The Revenge of the Resurrected / Un dólar de recompensa / La preda e l'avvoltoio (Rafael Romero Marchent, 1972)

Spaghetti Westerns
#1

The double bill from WE with “Hands up dead man you are under arrest” and “Revenge of the Resurrected” just dropped in so I just watched the latter.

Revenge of the Resurrected is a typical revenge film. The main character witnesses the onslaught of the passengers on a stagecoach where his father was one of the passengers.
During the killing he notices certain characteristics about each of the killers which enable him to seek them out for revenge and eventually kill them.
That scene is very similar to the opening scene of “Death rides a horse”
The film is pretty dark and gritty at times, and most of the actors do a good job in creating trustworthy characters.
At times one gets the impression though that the film was directed by Demofilo Fidani.
3/5

SpagvemberFest!
#2

Yeah I agree, I though of Death Rides a Horse too. Okay movie, I was looking for some actual resurrections but what the hell.

#3

This had some nice action scenes, but not much else imo. Obviously inspired by Death Rides a Horse… so not very original. The opening scene is a strange way to show the main character likes to draw.

#4

Still waiting on my copy to come from Wild East. Hearing that it’s sorta similar to Death Rides A Horse actually makes me want to see it more. I also agree with Spuff, after hearing the title I was hoping for some resurrections too. Every since I saw Django Kill I’ve been loving the idea of horror/gothic westerns.

#5

Just finished watching this firefight of a movie. I couldn’t even say what the body count would be…definitely a decent shoot 'em up but otherwise fairly unoriginal.

Still a solid 3/5 from this guy…it had its moments.

#6

Watched this again on the WE doubler. I’d seen it before but some time ago, and not sure of the version I watched then.
I pretty much agree with all that’s been said above. IMO this is a formulaic spag with a tacked on protracted shootout, that ticks most boxes but remains unremarkable and fails to aspire above standard fare.

What IS remarkable however, and unique maybe(?) in a genre known for having wonderfully irrelevant titles, is that all four best known titles for this film relate to the story in some way! …

PLL is an artist - as we are shown, when he does an extremely ropey sketch of a rearing horse. Before he can draw in its cock, he has to catch a coach with his dad, whereupon he somehow gets thrown clear whilst the remaining human contents become “The Prey of Vultures”. He then takes on a secret persona and nomdeplume and goes out for revenge (so that’d be The Revenge of The Resurrected then), and he sneaks about gunning the baddies down one by one because of course by now The Artist is a Gunfighter who offers a single dollar reward for the bad guys (so whatever One Dollar Reward is in Italian for the forth title). Any other spags so suitably named, I wonder?

So, instead of following his chosen path as a crap artist, (as illustrated again by the dodgy DRAH stylee remembered clues, that he sketches), and therefore ending up a floppy haired keyboard player in a proto-new-romantic electro-pop band at art college - his destiny instead leads him into a less than “Gothic” (some dubious marketing here WE) revenge western (always a good move) and into the arms of the virginal prissy-pants Janet (Orchidea DeSantis) as the lurve-interest (ugghh… soppy!). :stuck_out_tongue:
But… “The Resurrected” has obviously seen through the rather ugly painting of her on the WE cover (maybe he did it… it’s bad enough), and her rather stuffy clothes and the traditionally wholesome attitude she subscribes too, and has obviously checked out the somewhat raunchier pics of her in the bath and semi-naked in the Rev’s ‘Spaghetti starlets in Pin-up mags’ thread elsewhereabouts. :-*

So - all in all - it would have been great to have had this the darker “gothic” pic that it hints at. For this, Janet would have needed to be a bit more ‘torn’ - and in this I’m referring to her divided loyalties twixt father and lover - (amongst my other fantasies). ::slight_smile: And ‘The Resurrected’ needed to be a bit more in that ‘hard on the outside, empty on the inside’ mould, that that of a deep-down sensitive chappy (albeit killer) that he comes across in this.

ROTR doesn’t fully live up to its potential - or the WE hype - but it’s still entertaining and worth a watch. So, half marks (probably rounded up to a 3 for a vote).

#7

Watched it yesterday and wasn´t bored as there´s plenty of action. The story and its execution however, are pretty awful. The whole sketch artist thing is a joke; laughable sketched clues with zooms, accompanied by a stupid sound effect. 5/10

#8

Watched this off of the PLL double bill Wild East DVD. Like most have said, it is a middle of the road Spag with enough to keep me entertained throughout but not enough to lift it above the average. Like some others here I have become a PLL fan over time and always enjoy his films these days. This one is not up there with his best (i.e. Fury of Johnny Kid) but when put into the context of its release date (1972) it stacks up far better than you might think. At a time when so many Spags were getting sillier and sillier this one sticks to its straight if somewhat predictable line.

#9

Miguel del Castillo’s brief appearance comes from a previous RRM western, Two Crosses At Danger Pass.

The cover? That’s Dada, Rev! :slight_smile:

#10

The covered wagon chase that ends at a creek was taken from the beginning of Mario Caiano’s Una bara per lo sceriffo. And there’s more recycled footage, e.g. the night scenes at the fort, but I was too lazy to do any cross-checking.