly helped. The final fist fight around the mud puddle didn’t. But hey, at least there was no bloody car!

I have to say this whole project has been genuinely enjoyable and I have come away with an increased repect and affection for the Steff. I will gather my overall thoughts and add something to the Steffen thread and hopefully write something further for a dedicated page on the DB.

But first, I’ve got 5 more spags to watch to complete the Spagvemberfest challenge so need to select something suitable to finish the month with.

Oh also, as an aside, I watched a lot of these Steffs via Amazon Prime and can recommend the quality of the prints on offer there. I used them mainly for convenience sake as I could download them to my tablet and watch them during lunchtimes or my commute to work and back. But, truth be told, they often turned out to be better prints than the ones I already had on DVDrs. If you are a Prime member there are a lot to take advantage of.

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I think it’s been a herculean effort, Phil. I don’t think I could do it and I don’t even mind The Steff all that much. :+1:

*25. Tessari: Don’t Turn the Other Cheek
-Film that has potential to be much better than it is. There’s a good cast and some nice action scenes but there’s also too much silly comedy. 6/10

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So theSteff fest is over but the Spagvemberfest has 5 more togo so I thought I’d try and find an actor who only made 5 spags just to round things off. Enter Ivan Rassimov! So…

RASSI 1

Cjamango (Mulargia / 1967)

Enjoyable mid-range and often stylish spag that even features an excellent climactic roll and shoot from the Rass to help wean me off such things.

Here’s my old review which I find still pretty much sums up my feeling on it.

https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Cjamango_Film_Review

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