Your favorite Gemma western

Town Hall
41

[quote=“Stanton, post:40, topic:1231”]I have seen it very long ago. It is maybe a story better suited for a short film.[/quote]Yes, I thought the film was overlong. Weird movie.

42

my favorite sw of gemma became 5

  1. arizona colt
  2. a pistol for ringo
  3. silver sadle
  4. day of anger
  5. ben and charlie

i don’t know time change things, i haven’t seen yet duccio tessaris Vivi o, preferibilmente, morti
i tried to find it everywhere but without luck, someday…

43

Ranking according to IMDb users (arithmetic mean):

1.I giorni dell’ira/Day of Anger
2. Il ritorno di Ringo/The Return of Ringo
3. California
4. Amico, stammi lontano almeno un palmo/Ben and Charlie *
5. Una pistola per Ringo/A Pistol for Ringo *
6. Sella d’argento/Silver Saddle
7. I lunghi giorni della vendetta/Long Days of Vengeance
8. Un dollaro bucato/One Silver Dollar
9. Il prezzo del potere/The Price of Power
10. Arizona Colt/Man from Nowhere
11. Per pochi dollari ancora/Fort Yuma Gold *
12. Adios Gringo
13. Wanted
14. Il bianco, il giallo, il nero/The White, the Yellow, and the Black
15. E per tetto un cielo di stelle/A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof *
16. Vivi o preferibilmente morti/Sundance Cassidy and Butch the Kid
17. Tex e il Signore degli Abissi/Tex and the Lord of the Deep

Black asterisk = overrated in my opinion
Red asterisk = underrated in my opinion (I haven’t seen Sella d’argento/Silver Saddle)

44
  1. I Giorni dell’Ira (Day of Anger)
  2. Una Pistola per Ringo
  3. E per Tetto un Cielo di Stelle
  4. I Lunghi Giorni della vendetta
  5. Il Ritorno di Ringo
  6. Un Dollaro Bucato
  7. Per Pochi Dollai Ancora (Fort Yuma Gold)
  8. Arizona Colt
  9. Amico stammi Lontano, almeno un Palmo (ben & Charlie)
  10. Sella d’Argento
  11. California
  12. Wanted
  13. Il Prezzo del Potere
  14. Adios Gringo
  15. Il Bianco, il Giallo, il Nero
  16. Vivi o prefiribilmente Morti

Never jumped with Tex in the deep

45

[quote=“JonathanCorbett, post:43, topic:1231”]
14. Il bianco, il giallo, il nero/The White, the Yellow, and the Black
15. E per tetto un cielo di stelle/A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof *
16. Vivi o preferibilmente morti/Sundance Cassidy and Butch the Kid
17. Tex e il Signore degli Abissi/Tex and the Lord of the Deep

Black asterisk = overrated in my opinion
Red asterisk = underrated in my opinion (I haven’t seen Adios gringo and Sella d’argento/Silver Saddle)[/quote]

So A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof is underrated, but still worse than The White, the Yellow, and the Black? Wouldn’t that make The White, the Yellow, and the Black underrated? It is a pretty hated film. Well never mind, lol, I missed the IMDb part.

46

Well,started this three years ago.Almost to the day :slight_smile:
Now,that i’ve seen them all it’s time for a current ranking -

  1. Arizona Colt / Man from nowhere

  2. I giorni dell’ira / Day of anger

  3. Amico, stammi lontano almeno un palmo / Ben and Charlie

  4. Una pistola per Ringo / A pistol for Ringo

  5. …e per tetto un cielo di stelle / A sky full of stars for a roof

  6. Il ritorno di Ringo / The return of Ringo

7. I lunghi giorni della vendetta / Long days of vengeance

  1. Un dollaro bucato / One silver dollar

  2. California addio / California

10 . Per pochi dollari ancora / Fort Yuma gold

  1. Il prezzo del potere / The price of power

  2. Wanted / Wanted

  3. Adiós gringo / Adios, Gringo

  4. Vivi o, preferibilmente, morti / Alive or preferably dead

  5. Sella d’argento / Silver saddle

  6. Il bianco, il giallo, il nero / The white, the yellow, and the black

  7. Tex e il signore degli abissi / Tex and the lord of the deep

47
  1. California
  2. Arizona Colt
  3. Return of Ringo
  4. Long Days of Vengeance
  5. Silver Saddle
  6. Day of Anger
  7. Ben and Charlie
  8. The Price of Power
  9. Pistol for Ringo
  10. Fort Yuma Gold
  11. One Silver Dollar
  12. Sky Full of Stars for a Roof
  13. Alive or Preferably Dead
  14. The White, the Yellow, and the Black
  15. Adios Gringo
  16. Wanted
48

[quote=“Yodlaf Peterson, post:27, topic:1231”]My favourite one is either The Return of Ringo or Arizona Colt, can’t make my mind up.[/quote]Watched them both recently and this still applies.

49

Definitely Gemma is not my favourite spaghetti actor but i like him more than Steffen :wink: He was very good in California.
However van Cleef was better than him in “Day of anger”, Sancho in “A Pistol for Ringo” and Geoffrey Lewis in “Silver Saddle”.
I watched only 6 Gemma westerns.
1,2,3 are in my top20.

  1. Day of Anger
  2. California
  3. A Pistol for Ringo
  4. Adios Gringo
  5. The Return of Ringo
  6. Silver Saddle
50

Well that’s my list:

1.Day of Anger-One of my favourites but Cleef shines there.
2.California-My favourite Dixie for ever!
3.Price of Power
4.A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof-A good duo with Adorf.
5.One Silver Dollar-A big hit in Greece even my mom loves it.
6.A Pistol for Ringo
7.Return of Ringo
8.Long Days of Vengeance-I must rewatch this.

That’s all for now.

51

Well, it’s like this, see…

Return of Ringo
Arizona Colt
Long days of Vengeance
A Pistol for Ringo
Day of Anger
One Silver Dollar

52

Top four best movies and roles for Gemma . . .

  1. Return of Ringo
    One of the best movies in the genre. Over the top story, visuals, music . . . awesome and unique operatic western

  2. Price of Power
    Another genre classic, though the political message is a bit forced

  3. And For A Roof A Sky Full Of Stars
    Underapprecaited culmunation of the Ringo character. A more clever and poignant movie than it appears to be

  4. Adios Gringo
    Really underrated, an excellent western with a real edge. I still surprised that no one really likes this movie much

There is a 3-way tie for 5. These movies are all genre classics that are about equal to each other in terms of quality and enjoyment.

  1. Arizona Colt
    Maybe the classic Gemma character. Wonderful pop western

  2. Day of Anger
    Another classic pop western with the great LVC. Good pairing of the two.

  3. Pistol For Ringo
    One of the films that defined the genre. Clever, but not as well made as the ‘sequel’

The next three are almost as good as the three that tied for 5 . . .

  1. California
    Very good, dark twilight western. Perhaps it should rate higher. Essentially, something of a remake of One Silver Dollar . . . it seems to think through the implications of the types of things that happen in the genre (violence, war, rape). I should rewatch this soon.

  2. One Silver Dollar
    Good, important Gemma movie in the Adios Gringo mold

8 ) Long Days of Vengeance
Good, very well made movie. Lacks the emotional resonance of my higher rated films, though.

After this . . .

  1. Silver Saddle
    Good twilight western. However, it lacks the nostalgic feel - longing? - of Keoma or California for the heyday of the genre.

  2. Ft Yuma Gold
    Solid western in the Adios Gringo mold.

  3. Wanted
    Something of a remake or retread of Adios Gringo. And it feels like it. But a solid if unremarkable western.

Still haven’t seen Ben and Charlie or Tex, Lord of the Deep :-\ . Never liked the outright Gemma comedies like Alive or preferably dead . The Yellow, The Red, And The Black is probably the worst western in Corbucci’s and Gemma’s career, though there is a funny cross-dressing scene.

When you look at in its entirety, Gemma has an impressive western filmography. Initially, I had the same negative reaction that most people do to his ‘wholesomeness’ ~~ this ain’t no Man with No Name! But he has grown on me over the years . . . now I think he is one of the best and most important actors in the genre beyond the box office sense (because he was a very popular star with an international audience).

53

Using range voting, I scored the ratings so far (most people voted for 5 films, some voted for 17 ~~ so this is crude) and this is how Gemma’s westerns rank:

  1. The Return of Ringo
  2. Day of Anger
  3. A Pistol for Ringo
  4. California
  5. Arizona Colt
  6. Price of Power
  7. Long Days of Vengenace
    8 ) One Silver Dollar
  8. Fort Yuma Gold
  9. Silver Saddle
  10. A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof
  11. Ben and Charlie
  12. Tie Adios Gringo and Wanted
  13. Alive or Preferably Dead
  14. The White, the Yellow, and the Black
  15. Tex, Lord of the Deep

That’s not a surprising ranking ~~ it is about what you would predict, I think.

The interesting thing about a ranking like this is that it conflates:
a) how fond you are of a film, which can be very idiosyncratic (look at my ranking)
b) how good of a film you think each film is (technique, acting, script)
c) how good of a spaghetti western you think it is (does it deliver on the elments that you expect?)
d) how widely available a film is
e) the quality of the available prints (I have changed my negative views of so many SWs after finally seeing nice prints)
f) the historical importance of a film

Of these 6 factors, what is the strongest one in the way you rated the moves?

54
  1. a) + c)
  2. b)
  3. f)

For me factors d) & e) are irrelevant.

55

Cool. I think that those would be the criteria that most people would use intentionally . . . but I think that availability and quality are factors that unintentionally influence rankings.

The quality of available prints has definitely colored my reception of some films. WildEast’s great releases of Day of Anger, Beyond the Law, and The Tramplers have all increased my appreciation of each film. The VHS pan and scan versions I originally saw were not kind to these movies, especially The Tramplers. The threadbare production of this movie is amplified in the earlier prints. I was shocked when I recently watched the WE dvd and found it to be a decent, solid little movie.

In fact, even a movie like The Twilight Avengers is helped by better presentation. And that movie sucks.

56

So this thread got me interested in watching the few Gemma films I hadn’t seen yet or rewatching a couple:

These would rate lowest on a Gemma list for me:

??? Ben And Charlie: Could have been a classic. A good spag cast, decent director and score ~ but the overall story is poorly constructed. Its all Gemma with Eastman absent for too much of the film. And then it veers into seriousness in a very clumsy way. Didn’t work for me. I think it was an attempt to do another film similar to And For A Roof A Sky Full Of Stars type film with a slight They Call Me Trinity spin, but it misses the mark widely, though there are one or two good scenes.

??? Tex and the Lord of the Deep: An honest attempt to create an early-1980s Hollywood-type blockbuster. And I was like William Berger in Western. But the script is pretty bad, so we are never really involved with the characters or believe their friendship. Tessari’s worst western. My attention waundered and I was checking the runtime often.

And I would rate this one above Silver Saddle, I think:

:slight_smile: Alive of Preferably Dead: When I saw this movie 10 years ago I hated it ~ the score, the actors, the humor, everything. At the time, I has still only saw a few eurowesterns and my taste was still limited to Leonesque films with that classic Spaghetti western feel. Also, I saw a terrible VHS dupe bought off Ebay. Rewatching a somewhat better copy (nice picture, but still pan and scan) this weekend I was surprised to find that I liked it. It was generally amusing, likable, and occasionally very funny. Unfortunately, it is like so many of these Italian western comedies in that it has a “situation” that veers from situation to situation, not a “plot”. That hurts it. It is a good Italian western comedy.

So my new ranking is:

:smiley: 1) Return of Ringo
:smiley: 2) Price of Power
:smiley: 3) And For A Roof A Sky Full Of Stars
:smiley: 4) Adios Gringo
:smiley: 5 tie) Arizona Colt
:smiley: 5 tie) Day of Anger
:smiley: 5 tie) Pistol For Ringo
:slight_smile: 6) California
:slight_smile: 7) One Silver Dollar
:slight_smile: 8 ) Long Days of Vengeance
:slight_smile: 9) Alive or Preferably Dead
:-\ 10)Silver Saddle
:-\ 11) Ft Yuma Gold
:-\ 12) Wanted
??? 13) Ben and Charlie
??? 14)Tex and the Lord of the Deep

57

:o 15) The White, the Yellow, and the Black

;D :wink:

58

[quote=“JonathanCorbett, post:57, topic:1231”]:o 15) The White, the Yellow, and the Black

;D ;)[/quote]

Oh! How could I forget the trauma . . . maybe I was trying to?

59

This weekend or local cinematheque is having two-day In memoriam of Giuliano Gemma and they will be showing Vivi o, preferibilmente, morti and Un dollaro bucato.

So if your near Zagreb drop by, it’s spaghetti on big screen! :slight_smile:

60

Just il ritorno di ringo