Robert Woods āāidolo del western italianoāā!
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Love these, JC, please keep em comingā¦
I received the Colosseo BD as a gift (didnāt even ask for this one).
Now 20 minutes into this, and itās really bad. Presentation is pretty good, but the movie sucks. Shitty acting, childish tone, weird camera angles that serve no purpose. Robert Woods laughing for no apparent reason. Now the main character, some dude with a panty hose covering his face, is playing cards with 3 other guys. The dubbing of the gambling addict is horrendous. And so is the character. And this is just 20 minutes in. And how the hell are you going start a movie with an amateurish medium shot? Oh, wait someone got killed while typing this.
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Thanks, I gave up after 9 minutes 
Haha.
How many men does it take to collect tiny satchels of gold? 10. And they all get killed, within 2 seconds. And where did the killer from? They just conjured him up out of nowhere.
Incredibly bad movie.
I have no shame in saying I really liked this film. I mean, it definitely is quite strange, but I enjoyed Woods, the mix of American and spaghetti feel and the comic-book style plot. I donāt know if itās because Iām a Jonah Hex fan but I always wanted to see a spag that felt like it was written for a comic, and this was definitely it. Now that Iāve got the Blu I should re-watch it sometime soon.
That is my feeling regarding Cemetery Without Crosses, I like the comic book feeling of it - so nice flow of scenes and combined with the music gives it an extra plus.
I donāt remember but I guess it was a barroom fight that triggered my early exit from Starblack, but maybe should give it another chance ?
Maybe we have different interpretation of comic book style but Iād say CWC is anything but comic book style. Leone and especially Corbucci are more like that.
Finally caught up with this one, thanks to the gorgeous Colosseo Blu. Itās a shame this one isnāt more well liked, though it certainly isnāt a typical Italo-Western. But what it is, is a fantastic, pulpy, Adventure-Western. The lush green outdoors and colorful indoors will bring American Westerns to mind, but the occasional dark, violent left turn in Albuquerque will remind you that itās not. Fun stuff - 7/10
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Yepā¦thatās pretty much how I feel too.
After pulling this topic up to read peopleās views, I am overcome by the desire to offer my totally unsolicited and unwanted opinion on this film so please bear with me. If this movie is approached in the right frame of mind, I think it is absolutely brilliant.
That being said, I feel one has to have an appreciation for the old Saturday afternoon serials to in turn appreciate what Grimaldi was attempting to accomplish here. I was first introduced to serials through the old Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials. This was due to the fact that I discovered that Charles Middleton, who portrayed Ming the Merciless, was my great grandmotherās cousin. After that, I explored others like Batman, Superman, the Shadow, Captain Marvel, etc. and came to appreciate them for what they were - harmless and innocent fun where heroes act heroically and villains are dastardly. In the end, right always prevails.
What I think Grimaldi did so brilliantly was to capture the completely cheesy and innocent feel of those old serials (right down to the vocal stylings of Robert Woods) as a whole, then bring us back to a harsh reality filled with sadism, torture, and murder after murder after murder without ever losing the overall cheesy feel of a Saturday afternoon serial. I feel that it is, in a sense, an ode to those old serials while at the same time mocking their naive innocence by showing us that the hero can never be as heroic as we imagine.
Anyway, that is the reason that I consider this an extremely enjoyable lesser known title in the genre. Maybe Iām reading too much into it or maybe attributing an artistic cynicism to Grimaldi that he just didnāt possess but Iāll bet that if you take this opinion, along with the appropriate amount of money, to any barista that they will be happy to make you the coffee drink of your choice.
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This is a really nice analysis. I think this is definitely a film that youāll either love or hate depending on how much you enjoy those cheesy serial Westerns. Even though I adore Robert Woods, Iām not really a fan of Star black, but I appreciate its different style, even if I think the film is worse off with it. I also canāt take it seriously with the goofy mask they use, it just looks so stupid (this probably isnāt helped by the fact I watched it on the beautiful looking Colosseo Blu-ray). I wish they kept the eyeholes made it more like the poster.
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I agree, the Colosseo Blu-ray is gorgeous (I was really excited to get it) and the mask is extremely kooky looking. Whether this was once more an homage to the Saturday serial, as literally 99% of those masks were horrible abominations, or if it was due to budget constraints that they had to rely on womenās hosiery for a mask I have no idea, but Iām betting on the latter. 
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I watched Blood and Black Lace (1964) recently and the killer had a similar style mask but they used a thicker material so it looked pretty good. I think something like this would look much better than the thin blue tights where you can see an awkwardly squished Robert Woods underneath.
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I think you are right that the quality of the release might have brought that issue to the forefront. I loved the whole look of the killer in Blood and Black Lace right down to the tilt of his extremely cool hat. That movie is Bava at this best.
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Maybe you are but I like it.
I also like those old serials too. Pure nostalgia for me and a pleasure Iāve been re-living recently as they are recreating Saturday Morning Pictures here in the UK on the Talking Pictures TV channel. Every Saturday morning they are running an old serial alongside an old Lone Ranger or Superman series, a Childrenās Film Foundation film and a cartoon. Iām loving every minute of it and am transported in my mind back to the Leyton Odeon on Markhouse Corner circa 1965 every week.
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That is really awesome! I would really enjoy having a channel that did Saturday morning programming like that. Unfortunately, most of the Saturday morning programming I get is either directed toward the modern day youth or of a DIY nature.
Yeah, itās a great channel if you like old mostly British stuff. Which I absolutely do.
It does show some American stuff too of course of which these old serials are some. The ones they have shown so far are:
Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe
The Black Whip
Commando Cody: Radar Men From the Moon
And next week is episode 1 of a Sci-Fi Western mash up starring Gene Autrey called The Phantom Empire
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This is a really good example of genre subversion. It takes a Lone Ranger type character and makes him a knife wielding killer.
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