1968 Spain-Italy
Director: Enzo G. Castellari
Cast: Antonio Sabato, John Saxon, Frank Wolff , Agata Flori, Leo Anchoriz, Antonio Vica, Rosella Bergamonti, Jesefina Serratosa, Edy Biagetti, Leonardo Scavino, Caterina Trentini, Paolo Magalotti, Margaret Horowitz, Roberto Fuentes, Pilar Velázquez , Tito García, Claudio Castellani, Jose Maria Tasso, Ivan Scratuglia, Luis Barboo, Víctor Israel , Maria Vico, Hercules Cortez, Pietro Ceccarelli
Guion: Augusto Finocchi, Vittorio Metz, Jose Maria Rodriguez, Enrique Llovett
Fotografía: Alejandro Ulloa
Musica: Carlo Rustichelli
Italian-English co-production directed in 1968 by Enzo G. Castellari, son of the director Marino Girolami and one of the leading representatives of the spaghetti westerns that made his debut in this subgenre, although uncredited, in "Fencing of violence" (1967). Director endowed with an undeniable visual impression, but to me, quite irregular with prominent titles as "Johnny Hamlet" or even essential as the twilight "Keoma " along with other really disappointing ("Te Deum ) . Spaghetti out of this irregularity is repeated as after leading two notable poliziescos featuring his friend Franco Nero ( "Il cittadino si ribella" and "Police arrest, the law deems" , both of 1974) or a tape war of religion, "That damned armored train" (1978) to paid tribute to Quentin Tarantino, went on to become the eighties in one of the leading representatives of so-called Eurotrash with films like "Jaws 3 " for which he was sued by the powerful Universal to understand that he had plagiarized the famous Spielberg film or post-apocalyptic triptych which highlights "The New Barbarians" (1982), a clear homage to "A Fistful of Dollars" ; to engage in the nineties to products intended basically to television.
Moses Lang, a three a fourth robber, miscarriage the attempted assault on an errand, carrying $ 400,000 committed by Edwin Kean, an actor turned-robber . After overcoming their differences, decide to recover $ 400,000 in the bank now Springwood. Once committed the theft, will be joined by Clay, another actor and adventurer, as much of the money stolen by them had won playing poker and therefore belongs to him. From that moment the three rogues try to deceive each other in order not to share the spoils, and will face the army that seeks to recover and men to Garritan, a fearsome Mexican bandit.
Part two of a trilogy that began with peculiar "I go back and kill him" of 1967 ( film that paid tribute to "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" ) and "Kill them and becomes" of 1968 (with clear influences of that feature both Leone and the war film "Dirty Dozen" ) which for me is the weakest of the three, because if the first introducing comic elements (especially in a couple of fight scenes in which could see the imprint of, among others, several classics of adventure films starring Burt Lancaster as "The Crimson Pirate" ) but they were well integrated into a serious plot, here are openly prefers the crazy comedy, a fact in which no doubt played an important participation in the script, along with the most common in the spaghetti Augusto Finocchi, writer Vittorio Metz responsible for most of the scripts designed for the great comic actor Toto.
So, after a promising start, the film becomes a succession of chases and fights supposedly fun featuring three players who eventually become very long, ponderous and boring, and it is the culminating clash a river as a water polo match in which the protagonists are thrown the bag containing the money as if the ball while they are killing people of Garritan. Therefore I think this spaghetti can be considered as a clear record of "They Call Me Trinity" film based his humor, in addition nifty replicas, in the many fun fights allegedly staged by the two main actors, and all its imitations, which managed to revive this sub-genre for a few years, but finally ended to sink.
eurowestern However, this has elements that clearly distinguish it from most comic spaghetti that proliferated after the success of the film and put Barboni, I understand, on top of them:
Some gags quite achieved as surreal situations that occur when Edwin dress, that as a good actor has a tendency to transvestism, a priest, even leading him to officiate a dirge for a dead, or the bizarre conversation in a Clay Church with a priest, brother Rosario, the bride of Moses is supposed to have been pregnant with the first, made by the entire family is chasing him and so took refuge in the church.
Certain doses of violence, the house brand Castellari, and hits quite the long and realistic shootout between men Garito and Union soldiers joked with the rest of the film.
Castellari The careful direction, that is, for me, well above the story that (the presentation of Clay or the aforementioned shooting long I think are good examples of this).
As regards the holiday soundtrack composed by Carlo Rustichelli, I believe that management is next to the best of film and fits very well to the comic tone of it.
As for the actors is an imbalance in the trio. So we Ernesto Sabato, actor rather limited, which to give birth to Moses Lang intended, but failed, Guiliano Gemma emulate constantly smiling and doing somersaults, John Saxon a mediocre actor who was lucky to take part in a movie interesting ( "The Unforgiven" , 1960) and soon was seen in European productions, it I seemed quite lost in the role of player and actor Clay Watson, but instead Frank Wolff, with whom Castellari repeated in a different role in "Kill them and becomes" is great as Edwin. Joining them Anchoriz Leo, a remarkable actor who appeared in many spaghetti, shown convincing villain Garritan skin, and like Frank Wolff and Hercules wrestling champion Cortes, here with a small role as strongman brother Rosario, repeated in the third part of the aforementioned trilogy, while I found something Agata Flori overacted the role of the jilted girlfriend Rosario Moses, a man of some importance which disappears the last third of the film. As a curiosity, and reinforcing the film's comic character, to tell you that I recognized the role of the priest's brother José María Tasso Rosario, an actor with a peculiar face that served as secondary in many English plays of the fifties and sixties.
In short this is a comedy with an element of spaghetti that despite the efforts of its director aimed at giving it a more formal finish that is right for much of his footage repetitive and boring, and announced in what, unfortunately, largely become the spaghetti in the first half of the next decade.
SCORE:
HISTORY: 3
AMBIENTE: 4
ADDRESS: 6
ACTORS: 5
MUSIC: 6
MEDIA: 4.8
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