Not a classic by any means but a likeable effort nonetheless. Gianni Garko is excellent simply doing a slightly toned-down Sartana, teaching a pair of comedy Mexicans (yawn) and a couple of foppish brothers how to defend themselves, but the standout for me here is William Berger as Garko’s opposing force, Duke. I don’t generally like Berger, I have to admit; he carries this smarmy, self-satisfied, lop-sided grin on his face far, far too often for my liking in his movies. Here though, he does none of his usual gurning and he’s absolutely brilliant. It’s not as demented or wacky as some of the Sartana or Sabata flicks and yet every now and then it tends to swandive off the high board past Sartana/Sabata and into out-and-out Trinity-style parody, which is a little disappointing and more than a trifle distracting. That’s not to say I don’t like the Trinity pics; they’re pretty good in their way, but whether one likes them or not, at least they set out their stall clearly from the off. Not so They Call Him Cemetery, which seems to want to be a rather rambunctious, high-energy actioner (this is a good thing) but then stops to watch Garko smack a guy cross-eyed complete with comedy sound effects, or pause for a five-minute, go-nowhere fistfight (these are bad things). Still, these sojourns into the silly don’t happen often enough to completely derail the movie and it remains an enjoyable enough romp.
The audio on my copy of They Call Him Cemetery (on my The Best of Spaghetti Westerns in the Tradition of The Good, the Bad & the Ugly Timeless Media box-set, under its US alias A Bullet For a Stranger) was dreadful and represents the first time that that set has proved less than satisfying so far. Sounded like the speakers were inside a beehive. Shame, because it’s actually a really good dub, with voice acting that sounds as though the actors actually give a damn about plot, pacing, drama et cetera, not something prevalent in all dubs as we all know. All in all, a good “rainy afternoon” movie and one which I bet I go back to a couple of times more over the miserable winter.
I tried to watch that version myself yesterday, but turned it off because of the sound. Total crap, I don’t know what the hell they did there. Even cranking up the volume doesn’t help.
Well, one of my personal favorites despite the audio ;D The deal there is that’s the best English audio there is for They Call Him Cemetery, from the Franco Cleef print. The Koch is the best print, though only in Italian/German.
The dub itself is actually really good. That’s the shame of it being such poor audio quality. If we could bloody hear it, it would be worth hearing.
The thing is, I can’t really get on with Italian/German dubs with English subs. Not for spags. For any other non-English language cinema, I’ll always prefer the native, original audio with subtitles. But spags… I know they’re Italian in the main, but they’re set in America, where everyone would be speaking English (or Spanish in the case of the Mexicans). To listen to the characters go about their trials and tribulations speaking Italian/German… it just doesn’t work for me. Pulls me out of the story more than the dub, which as I say in any other instance I’d avoid like the plague.
Autephex - ‘I haven’t watched it in a while though… is the FC dub poor quality also?’
The English dub on FC’s disc is the only one out there at the moment. He transferred it from a rare VHS from South Africa, i think. First VideoAsia ripped his disc for the Sartana set, then Timeless did it too. They’re all the same.
Watched this as Bullet for a Stranger, so was somewhat annoyed by the awful audio quality, but now I realise that it’s They Call Him Cemetery, I have more understanding. Not a great one for me: Gianni Garko and William Berger have a lot of charisma and chemistry together - their scenes together are the best in the film, and like other members have noted, it feels almost like a Sartana film at times. That, alongside a fun climax and score, are what I like. The rest sadly is mediocre in direction, far too unfunny when it wants to be hilarious and padded out with completely boring characters like the brothers and the pair of Mexicans. Until GArko arrived, I was ready to give this a 2/5, but now… 3/5 feels too generous, so 2.5/5 is probably the compromise rating for me.
This is one of the first SW’s I saw. It’s not what I was expecting. The granny shooting the gun was hilarious. But it felt weird. I didn’t put in a movie called They Call Him Cemetery so that I could watch a funny sharp shooting granny. And then there’s the 2 kids returning home. This felt like a joke movie and I just about turned it off. But the opening soundtrack was one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard, so I decided to give it a few more minutes. Then this mysterious mustache guy appears. Who is this guy? Is he called Cemetery? He’s pretty damn cool. Then some guy shows up at the bar (William Berger), and he’s even cooler than the mustache guy. This can’t be happening. The movie is getting better at a very rapid pace. These 2 actors, this is what I was looking for, confident dudes who are so badass that you wouldn’t dare to even look in their direction.
Not a perfect movie, not even close. But very enjoyable. Good mix of comedy and drama, and I even liked the 2 young characters. Price tags still on the guns. Oh, you guys ;D By the end of the movie I was a happy man and ready to try some more of these movies.
Since seeing Cemetary, Keoma and a few others, William Berger has become my new favorite actor. When he makes his first appearance in Cemetery, he reminded me of Aragorn. And I love the relationship between Duke and Cemetary. The director definitely gives the feeling that these 2 actors have worked together before. And after meeting Sartana, I was happy to confirm my suspicions.
What’s the version with the best sound quality for the music? One that’s not too pricey. Or maybe I can get it on CD? I want to pop this in my DVD player and blast it.
For picture quality (and best sound for music), the best version is the german release by Koch media. Unfortunately it only comes in a now out of print boxset. good luck getting a hold of that. And it is also only in Italian and German, but there are english subtitles, and the music sounds fine.
Awesome. I’ll pick up that CD right away. I’ve seen those 2 movies. I especially like Berger in Hanging for Django. I think the only other one I’ve seen is Sartana in the Valley of Death. I’m working on getting Kung Fu Brothers in the Wild West right now. Looks bad, but I don’t care. It has William Berger.