In keeping with the “Winnetou” kick I have been on, I watched Old Shatterhand (1964) this weekend.
There were 11 total Karl May western story “adaptations”. Nine were done by Rialto and two were done by their competitor CCC. This one, Old Shatterhand, is one of the two done by CCC.
If you thought Intellectual Property did not exist in Italy in the sixties, wait until you check this out. Rialto had had two big hits (The Treasure of Silver Lake-1962 & Winnetou 1/Apache Gold-1963). Well. CCC ripped off everythng. They took the stars, charaters (even the minor ones) and made their own movie!
Unfortunately, this one is not as good as the Rialto films. While big and epic, it’s director (Hugp Fregonese) is no Harald Reinl. The action sequences that were so fabulously done in the Reinl/Rialto films are here poorly conceived and executed. In fact, they are annoyingly inept. :-[
But as usual, Yugoslavia is beautiful as a European version of Big Sky country. One reason that ths part of Europe can pass adequately for the arid west is its lack of tall trees and sky blocking vegetation. It really “opens up” the sky and, combined with the bone white rocks, it makes for a fantastic blue and white world.
The music in this one is by Riz Ortolani (not Martin Bottcher). It sounds very much like the score Morricone wrote for Duello Nel Texas. Not symphonic like Bottcher’s.
Daliah Lavi plays the obligatory Indian Maiden. And she is the hottest bucksin babe I’ve seen so far in these mild westerns. :-*
The version I had of this film had no English options but that was just fine. Having seen the earlier films, it was quite easy to figure out the action. And not having to listen to the stupid comic-relief characters was a blessing!
Since the action scenes were poorly done (and that is the main reason to see these films) I cannot recommend this one.
You liked it? I never got more than halfway through without falling asleep. Mind you the 3 times I tried to watch it was late at night after a few wobblies so perhaps that’s not fair…
West of the Divide (1934)
Another of the series western films I’ve been watching lately. Not much that sets this one apart from the others but I really have been enjoying these films. After watching so many of these dark and bleak spaghettis, it is refreshing to have the lines between good and evil clearly drawn so you can actually like the character. They have a certain charm to them that makes them so fun. Another great qualty of these films is the spectacular horsework done mostly by the great Yakima Canutt. He jumps from his saddle through windows, jumps from his saddle into other saddles, grabs other men from their saddles, jumps into his saddle from the ass (similar in stlye to Cuchillo) And jumps into his saddle. He actually jumps from the ground into his saddle without even putting his feet into the stirup. All very fun.
This paticullar film doesn’t have much to set it apart as I said. It has the usual John Wayne serial revenge plot. A man seeks his father’s killer by infiltrating his gang and foiling their plots. Cheesy dialogue, laughably fake fight scenes, cheap Caifornia locations. But this all adds to the fun. And I actually like the cheap Caliornia locations. Fun films.
p.s. Another one of these really stupid things like is the infiltration aspect of the plot. It is a lot more clever to have the revenge seeker infiltrate the gang than face tem all at a time, head on. Destroy thm from within. Cemetery Without Crosses has a similar apsect and I like that one partially for that reason. Pistol for Ringo has this too.
Watched The Tramplers aka Gli uomini dal passo pesante a couple of nights ago. Thought I was going to hate it but was actually pretty enjoyable. James Mitchum who starred in the dreadful Massacre at Grand Canyon actually does a pretty good job this time around and actually lays a better performance than main part actor Gordon Scott who I’m not sure was really cut out for spaghetti westerns. Also stars Joseph Cotten and the ever watchable Franco Nero who this time around haven’t got much active screen time so Nero fans shouldn’t watch the movie for his sake they’ll get disappointed.
Actually I’m surprised this haven’t had a proper dvd release yet what with all the name actors.
[quote=“korano, post:3944, topic:141”]West of the Divide (1934)
Another of the series western films I’ve been watching lately. Not much that sets this one apart from the others but I really have been enjoying these films. After watching so many of these dark and bleak spaghettis, it is refreshing to have the lines between good and evil clearly drawn so you can actually like the character. They have a certain charm to them that makes them so fun. Another great qualty of these films is the spectacular horsework done mostly by the great Yakima Canutt. He jumps from his saddle through windows, jumps from his saddle into other saddles, grabs other men from their saddles, jumps into his saddle from the ass (similar in stlye to Cuchillo) And jumps into his saddle. He actually jumps from the ground into his saddle without even putting his feet into the stirup. All very fun.
This paticullar film doesn’t have much to set it apart as I said. It has the usual John Wayne serial revenge plot. A man seeks his father’s killer by infiltrating his gang and foiling their plots. Cheesy dialogue, laughably fake fight scenes, cheap Caifornia locations. But this all adds to the fun. And I actually like the cheap Caliornia locations. Fun films.
p.s. Another one of these really stupid things like is the infiltration aspect of the plot. It is a lot more clever to have the revenge seeker infiltrate the gang than face tem all at a time, head on. Destroy thm from within. Cemetery Without Crosses has a similar apsect and I like that one partially for that reason. Pistol for Ringo has this too.[/quote]
Glad to hear you are enjoying these old oaters Korano. I agree, if you take them for what they are they can be fun and definitely have a certain old world charm. Canutt’s stunt work is terrific too, as you say. A true legend in his field.
Yeah I watched it in the afternoon while drinking coffee… it’s short (82 minutes) but it felt longer, I thought it had some nice moments and Ivan Rassimov was good.
Of all the SWs you could expect to get some quality out of them, this is the most disappointing. A disaster compared to its possibilities.
Ha ha look at Telly Savalas, does he do anything? Only standing around with hanging arms like he’s waiting for some acting instructions, but becomes nothing. Never seen him so dull. But so is the complete film.
Well I just watched A Town Called Hell, which I would say was even a bit better than A Reason To Live, A Reason To Die. At least Telly did something in this one!!!
Wow, I’m kinda surprised so many of you don’t really care for Reason to Live, Reason to Die… of the many I’ve seen, it’s one I always remember liking… Yeah, Savalas was a cornball, but Coburn was awesome and Spencer wasn’t doing comedy, both plusses. I love the opening/closing scene when they’re both standing there in the carnage looking shocked.
Just revisited Django Kill…I suppose I was in the mood for a sadistic gay-muchacho movie!
Anyway I watched that for the first time about a year and a half ago, and just watched it for the second time now. Although not exactly my cup of tea I think it’s a pretty interesting movie and a good contribution to the genre.
If you like Coburn, then he is never bad. I like Coburn.
But this can’t save a film which gives me the impression that none of the people involved had any interest in this film. They had probably a slightly larger budget, but the screenplay and the directing are mostly hopelessly uninspired.
Well, there are a few good moments, but there are also too much surprisingly dull moments. The whole long part when they enter the fortress is so ridiculous conceived that I never know should I cry or laugh.
The then following action scenes are at best routine, but often are also only dull.
I don’t know what went wrong, but it surely was a lot.
Yesterday I saw Tramplers, which was quite remarkable considering the fact that it’s one of the early American style SWs.
I think, the end was quite weird: there are so many guys being easily killed by Scott and Mitchum. Usually a high bc is not a bad thing, but here it’s so unspectacular. And I thought Mitchum’s change was a bit strange, too. We did nt know, that he went away, then he comes home as a one armed dipsomaniac gunslinger (oadg).
But once being that oadg his shooting is impressively elegant!
