Released: 25 December 1971
Director: Alberto Mariscal
Stars: Antonio Aguilar, Flor Silvestre, Eric del Castillo
Watched this 1971 Mexi-western this afternoon. Searched the forum but didn’t see a topic, or entry in the DB.
Its a strange film, seemingly influenced by the likes of El Topo and Django Kill with its bizarre elements and characters, gay bad-guy cowboys with last-dinner style table out in the desert and such. I went in wanting to like it and the opening scene seemed promising, but the film was pretty weak for me, focusing on strangeness without any purpose and action which is very poorly shot, almost non-existent. Apart from the weak action, many scenes do look pretty good and with a better print could be more appreciable. The lead character is pretty cool looking and plays the part of black-clad lone gunman very well (El Topo again anyone?). Features maybe the biggest/worst horse dive ever.
Its worth a look and if you like these kinds of weird westerns, you may find a new favorite. For me, it just feels like a weak imitation of previous works without adding anything worthwhile, and I was mostly bored with it. Could possibly be a better viewing in the future when I am not expecting as much.
Have not seen or heard of that one, will have to give it a look as I did find the direction to be mostly capable (aside from gunplay, which did get a bit better by the end)
I enjoyed it. Liked all of the directors westerns I have seen so far. Hanging Judge keeps it mean and stays there. This is what the Reverend had to say about the film a couple of years ago in The Last Western Watched thread:
El Juez De La Soga / Hanging Judge 1973
Mexi-western, directed by Alberto Mariscal
Thanks to a well respected forumite, I got to watch this nasty slice of chili-pie, with a spaghetti ethos, that follows an ugly uncharismatic bounty killer who styles himself as ‘The Hanging Judge’ - and except for the scorpion incident - lives up to this monicker.
Hearing voices, that reminds him that “Justice belongs to God, son” as we flashback to fire, and foreward(?) to a bride on a horse, we encounter a linea story of revenge for the rape and murder of a woman, and the death of her child. Three blokes need to account for these sins, one of whom has become (by nefarious means) a bigshot in the town.
The film starts moodily with a young man scared out of his wits, and tricked out of his last bullet, resigning himself to brutal ‘justice’ from our scruffy anti-hero.
The music’s pretty good and too nice for the action at times, which makes for an interesting contrast.
I cared not a jot for any of the characters once the initial rape and murders were over, so you aren’t asked to empathise with anybody - it’s just a simple story of frontier nastiness, and after a few scoops last night, this took me happily into the early hours of this morning, without challenging my cider-impaired faculties.
So, all in all - a recommended watch, but you can judge for yourself from this youtube clip - this pretty much sums it up…
Have just finished viewing The Hanging Judge and I really liked it, much better than Marcado. Like said above, this is a mean lil flic, played very straight with a nice touch of mysticism thrown in very sparingly.
Yeah, Mariscal really nailed everything down just right in Hanging Judge. Maybe my favorite of all the Mexican westerns I’ve seen thus far. Definitely recommended… going to have to see if I can track down any more of the westerns from this director, looks like he has several more
And lastly, I see a Spanish DVD version of El Tunco Maclovio over at CG, and a lesser quality Greek VHS version with English dub. If anyone happens to have the Spanish DVD version, I can do a dub sync-up… currently waiting on someone to reseed the DVD
Just made an offer to a seller in Barcelona for this VHS… they state they only ship inside Spain, so we’ll see… can’t find this one available anywhere except this one VHS and that really bad TV recording on youtube.
Is that Cameron Mitchell one any good? I was considering purchasing this French VHS and porting over the English dub, although I’ve no idea on the video quality… surely it is a bit better than the English VHS recording.
Do not remember much about the Cameron Mitchell one, but its probably been 5 years ago since I last viewed that one. I had forgotten aswell till you mentioned that the director had directed this one aswell.
Just placed the order for the French VHS. Purchased through a French online shop that I’ve never used before, and had to translate everything so hopefully it will all be in order, but still awaiting final confirmation from the seller… if it doesn’t work out, there is also one listed on ebay currently.
I realized that I do not have a PAL VHS player, so I guess I will either need to get one or take it to a local video transfer service to get it onto a DVDR. Have just barely looked around and prices for PAL-capable VHS players seem very high in the US… and also pretty hard to find. Perhaps I could get a cheap one shipped over from UK, but not sure if using a power adapter would be an issue or not. Anyway, using a local service seems fairly cheap and would cost a lot less than buying all the needed equipment.
Or perhaps I could send it off to someone here with VHS-ripping capabilities, if anyone is setup for that.
I’d also like to get that Los indomables VHS, if anyone is able to purchase/receive within Spain and would be willing to help me out. Of course I’d pay for everything and give you some extra for your time.
I watched the first 20min of the TV recording and its pretty good… so far there is barely any dialouge, so sorting out a subtitle track may not be too hard
. The film sticks in my head and I viewed it a while ago now.
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