Vengeance Is Mine / Per 100.000 dollari t’ammazzo (Giovanni Fago, 1967)

Unless the Italian movie in question has a plethora of American or UK actors on the list that is how I always do it. Seems most “authentic” even though I know it’s debatable.

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Yes, I totally understand that, AvatarDK.

The final film I’ll be watching from the ‘Blood Money’ set is ‘Find a Place to Die’ - not everyone’s glass of tequila, but I’ve always liked it, and have a special fondness for it.

In this case, I’ll be definitely listening to the English audio track, specifically to hear the late, great, Jeffrey Hunter’s voice.

To me, JH was a vastly under-rated actor and performer, whom I specifically remember from John Ford’s ‘The Searchers’ (1956), alongside John Wayne . Hunter held his own, alongside the Duke, and graduated (in the film), from a being a timid robin, to a determined hawk.

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Yet another case of a very talented actor who should have gone far, but life (as it does for us all) decided otherwise.
Having said that, he was magnificent as ‘Marty’ in ‘The Searchers’; so that’s a hell of a legacy to leave behind…

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Regarding watching SW’s with English or Italian audio…: SW classics such as ‘The Big Gundown’…it would be a sin to watch them without the English audio, because it just wouldn’t be the same without Lee Van Cleef’s distinctive voice.

(It would also p… off our LVC expert, ‘Needlefork’, if it was otherwise, and Lee’s voice was absent…) :smile:

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My last watch as part of the Blood Money set.

I think my opinion on this has actually flipped upon a rewatch of these two films. I used to prefer this over Massacre but on this rewatch, I found this one quite dull for a lot of it. I still enjoyed the opening and finale but the middle section of this was honestly a tad boring.

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Without getting off topic, and when all is said and done, Max, what is your ‘stand-out’ title in this latest ‘Arrow’ collection?

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To each their own, Max.

This is why I love ‘SWDB’, because everyone has a different opinion, and a unique, perspective on the same subject…

‘Companeros!!!’

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This and 10,00 For A Massacre personally!

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No idea why I had thought it inferior to 10.000 Dollars for a Massacre, as it seems to be a much more substantial outing. While Fago’s direction may not equal Guerrieri’s exuberant, almost operatic style, the story here is immeasurably superior and the flashbacks are crafted so superbly that they number among the most striking retrospective scenes in the history of the genre IMHO. Barring the transformation of Dolores, the storyline of 10.000 Dollars for a Massacre actually feels quite formulaic and grows somewhat far-fetched the moment Django inexplicably decides to trust Manuel, following which the plot gets bogged down in its cat-and-mouse game with no interesting backdrop to variegate the proceedings in the principal plotline.

The primary plotline in Vengeance Is Mine, by contrast, feels remarkably three-dimensional: the main characters feel multifaceted and genuinely fleshed out, whereas the backcloth in the form of the civil war roaring in the background does not feel artificially interjected like in many outings from the same league. The entirety turns out both integral and sufficiently detailed; this level of detail is not something you customarily see in the genre and in a certain sense, the film works better as a drama because of the eminent focus put on the psychological underpinnings of the yarn. Likewise, I find that it outshines basically all of the genre’s Shakespearean adaptations and all the entries inspired by Greek tragedy simply because apart from being intense, it proves self-contained in that it exhibits none of the latent artificiality which arises in those films owing to their divergence from their sources and by reason of the consequent accommodations.

It very narrowly misses my Top 20 and it is most definitely in my Top 30 now. Maybe I should just kick out Sartana and include this instead, we will see.

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My view probably belongs to the extremes with this one rated a strong 7/10 (currently 28th on my SW Top list) but 10,000 Dollars Blood Money only 5/10 although I only have watched it three times on Youtube but still given it a fair chance.

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I still enjoy 10.000 Dollars for a Massacre for its extravagant style, it’s just that I don’t think it is quite as good as it often touted around here, mostly because of the one-dimensional story. The crisis section of the script just devolves into the habitual confrontation between Garko and Camaso and the only obstacle for the main hero to surmount at that point is ensnaring/killing Camaso, very little leeway for character elaboration/development, at that point the storyline takes a nosedive and simply proceeds to go through the motions, anticipating the final showdown more than anything; the movie recovers around the climax because the ending itself is epic, but the segment between the stagecoach massacre and the showdown is quite boring IMHO. Even if Fago’s direction isn’t quite as dazzling, the multifaceted screenplay of Vengeance Is Mine makes 10.000 Dollars for a Massacre look almost like a joke in comparison.

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I have been watching my unseen SWs in chronological order so I got to see this after Blood at Sundown and 10,000 Blood Money both of which this borrows from wholesale. There is also GTBTU Civil War background (lots of movies released in late 1967 have this), a deserted town with straw blowing across the screen (Return of Ringo) and an opening similar to Any Gun Can Play. Am I wrong or is Nora Orlandi’s score the same as per 10,000 Blood Money (the main theme especially)?

Not that its unenjoyable in its own right. My favourite character was the old marshal.

I watched the Arrow Blu Ray and picked the Italian dialogue with English subtitles option on the grounds that there were no native English speakers in the cast.

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Both 10.000 and 100.000 are nicely shot and competently directed but both also have a rather boring story/screenplay and a needlesly over-dramatic music which makes both movies a bit sleep-inducing. At least Garko plays a more relatable character here.