A well cast and well acted western which is quite suspenseful for the most time when it’s dealing with the hostage situation.
The beginning with the robbery is more lightweight, while the greatest part of the film is a good combination of lighter and rather violent moments. But Lucidi, mainly a comedy director, gives away the end with an undecided switch to parody and grotesqueness.
Great cast and good plot could’ve made this one a winner but the movie can’t really decide whether to be lighthearted and silly or serious and mean. There’re several nice and hard scenes next to some stupid and unnecessary ones (too many and too long Saloon brawls).
The main problem is that the film fails to deliver a fitting end. And a film with a lousy end always seems to be worse in memory than a film which only begins lousy.
While I was rewatching it I asked myself why it wasn’t in my top 50. But in the last 10 min I remembered why.
Hunt Powers, not an actor I like, was remarkably good. As was Walter Barnes.
I watched this one this evening. A pretty uneven film. The serious moments create a threatening and desperate atmosphere however the more lighthearted scenes are quite ridiculous and don’t really have anything to offer. I was expecting a good gundown between the three in the end, but like it’s already said the finale was lame and disappointing. I also don’t think that the way Hilton was used worked very well and that repetetive prison escape became kinda boring towards the end. Above average, but it could’ve been much much better if the comedic elements were thrown out of the film.
For me, a big disappointment. The film is not serious and is not a comedy.
He remains very unbalanced.
Here the story has much potential. But it is not used.
You lose time in brawls and stupid conversation.
The character of George Hilton is somewhat reminiscent of his role in tempo di massacro.
But this was a serious, dark film, with many masterful scenes.
The Greatest Robbery in the West is unfortunately below average.
My rating 4 / 10.
I have the X-rated DVD. The picture is unfortunately only average. But uncut. The missing scenes are a bonus on the DVD.
It should be noted that the ending is cleverly linked to the beginning of the film (pic 1).
The opening scene with voices over the titles is untypical and in rather modern conception, noteworthy is also the solution of separate credits for cast and crew.
There were some decent scenes and a few clever ideas (like hanging a man from the church bell) but, as many people have noted, the tone was too uneven. Worse, there was story stall throughout the film with everyone returning to a listless stasis after brief moments of excitement. Hilton’s character in particular displayed none of the urgency and driving motivation one would expect given the circumstances. I can’t say I will be revisiting this one.
According to ofdb, dvdcompare & spaghetti-western.net The Greatest Robbery in the West in the X-Rated double pack containing The Crazy Bunch (aka Dickie Luft In Sacramento) & The Greatest Robbery in the West (Ein Halleluja für Django) runs 104’08 min. (PAL), but the danish video release runs 106’45 mins (PAL);
I therefore spent the last 6-7 hours making a compare between the english dubbed german ‘New Line Edition’ & the old danish Panorama Video-video release (also english dubbed) and this has been a rather difficult task because the New Line Edition is the short 85-minutes version & those scenes missing in this version are added as ‘deleted scenes’ (21 italian & 7 german).
My finding is that all of those 28 deleted scenes are included in the danish video release, but danish release also includes scenes, extended scenes and extra dialog not included in the New Line Edition-release or among the deleted scenes…
Specs for the danish release; Letterbox / english dub w/danish subtitles
Does anyone know what kind of print is used for The Greatest Robbery in the West on the X-Rated double pack release containing The Crazy Bunch (aka Dickie Luft In Sacramento) & The Greatest Robbery in the West (Ein Halleluja für Django)?
Is it a complete english dubbed print or is it a composite print made from an english dubbed print with w/english subbbed italian/german scenes inserted?
That’s right, a little bit over 111 minutes (24 frames per second) is the correct runtime for this one, including about one minute of closing credits on a green background.
Original rating T (all ages admitted) with one scene, the attempted rape of Katie, shortened.
Well, I finally watched the uncut version and thought this was an enjoyable entry in the genre. I was expecting a comedy but it ended up being a pretty serious film. The comedy moments actually feel a bit out of place, especially towards the end, but other parts work very well. I loved seeing Hilton sneak in and out of the jail without his brother’s knowledge - very amusing!
![http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/834/greatestrobberyinthewe2.jpg/[/url]](http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/834/greatestrobberyinthewe2.jpg/%5B/url%5D){kind=link}