The Magnificent Texan / Il magnifico texano (Luigi Capuano, 1967)

[Mickey13]

Copied from the Spagvemberfest 2023 thread:

@Mickey13

I do not believe it is entirely fair to fulminate against these Capuano’s works: they are not badly made and possess their own distinct charm if you are willing to look for it. With that being said, these flicks feel more like soap operas rather than veritable oaters in that most scenes take place indoors, the interiors are lavished with fancy furniture and candelabra, most characters are draped in swanky garments and utter long-winded sentences in a judgemental tone, there is little gunplay and all of the components appear to come from a different genre insofar as it seems justified to not lump this film in with the rest of the field and to simply appreciate the narration on its own merits.

In that sense, prescinding from genre’s standards, it does work quite well. If it qualifies as a spaghetti western, then it must be the cleanest and most moralistic one of them all which I suppose would not be so wearisome if Capuano’s execution had not been so ossified and utterly conventional on all fronts. The inclusion of the exceedingly corny romantic subplot compounds the antediluvian, gradiloquent character of the production and De Masi’s habitually old-fashioned soundtrack does not disabuse the viewer of that impression at all; the movie feels as though it had been made at the very least five years before 1967, so if it is novelty you are looking for, search elsewhere, though it is not that awful by any stretch of the imagination.

[Bubz]

After really enjoying “Go with God Gringo”, I wanted to watch another of Glenn Saxson’s very few spaghetti westerns and managed to track down The Magnificent Texan.

Struggled a little with this… Not sure where to start… There’s quite a few stretches of not a lot happening, as well as some below average dubbing. Saxson’s character of the “fashion designer” was just not enticing at all, and the love angle just seemed meh - borderline comical. And without wanting to provide spoilers, the finale just felt a little lazy.

Action was ok, I did enjoy the fight sequences, they seemed well put together. Think there were two or three impressive ones.

Two other gripes were probably how Saxson just didn’t pass off as a Mexican to me, even with all the brown make up, and it was annoying how similar his character looked to that of William.

4/10. Tiny bit generous, not sure. It did have a certain uniqueness to it so perhaps that keeps it at a 4. Not “terrible” but not quite average either.

[IllThinkAboutIt (MMcG)]

Locations have been updated for this movie.
The feedback seems fairly negative on this one - I just watched it for the first time and found it enjoyable. It’s not very SW but there is revenge, action, lost love, Italian locations and a few well known names (Glenn Saxon, Luis Induni, Riccardo Pizzuti). Also I recognised Lola Larson (Fulvia Franco) from A Coffin for the Sheriff - I don’t think see was in many SW’s.
It did have a happy ending!