No. Bill says there are English subs to be found for Giarrettiera Colt, but I haven’t found them.
Spagvember#13 Zurli:Man Called Amen
-I remembered this being good but actually it was just rather uninteresting. Ardisson was good but otherwise the cast wasn’t that memorable. And neither was the music. 5/10
Day 14
Hands Up Dead Man! You’re Under Arrest (Bergonzelli/Klimovsky / 1971)
A film with some good elements which somehow loses its way and doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. Sambrell is of course a great villain and the character of Dollar is interesting but the whole thing is ok at best.
Two more PLLs to go!
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Fedra West
Release Date: 5.5.1968
Crossing tracks with Companero_M here. Dramatic stuff, this, actually Greek tragedy, loosely based on Evripides’ play Phaedra. Watched (I think) the same 78 min English audio version as Scherpschutter, it was on my laptop all the time!
Also, someone here has helped me out with English subs for tomorrow’s film: Giarrettiera Colt. Thanks, amigo!
Day 15
Revenge of the Resurrected (R.R. Marchent / 1972)
PLL’s loss is the art world’s gain as the blouse wearing artiste has his dream ruined in Death Rides a Horse fashion and he embarks on a course of revenge instead which is much better suited for someone who can roll and shoot so well and draw so badly. The mystery of who the bad guys recognised only by their unusual spurs, holsters and boots etc might be is made somewhat redundant when it is revealed that Raf Baldasarre, Frank Brana and Lorenzo Robledo live in town but the Pilster sets about his work methodically and undercover to keep the film length appropriate and just when it looks like it could be wound up slightly too early there is a protracted gun battle involving the entire population of the greater Madrid area to see it through to the finish line.
All in all this one plays out with no surprises but a level of satisfaction for exactly that reason. If I didn’t know it was dated at 1972 I would have picked it as a much earlier example of the genre. More like '68 in it’s tone with no comedy elements at all which was unusual in the post Trinity era. All to the good for my liking and I enjoyed this one quite a bit this time around as a result.
DAY 15
Halfway through SpagvemberFest 2018, already?? Sh*tting crikey! That’s not good! What’s really not good is that, like a muppet, I’ve front-loaded my month with all the best films leaving myself with a lot of (relative) dross in the back stretch. Still, that’s a worry for another day since today I’m back to my Sartana box-set for Have a Good Funeral, My Friend… Sartana Will Pay (Carnimeo, 1970), a movie which plays out a little like an episode of Murder, She Wrote but with a slightly better moustache on the lead actor. And about a thousand times more entertaining. For me, this is the film where Mr. Garko really nailed the Sartana character with just the right blend of tongue-in-cheek self-deprecation and hairy-faced cool.
I’ve watched two versions of Fedra West: the scratchy English-dubbed one and a Spanish-dubbed version (with Spanish credits). Both leave a lot to be desired, but the Spanish version is more complete
Dialogue from the film: ¿Qué ocurre? – Are you sure you weren’t smoking marijuana as usual?
Spagvember#14 Musolino: Quintana
-Nice little film, Musolino makes the best out of his limited budget and the good, moody soundtrack helps a lot. Film looks a bit more realistic than usual low budget sw’s with stray dogs and herd of sheeps on the streets. Musolino’s directing is mostly good even though he overuses his artistic slanted shot. Plot doesn’t make that much sense though, Quintana is a masked avenger who is recognised by bounty hunters anyway, maybe the fact that he always wears Clint Eastwoods poncho might the reason.
Film would have benefited from someone more charismatic than bland Tony Dimitri/George Stevenson in the lead. 6/10
Spagvember#15 Corbucci: The Hellbenders
-Dark western thriller from Corbucci (and Band) with classic Morricone score. Al Mulocks beggar is one of the highlights of the film as well as the downbeat ending. 7/10
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Garter Colt
Release Date: 19.5.1968
Prepeared for å more lightharted kind of spag tonight, but not for a comedy. Which is not my bag, at least not when it comes to SW. On the other hand, who can resist the lovely Nicoletta Machiavelli? Not me. (I even forgot my drink.)
A comedy, yes, but a strange one, and with an entirely different kind of silliness than what were to mar a lot of spags in the years to come. And some great moments, too! One I’ll watch again in due time. Nicoletta Machiavelli’s (and Piero Gherardi’s) film for sure.
I never got past the first five minutes, they were soooo silly …
DAY 16
The Stiff! He’s back! It’s the donkey-on-a-donkey today in Some Dollars For Django (Klimovsky (Castellari), 1966), Enzo Castellari’s first tentative (and uncredited) crack of the whip. And it’s not too bad, either. A bit “American” I guess but that’s understandable. Looking forward to this one, I haven’t seen it in four or five years.
Day 16
God in Heaven…Arizona on Earth (Bosch / 1972)
PLL is a professional gun turned avenger as he sets about wresting power and property from bad town boss Frank Brana who killed his Dad and stole their land. Roberto Camardiel is the unnecessary comic relief and Carlo Gaddi the much more welcome black clad nemesis for our Pete. All this with the enjoyable but overused Nicolai soundtrack from Have a Good Funeral…Sartana Will Pay. How many films actually used this score? I know of at least 3 including these 2 and Shanghai Joe.
Anyway, that’s the end of my PLL retrospective for this Spagvemberfest. No real duds in there although only a few genuinely goods ones too. This last one is a good case in point in that it was entertaining enough without ever really engaging in any memorable way. I’ll give some thought and then post a top 5 or something.
Next up will be an essentially random 14 taken from the towering inferno which is my “to watch” pile.
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A Hole In The Forehead
Release Date: 25.5.1968
My Spagvember consist of 1968 releases only. Not the great ones, but lesser films that I haven’t seen before, or don’t remember having seen before, or remember having seen before, but remember little or nothing from. Today’s film is an exception. I have seen it before and remember it well. It starts out terrific; stylish and moody. Then, after half an hour or so, enter General Munguya (Hundar), and for me the film kind of collapsed. So tonight, I’ll give it another shot. Perhaps now, as I’m prepared for that awful scene, I might see the film differently. Who knows?
Spagvember#16 Leone: A Fistful of Dollars
-I’ve been introducing essential spaghetti westerns for my girlfriend so we watched this together which is nice for the spagvember marathon too. 9/10
Rafael Romero Marchent’s fifth Western, Uno a uno sin piedad (“one by one without pity”), released on August 24, 4 AL, features Peter Lee Lawrence (Karl Hyrenbach) and William Bogart (Guglielmo Spoletini) as compañeros in an uneasy partnership, based on mutual deception for the benefit of maximum individual gain. Originality most certainly isn’t one of the film’s fortes. – First of four collaborations between RRM and PLL (Phil watched it a week ago).
The Wild West as will and misrepresentation: Hyrenbach and Spoletini in Spain.
Absolutely nothing biographical is known about Monica (or Monika) Millesi. She appeared in three feature films, two of them Westerns, and an episode of a German TV series, all in 1968, and then, maybe wisely, called it quits.
DAY 17
Ah, over halfway in and it’s the first of maybe five or six films that I haven’t yet seen, despite having owned them on one cheapo box-set or another for some time. Today, it’s Ringo, Face of Revenge (Caiano, 1966), which promises to balance out its Stefftasticness with a nice dollop of Wolffability. And thank God for that.
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A Sky Full Of Stars For A Roof
Release Date: 14.8.1968
Had some hopes for this one, and while it the last time I watched it ended up as below average, this time a little above average. Great opening, good score and ending, and a good film for, all in all, half an hour or so. 6/10.
As for yesterday’s film, A Hole In The Forehead, it seems to break into my top 50, and perhaps also my alternative 20. 7/10.
The German DVD is fine. Audio options: French, German, Italian. No subtitles.
DAY 18
It’s another one I’ve not actually seen today (as far as I can recall, anyway): There’s a Noose Waiting For You… Trinity! (aka The Return of Clint the Stranger) (Balcázar, 1972). General consensus seems to suggest it’s up the better end of the unremarkable, second tier spags. That’ll do for a bit of Sunday viewing.