The John Ford/John Wayne cavalry trilogy (1948 -1950); my favourite of the three being ‘Fort Apache’.
Good, rousing entertainment, with Monument Valley and Moab as majestic back-drops for the onscreen action…
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Nest of Vipers - French dvd, italian audio.
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A relaxing afternoon yesterday…a cold beer, plus the always welcome company of iconic SW legends in a vintage 1965 tasty pasta dish…
Bounty hunters, maniacal bandits, the blistering heat of the Almeria Desert, a twitchy hunch-back, a crazy prophet, a buxom hotelier, bad teeth, musical pocket-watches, and a farm wagon loaded with stiffs…who could ask for anything more?
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While not on the grand level of Toscano’s SW viewing, I did finally find El Cisco in English in the Vudu app last night. I have been curious about this one for quite some time but could never find it in English.
I went in with some pretty low expectations but was pleasantly surprised. It isn’t great by any stretch of the imagination but, despite some over the top gunplay, I enjoyed it. It has a simple and easy to follow plot plus William Berger and George Wang. What more could you want for late Saturday night viewing?
El Cisco - The Spaghetti Western Database (spaghetti-western.net)
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I just watched all four Magnificent Seven films. Haven’t really seen them in a long time, so it was great to refresh my memory.
The Magnificent Seven - still very enjoyable even if it isn’t quite as perfect as I remember it being.
Return of the Seven - what should have been the best sequel turns out to be only tolerable. It has some enjoyable moments but overall, it just feels bland. Even as a stand alone film, it isn’t exactly something I really want to watch again.
Guns of the Magnificent Seven - absolutely terrible. It’s surprising to see many people refer to it as the best sequel. This one is by far the worst in the series for me.
The Magnificent Seven Ride - maybe I shouldn’t be surprised (this was my favourite sequel as a kid) but I think this is the best one after the first film and remains a highly enjoyable film. I’ll definitely watch it again.
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Heads or Tails - French dvd
It sure was an unusual SW.
I think this one is underappreciated. But, a topless Edwige Fenech getting bull whipped in the street as the villainess takes sexual gratification from the act is on the “unusual” side. 
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You have my attention… BluRay please
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Watched Young Guns (1988), a film that improves with each viewing for me.
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Find a place to die
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Three more from 1948 watched this week.
Coroner Creek (Enright / 6/10)
Blood on the Moon (Wise / 7/10)
Yellow Sky (Wellman / 8/10)
Coroner Creek is an enjoyable but routine oater vehicle for Randy Scott. Blood on the Moon is made of darker stuff and is all the better for it. Yellow Sky is one of my all time favourite westerns from the 1940s and still stands up with repeated viewings. The Hays Code friendly ending is the film’s weakest point but the rest of it is a thing of beauty. I could easily see this one as a spaghetti.
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Yes, Yellow Sky has the atmosphere of a SW, and also some of its plot elements. The ending always gives me the feel that it was added in post-production.
I would rate Yelow Sky higher with a 9/10 and Blood on the Moon with a strong 8/10.
All 3 films should be watched by those who think US westerns before Leone were only simple films with clean looking heroes and simple good guys/bad guys stories cobbled with a lot of moralising.
Coroner Creek is a minor but enjoyable western with one surprisingly violent scene for the time, in which the hero after a fist fight takes a stone and smashes the hands of the unconscious baddie. If that scene would have been in an US western of the late 60s, many would suspect a SW influence …
I agree
My rating system is always a bit generous at the bottom half of the scale and tougher at the top. practically nothing gets a 10. Only the very elite gets a 9. So 8 is a very high score for me. Blood on the Moon would definitely warrant a 7.5 if I could be bothered with such things.
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I just watched Comes a Horseman (1978). The antagonist was scary 
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Ah one of my favorites. Peter Lee Lawrence is a top 5 Spaghetti Western actor for me.
The last western I watched was The Deserter (1970) with Yugoslav/Bosnian actor Bekim Fehmiu, Richard Crenna, John Huston, Woody Strode, Chuck Connors, Ricardo Montalban, Slim Pickens, and Patrick Wayne.
Fehmiu plays US cavalry officer Capt. Viktor Kaleb whose wife is tortured and flayed alive during an Apache raid on a settlement near the cavalry fort. Blaming her fate on the negligence of Major Wade Brown, Kaleb goes rogue in defiance of Brown. Kaleb is an expert in the language, culture, ways, and mindset of the Apache people. He uses his expertise to survive in the desert by following their way of life. It isn’t long before General Miles (Huston) gets tired of Major Brown’s ineffective tactics with handling the Apache attacks, ordered by chief Mangus Durango.
General Miles decides to create a specially trained unit that can be sent with the sole purpose of killling all Apache combatants as well as the renegade leader Magnus Durango. Miles invites Kaleb to train the crack unit, much to the chagrin of Major Brown and anger of Kaleb’s former brothers-in-arms. Many who think he murdered his wife and is a cowardly traitor. So, we already know that Kaleb has his work cut out for him when he takes members of the troop he picked for the mission. Kaleb is such a badass that he invites them all to try and kill him. During the desert training, Kaleb has to demonstrate his Alpha status by giving more than one of his trainees a much-earned ass whooping, including Woody Strode. Over time the men come to respect Kaleb’s leadership. Ricardo Montalban plays Kaleb’s Apache friend Natachai. Kaleb’s personal hatred of the Apaches comes our at times during the mission. It proves helpful with his sometimes ruthless tactics. However, towards the end of the movie, his own men (as well as we viewers) are left questioning if Kaleb is being rational in his decision or blinded by hatred.
I really like The Deserter. I’m surprised that I just happened to learn about it by watching it on a 40 movie spaghetti western DVD boxed set I recently ordered online. It was directed by Burt Kennedy, who is not someone who contributed to the Italian western genre otherwise.
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so has anyone seen Horizon yet? there’ll be a whole lot of blaming going around in the order of “they don’t make movies like that anymore” but yet when someone does, nobody goes to see them…
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I get the impression from some comments made by Kennedy, that he thought he was ‘slumming’ by doing this picture … he complained about the partial Spanish/Italian crew as being inefficient, or some such blah … Anyway, he also directed, ‘Hannie Caulder’ the year after ‘The Deserter’, which he dis-owned, and had his name taken off the credits, replaced as Z.X Jones … I think he would have been overstating his disenchantment to placate John Wayne, who would not have approved of SWs … Kennedy was probably a little embarrassed to be associated what was considered low rent productions by his American peers.
Ironically, ‘The Deserter’ and ‘Hannie Caulder’ are two of his most entertaining films - He might have been more embarrassed by his latter output of TV series episodes and cringe bad TVM westerns.
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