The Ruthless Four / Ognuno per sé (Giorgio Capitani, 1968)

Good one, could have been a great one. The set up was very tense and engaging, but later movie sort of starts going through the motions.
I didn’t like Hilton in this one so much, probably because it was obvious he is out of his league in that company. Roland, Kinski and especially Heflin were showing how it is done. One of the best SW cast.
Score was good, if not very spaghettiesque, and added to the atmosphere, but the same theme was a bit overused.
One of the most realistic SWs, nobody shoots the ropes behind the back in this one. Overall above average SW and worth revisiting from time to time.

Until now I’ve only seen copies with French, German or English credits: a remaster from the original negative would be very desirable, so as to recover the cut cigar scene and the full version of the sequence with Mason beating Brent.

Totally agree.

With the death of the Director, Giorgio Capitani, I re-visited this ‘little gem’ last night.
It is dark, but in more ways than one.
There are a few 'Spaghetti Westerns, that have ‘melancholy’ written all over them…this little beauty is definitely one of them.
As for the other melancholic films…‘Find a Place to Die’, with Jeffrey Hunter, springs instantly to mind…

As for ‘Ruthless Four’…? Well, you can’t go wrong with the casting (Gilbert Roland, Van Heflin, Klaus Kinski, George Hilton).
Gilbert Roland is an actor that I could, literally, watch in any film…the man (who began his career in Silent films), has such an aura!

Yep…I love the film!

First viewing: Slow & boring
Second viewing: Enjoyed it
Third viewing: Love this film

Yes top notch this one.

That also sums up my view well after the first warching.

And regarding the homosexual theme between the Kinski and Hilton characters it appears a bit funny, but my favorite in this aspect is Django Kill where one of the bigger baddies and his black clad “muchachos” are having a fiesta and fun with the poor boy Evan accompanied by the suggestive music to surrealistic scenes.

After the 2nd watching I found the 42 first minutes rather slow and boring and not so SW-like, rather more like an American movie. The following hour with the gold adventure is a little bit more interesting but with the repeted Bolero - Lawrence Of Arabia - like mixture music (which is good in itself) even that part gets a non-SW feeling. Only in the last few minutes there is a very nice SW-typical accoustic guitar theme.

I am considering if The Ruthless Four is really worth the 6/10 I initilly rated it as, or should be downgraded to 5/10, in spite of the really good acting.
Since I do not especially look forward to a 3rd view, by my entertainment criterium 5/10 seems more appropriate.

This movie’s page in the SWDb has been updated to the new “SWDb 3.0” format .
Please have a look and let us know if there’s something you can add (information, trivia, links, pictures, etc.).

Apologies for the long break between updating these film pages, got a bit burnt out after doing the first 50. But here’s a new poll for you guys at the top of the page. :arrow_up:

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