5 stars from me ā¦ and i say that KILL AND PRAY is even better!
I did like Kill and Pray also, 2 completely different and great moviesā¦however personally Hills Run Red comes out a bit in front for me.
I watched the Koch Media Release and I enjoyed that flick very much. Of course itās the typical revenge story and the end is a bit too American. As I learned from the Specials of the DVD itās the US End and not the Italian. This was the only SW of Silva? What a waste of Talent! The cast is quite interesting next to Henry Silva we see Dan Duryea (In the classic western Winchester 73 he played a remarkable outlaw named Waco), Nicoletta Machiavelli and as the Hero Thomas Hunter.
As usual I ignored the notes on the cover and started to watch this movie. I was thinking the whole time Wow this composer must be a very good friend of Ennio Morricone and he borrowed some Scores from him. The composer was credited as Leo Nichols and in fact it was Ennio but he used a pseudonym this time.
The Koch Media Release is excellent. The specials includes a nice featurette with an Italian Movie Historian, an interview with Nicoletta Machiavelli and an interview with Thomas Hunter.
Some may say this is:
http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Zanna_Bianca_alla_riscossa
ā¦but of course others may not.
Its a western for sure in my book.
Wow, in my ignorance I had no idea there was a Koch release of this. I have the American release (no extras as far as I can remember).
I am planning to watch this again sometime soon. One of my favorites, Guglielmo Spoletini, is in this. Heās the idiot who Dan Duryea fools with the candle/dynamite. BOOM!
Iād love to see what Nicolleta looks like now. Are the extras in English?
Thanks Paco
Oversaw that one. He did a lot of Movies in Italy but only 2 SW!
@Romaine_Fielding he interview with Thomas Hunter is in English (without subtitels). The featurette and the Interview with Nicoletta are Italian with German Subtitles. On the DVD there are German, Italian and English as Audio Option for the movie (only German Subtitels, but for one little scene at the beginning in Italian there are optional German and English Subtitels too).
Nicoletta and also Thomas seem to be down to earth people and not so self-absorbed as others in the business.
I had to smile about the silly scene with the candle/dynamite. ;D
@ Paco
Thanks
Shame yes. But love his roles in Italian crime filmsā¦he is one mean dude 
I donāt want to say it all the time but where are guys like him in the movie industry of today? I miss actors with great faces like him or Jack Palance etc ā¦
I know what you mean ;). I cannot relate to alot of actors todayā¦
I really loved this after watching it in widescreen while in a good mood, the music reminded me on Conan the Barbarian. Thomas Hunter, Henry Silva and Dan Duryea were great.
Better not
melodramatic spaghetti western, good looking but uneven.a major fault is the casting of thomas hunter, he goes way over the top in some scenes, shouting his lines and comes over as laughable at times.henry silva is ok but has been a lot more sinister and effective in other films. having said all this film has itās good moments and manages to be entertaining, but isnāt one of the better SWās in my opinon. 6/10
I believe this couldāve been a great SW if someone other than Thomas Hunter were the lead. He was totally miscast IMHO.
looking forward to watching this. I have it from MGM and from Koch Media now 
I donāt know why, but this is one of thew SWs which attracted attention outside the SW fan circle. Frayling had it in the mid-nineties amongst his 11 best SWs, but dropped it for a newer top 10 for H. Hughes book. Hughes himself choose it for the limited selection of only 20 films for his book, and it also made his top 10 on position #10.
The film is as american as a SW can be, and even including a few excesses the film could also have been done in Hollywood in excactly the same way. Only that the film would have looked a bit old fashioned compared to contemporary american westerns like Rio Conchos, Major Dundee, The Shooting or The Professionals. Even Morriconeās music is (except for a few Navajo Joe like passages) not too far away from an US score, and surely not as inspired as his Leone scores.
Which means that the filmās general look is far away from the atmosphere of the Dollar trilogy or Django and instead resembles more the sets and costumes of 50ās b-picture westerns. Which also means that THRR is typical enough for the early phase of SW filmmaking.
Which also means that this film is much too naive and simple for my taste. The revenge plot is nothing special, some action scenes are quite good, but again the bigger shootouts are the worst parts of the film in their rather naive conception.
The acting excesses of Thomas Hunter and Henry Silva do the best to stay in mind. Hunter is one of the few SW avengers who is really angry at times, and playing out his rage provides the highlights of the film, whereas Silva is clearly overdoing it. His out of balance performance, whcih is bizarre only for bizarrementās sake, should have been a bit more restrained, but is fun to watch nevertheless.
The end was changed for the american market (you guess it when you watch the film), and it seems that the original italian end has only survived in a lesser quality on tapes made for TV showings.
The film is entertaining though, in a modest way, but not exciting. 5/10
Is the Italian End without beautiful Nicoletta? 
itās those differences (endings etc) that I think we should absolutely urgently include in the SWDB
Watch the bonus on the DVD with the italian expert.