The thread has been inactive for a very long time, lists and comments from some of the new recruits are welcome!
Thanks for asking. Here’s my ranking as of today.
Any Gun Can Play
A Fistful of Lead
Massacre Time
The Ruthless Four
A Bullet for Sandoval
They Call Me Halleluja
The Greatest Robbery in the West
Poker with Pistols
The Moment to Kill
The Return of Halleluja
Kitosch, the Man Who Came from the North
Last of the Badmen
One More to Hell
Professionals for a Massacre
The Man Called Invincible
The Crazy Bunch
Dead for a Dollar a.k.a. Trusting Is Good… Shooting Is Better
Macho Killers
Trinity Plus the Clown and a Guitar
If you want to include “Zzzzzzorro” and “Il Passatore” they would rank in the bottom five somewhere. Possibly just above Macho Killers.
I’m one of the new recruits
And the best thing is: George Hilton is my favourite actor in the SW! Here is my rating:
They call me Halleluja (Super awesome the SINGER Sewing machine Machine gun)
Sartana’s Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin (Sartana meets Sabata)
A Bullet for Sandoval (Drowning in milk is not a pleasant death)
Any Gun Can Play (with Gilbert Roland another favourite of mine)
Professionals for a Massacre (The glorious three)
From my SW Top list :
65 Any Gun Can Play (Enzo G. Castellari) music Francesco De Masi 1967
68 The Brute And The Beast/Massacre Time (Lucio Fulci) music Coriolano Gori 1966
75 Poker With Pistols (Giuseppe Vari) 1967
All 6/10-rated. Even if Any Gun Can Play is partly lighthearted (and with ridiculous fist fights) I think it is more entertaining than Massacre Time with the wooden Nero.
I have down-rated The Ruthless Four (rather boring (and ridiculous fist fight ?)) and The Last Of The Madmen (Too lighthearted beginning and sometimes silly) to 5/10.
I don´t think I have watched more of Hilton’s SWs, but might try The Moment To Kill and A Fistful Of Lead sometime in the (distant ?) future since they get some votes, if they are not considered lighthearted or “zapatas”, and if they seem to be in line with my preferences after having studied their forum threads and IMDb.
When I a few years ago thoroughly and systematically picked SWs to watch from all produced between 1966 and 1978 I obviously also ruled these two out though (which most likely is a bad sign )…
Given your preferences you’d probably want to skip A Fistful of Lead.
Thanks, @scherpschutter 's review in the first comment of The Moment To Kill-thread sounds rather promising, possibly in line with Any Gun Can Play I guess.
But the long comment by @Bawtyshouse in that thread on the other hand makes me a little more suspicious
I have only watched a fistful of (for me new) SWs the last 2 years, so I should at least try this one soon, but with moderate to low expectations !
I reckon there’s a bad review for every film in the world somewhere. If a negative review is enough to keep you from watching a film you might as well just keep reading reviews instead of seeing for yourself.
If Moment to Kill was an undisputed classic it would be much more well-known, so you shouldn’t expect a masterpiece that blows you away. In my opinion it’s a very serviceable example of the genre. I can, however, find pleasure also in watching flawed films (to a certain extent) if they deliver on other aspects I enjoy, and I’m very grateful for that.
By the way, once I know enough about a film to pique my interest (like general setting, personnel involved, year of production), I actually try to read as little information as possible about that film prior to watching it for the first time.
What about Bullet for Sandoval, by the way?
If my overall impression of the different reviews and opinions indicate that there is a very high probability that I will not like it then I usually don’t watch it.
There are over 500 SWs and a great majority of them are by many knowledgeable and experienced aficionados considered to be mediocre or worse, so with the slightly limited time I “invest” in SWs I try to carefully choose those I want to watch, and I believe I have succeeded fulfill my own attentions with this approach .
Primarily I was so critical that I aimed only to watch SWs if they could be expected to be rated 7/10 or higher by me. With that criteria I nearly could stop searching for more SWs to watch, but I sometimes nowadays might accept an expected 6/10, but several times the result has been 5/10…
I have never watched Bullet For Sandoval, but maybe I will give it a chance
It’s not a Zapata Western and it’s certainly not light-hearted, so you might actually like it.
I just gave The Moment To Kill a chance - a low image quality but watchable Youtube video.
IMO, it was too dark (not metaphorically speaking, but lack of sunny outdoors and indoors with sufficient light), too little of good Francesco De Masi music and to much of “thriller” like and worse incidental music, too much time of more or less wild almost random shooting - near comparable in boredom with fist fights of which there were one.
The simple plot may be compared with Poker With Pistols regarding its qualities. The twists in the ending was OK but not unexpected.
The Walter Barnes character was an one dimensional sidekick but probably necessary for the antihero Hilton to survive all the ever shooting bandits
A clear sub 6/10-rating for me, maybe a weak 5/10 is appropriate here.
One thing more, how did the (also unusually one dimensional) Horst Frank character escape around 49-50 minutes in that video. He laughed a lot before, and was then free in some way ?
One thing more, how did the (also unusually one dimensional) Horst Frank character escape around 49-50 minutes in that video. He laughed a lot before, and was then free in some way ?
‘‘Tuo figlio viene con noi fino all’uscita dal paese: molto meglio non fidarsi di un mattacchione come te, signor Forrester…’’
The twists in the ending was OK but not unexpected.
At the end even more important than the twists is the sinister turn in the behavior of the protagonists, and this is not predictable.
quote=“JonathanCorbett, post:32, topic:3237”]
Tuo figlio viene con noi fino all’uscita dal paese: molto meglio non fidarsi di un mattacchione come te, signor Forrester…’’
[/quote]
Thanks, I could translate that on the internet and checked that scene on the movie again since I was obviously not fully concentrated.first time. Hilton’s statement might be an reasonable explanation, at least the SW becomes more interesting with the Horst Frank character free to interfere again .
(Bullet For Sandoval)
It’s not a Zapata Western and it’s certainly not light-hearted, so you might actually like it.
An additional point of interest for runner could be the presence of the Monastery of Santa María la Real de Valdeiglesias among the locations.
1 “They Call Me Hallelujah”
2 “Poker with pistols”
3 “Sartana’s here, Trade your pistol for a Coffin”
4 “A bullet for Sandoval”
5 “Any Gun Can PLay”
6 “TRUSTING IS GOOD, SHOOTING IS BETTER”