I enjoy this film, Iâve only seen the Wild East DVD, but I plan on getting the Arrow Blu ray in the future.
One thing that makes no sense to me and maybe someone smarter than man could explain it to me. Why does Philp shoot Claytonâs hat off in the final duel? Clayton ends up getting shot and then Philip asks some stupid ass question like âDid they get ya?!â Very odd moment that to me seemed very out of place.
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That bit always confuses me too. My guess is that itâs to get him to start the duel by making him think one of the brothers shot first?
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Thatâs where my brain went, but taking his attention off the brothers very well could have gotten Van Cleef killed. The whole movie is odd, which isnât a bad thing, but I canât wrap my head around this part.
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It is a nice movie with a memorable intro which is simply the best part of the movie. I liked the actors very much. The acrobatic stuff is awesome and it makes it somewhat special. The locations and its luckluster atmosphere show the decline of the genre though.
It is still the second best SW of 1972 after Thunder Over El Paso which is miles ahead of anything else produced that year and at the same time it is the best Leeâs SW of 1970s.
Strong 3/5.
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Well, in my book Ben & Charlie is miles ahead of Thunder over El Paso, even though itâs lightweight. 
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Sure, Lupo was a good director. If you like Gemma and Eastman and donât mind the movie doesnât really have any story or a coherent script then it is a good choice. I prefer when a movie is written before it is shot.
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Albeit well directed all around, I thought Ben and Charlie was derivative and boring as heck.
According to SWDB review Eastman wrote an original screenplay but it was rewritten and not even him liked the movie in the endâŚ
Rewatched this one today⌠nothing special but well made and somewhat underrated. Itâs better than many of the lesser spaghetti westerns in the essential top 20 like the return of ringo and death rides a horse.
However, Lee Van Cleef has aged quite a bit and as much as i hate to say it, he lost a good deal of his charm and charisma along with it. A lot of the distinctive facial features that made him special to begin with have been⌠watered down⌠and the 60s sensibilities are long gone here⌠a fun film regardless.
After another rewatch I give this one now a 6/10
I still see the elements I disliked, the film has its weak parts, but now they seem less important compared to the good parts. And these I enjoyed more than before.
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I saw the UK Arrow Blu Ray the other day, first time I have watched this film in about 20 years.
- Version control
The UK Arrow Blu Ray is the Italian print lasting about 93m40s. It has the shot of the old man putting his bloodied handprint on Adamâs white coat which was definitely missing last time I saw it.
On the extras is a 15m comparison of the German version with the Italian version. The German version is missing about 1m-2m from the beginning of the movie as it cuts in later because its opening credits scene is much shorter. However, it contains about 3-4m of footage missing from the Italian version. This is all small trims from existing scenes so a composite version using the longer Italian opening credits but the German extra footage would be about 97m-98m I guesstimate. The German version appears to restore the Italian censor cuts made to reduce the rating from 14 to unrestricted - the torture by the waterfall is about 30s longer and the massacre of the peasants has half a dozen or so several extra shots, including the final one in which Adam rides off and appears (based on the soundtrack) to shoot a crying baby on his way out. In addition, some of the bad language and cursing has been removed. Some of the rest of the trims seem designed to tone down the contractual comedy performances of the superfluous German and French supporting actors (e.g. the old Way Station guy who partly talks German), At least 1m of the extra footage is from the scenes inside the Way Station where there are several extra bits. The various black and white flashbacks showing the killing of the patriarch are all a bit longer in the German version.
- Other extras
There is a 20m interview which Santi who talks about working with Leone and others. Santi claims he was offered the Duck You Sucker gig by Leone but Rod Steiger objected and demanded Leone direct and he ended up being second unit and an assistant director. There is an interview with writer Gastaldi but he canât remember anything about writing the movie and talks about other stuff.
- The movie
I like some it of but there are a lot of German/French comedy actors who appear to have been included for contractual reasons by the other investors. Third billed Jess Hahn has a largely superfluous role as a stage driver. Horst Frank, as the main villain, doesnât appear until over half the movie is over. Adam Saxon is a great villain - all dressed in white and covered with pox scabs and they imply that he is gay without saying so outright (I guess because that was considered a âperversionâ at the time). I did wonder why, as Adam complained, they hadnât intended Elizabeth to marry Eli who was older, unmarried and would have presumably âstepped up to the plateâ to produce an heir. David has a wife but they are childless - nothing made of this as the wife hardly appears (is he supposed to be impotent?).
The opening was great but the whole plot was slim. Van Cleefâs reasons for not disclosing he was the killer earlier eluded me. He keeps refusing to say and then just comes out with it at the end. He also seems to have allowed Philip to be convicted of murder and then imprisoned and only comes to help Philip when Philip has escaped from jail (off-screen). What was he going to do if Philip hadnât escaped? In addition, Santi muffs the flashbacks so that Van Cleef is instantly recognisable even in shadow in the first flashback (my dad yelled out âthatâs Van Cleefâ when I first saw this 20 years ago). Good gunfight at the end.
- UK releases
This was passed with an âAAâ (14 and over) by the BBFC in February 1975 as The Big Showdown (the English title on the Arrow print) after minor cuts to reduce the waterfall torture and the close-up of the simian-looking bartender henchman shot in the head. However, I can find no evidence that it was ever released. No reviews in the Trade Papers and no sign of FoH stills or a poster in my search.
Has anyone got evidence that this was released theatrically in the UK?
It was released on video as Storm Rider in 1988 with a ridiculously harsh â18â rating after a mandatory horsefall cut (I assume this is Philipâs horse being shot). Not sure if this had the âhandprintâ shot or not and it might have been missing the CU of the horseâs ass too. The Arrow Blu Ray is downgraded to â15â but still has the horsefall cut.
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I have seen numerous interviews with Gastaldi as extras for the films he had written e.g. spaghetti westerns, gialli, and he has little memory or interest in them. He regarded them as by the numbers writing done for a pay cheque. Instead, Gastaldi tells anecdotes which he thinks are very amusing and interesting, but arenât really.
In fact, most of these such interviews are not really very interesting. The interviewees are usually surprised that something they did 40-50 years is being re-released and barely have any memory of it. Actors usually say that so and so was great to work with, but little else of interest. However, there are some fascinating interviews with crewmen like assistant directors, editors, composers etc. What I canât stand are the pretentious âvisual essaysâ by the likes of Kat Ellinger or Alexandra Whatshername.
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The Dentice interview was more interesting - he mentions the abortive Antonioni/Jack Nicholson film on which Santi was the intended assistant director which was Technically Sweet and that he was going to be cast and how that got him the audition for The Grand Duel (the Santi interview implied this film was The Passenger but The Passenger wasnât made until 1974). He also says that an extra sex scene was filmed for the German market although this doesnât appear in the German version comparison so probably was never used.
The Austin Fisher analysis I found a bit boring because he didnât really say anything. I think he struggled to put this one in context - its a straight movie made when many Italian westerns were Trinity-inspired comedies and was actually the lowest performing Van Cleef western at the Italian box office to date despite being a Christmas release but he didnât mention that. Instead he twittered on about the music being used in Kill Bill. I might get his book one day. Or not.