This was SW notable Tonino Valerii's first directorial effort in the genre. The year before he had served as 2nd Unit Director on Sergio Leone's For A Few Dollars More, and the influence of that experience are obvious on this film. Much of the film was shot on sets from FAFDM and there are number of scenes - Lanky's shoot out with Sanchez is a perfect example - that match similar scenes in the second Dollars film almost shot for shot. As in that film, we spend a lot of time watching action from a distance through the (anti)hero's telescope. This is interesting because most of Valerii's western follow the model of his 2nd SW, Day of Anger, and are firmly in the Duccio Tessari/Ernersto Gastaldi 'school', which was very different from the Leone westerns. Their visual and narrative style is distinct and is often described as being more "traditional". The characters in these films tend to a little less cynical, more immediately sympathetic, though the films tend to be a bit hokier. A perfect example would be Arizona Colt (1966).
The film is uneven, though it would be largely enjoyable for genre fans. The story involves the usual SW elements - wolves in sheep's clothing, ambushes, bank raids, ritualized gunfights, taciturn gunmen, and loud Mexican bandits. Craig Hill does a credible turn as a Clint Eastwood stand-in, though it is his characterization of Hank 'Lanky' Fellows that is one the most confused elements in the film. He actually ends up being more cynical than the Man With No Name, while the villain, Gus Kennebeck, is by turns more vile than Indio from FAFDM (as he tortures his brother with boiling coffee), then alternately sympathetic (through his relationship with his son and the son's mother). His motivations are more immediate than Fellows's, who repeats several times throughout the film that 'You can never have too much money'.
There was a very good film in here somewhere in the Gothic family western manner that was flourishing in 1966-1968 (Return of Ringo, Texas, Adios, The Forgotten Pistolero) with it nasty infighting and violence between the two Kennebeck brothers - the one who as gone straight and dresses like a gringo, the other has become a brutal bandit leader. The bandit tortures the brother, then kidnaps his daughter as a hostage. Afterwards the gringo brother retaliates by abducting his young nephew. This baroque, dark story is roughly grafted onto a typical bounty hunter plot, which is grafted onto a double cross/fight for gold plot, which is grafted onto a revenge plot. All in all, there is really too much thrown in thus interesting ideas are not followed through while others are muted.
The difference between the brothers, one a mine employee and the other a bandit, is an interesting feature of the film. Both are, if their last names are any indications, Anglo-American, the differences are not ethnic (given the limited amount of information in the film) but behavioral, contrasting mannerisms and dress. This is an interesting variation in the genre. The divide between bandit (usually played by Fernando Sancho or Tomas Milian) and gringo (Eastwood or Van Cleef) is usually indicative of a Northern Italy/Southern Italy opposition (think of Tuco and Blondy in The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly) or of a First World/Third World divide. In this film, the differences appear to have been largely superficial one - essentially through costume - that indicates inner conditions, in a quasi-White Hat v. Black Hat fashion, though a little more complex perhaps. Or perhaps it is the familiar trope of the one brother who has "made good" and the conflict between him and those he had "left behind" and, in essence, repudiated. The gringo brother had changed his name, which may indicate this sort of story line. In some films the Mexicans are the heavies, in others (The Big Gundown or Vengeance Trail for example) the Anglos are. The use of this opposition in the different films is always interesting, varied, and rarely constant.
It is interesting to note that Craig Hill's vengeance seeking bounty hunter seems to foreshadow Bronson as Harmonica in Once Upon A Time In The West.
The score by Nico Fidenco is fairly good. One of the best moments in the film, as is often the case in the SW, is the long credits sequence. A rider appears silhouetted on a dark horizon, the sun just rising at the center of the frame. The rider slowly comes closer, passes in front of the sun, creating a nice "flash effect". As he rides up to camera a goofy theme song accompanies about the dangerous powers of one 'Lanky Fellers'. Good stuff. Then the animated credits start, accompanied by the instrumental version of the theme song.
Another great moment is the final gunfight, which is handled well.
In Bury Them Deep (All'ultimo sangue, 1968 ), another Craig Hill vehicle (and also scored by Fidenco), the footage of the bank raids was reused, though the context was completely changed which, with some minor editing, completely reversed the situation portrayed. The robbers in the one film become the robbed in the next!
Though Valerii would develop his own personal approach to the genre, his last western was made again in connection with Leone who served this time as producer - My Name Is Nobody. This film matches Leone's style so much that there is constant speculation as to how much of the film Valerii is responsible for and how much was the result of the producer's involvement.
Top spaghetti western list http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=21849907
Average SWs http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=21849889
For fanatics only (bottom of the barrel) http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=21849890
The film is uneven, though it would be largely enjoyable for genre fans. The story involves the usual SW elements - wolves in sheep's clothing, ambushes, bank raids, ritualized gunfights, taciturn gunmen, and loud Mexican bandits. Craig Hill does a credible turn as a Clint Eastwood stand-in, though it is his characterization of Hank 'Lanky' Fellows that is one the most confused elements in the film. He actually ends up being more cynical than the Man With No Name, while the villain, Gus Kennebeck, is by turns more vile than Indio from FAFDM (as he tortures his brother with boiling coffee), then alternately sympathetic (through his relationship with his son and the son's mother). His motivations are more immediate than Fellows's, who repeats several times throughout the film that 'You can never have too much money'.
There was a very good film in here somewhere in the Gothic family western manner that was flourishing in 1966-1968 (Return of Ringo, Texas, Adios, The Forgotten Pistolero) with it nasty infighting and violence between the two Kennebeck brothers - the one who as gone straight and dresses like a gringo, the other has become a brutal bandit leader. The bandit tortures the brother, then kidnaps his daughter as a hostage. Afterwards the gringo brother retaliates by abducting his young nephew. This baroque, dark story is roughly grafted onto a typical bounty hunter plot, which is grafted onto a double cross/fight for gold plot, which is grafted onto a revenge plot. All in all, there is really too much thrown in thus interesting ideas are not followed through while others are muted.
The difference between the brothers, one a mine employee and the other a bandit, is an interesting feature of the film. Both are, if their last names are any indications, Anglo-American, the differences are not ethnic (given the limited amount of information in the film) but behavioral, contrasting mannerisms and dress. This is an interesting variation in the genre. The divide between bandit (usually played by Fernando Sancho or Tomas Milian) and gringo (Eastwood or Van Cleef) is usually indicative of a Northern Italy/Southern Italy opposition (think of Tuco and Blondy in The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly) or of a First World/Third World divide. In this film, the differences appear to have been largely superficial one - essentially through costume - that indicates inner conditions, in a quasi-White Hat v. Black Hat fashion, though a little more complex perhaps. Or perhaps it is the familiar trope of the one brother who has "made good" and the conflict between him and those he had "left behind" and, in essence, repudiated. The gringo brother had changed his name, which may indicate this sort of story line. In some films the Mexicans are the heavies, in others (The Big Gundown or Vengeance Trail for example) the Anglos are. The use of this opposition in the different films is always interesting, varied, and rarely constant.
It is interesting to note that Craig Hill's vengeance seeking bounty hunter seems to foreshadow Bronson as Harmonica in Once Upon A Time In The West.
The score by Nico Fidenco is fairly good. One of the best moments in the film, as is often the case in the SW, is the long credits sequence. A rider appears silhouetted on a dark horizon, the sun just rising at the center of the frame. The rider slowly comes closer, passes in front of the sun, creating a nice "flash effect". As he rides up to camera a goofy theme song accompanies about the dangerous powers of one 'Lanky Fellers'. Good stuff. Then the animated credits start, accompanied by the instrumental version of the theme song.
Another great moment is the final gunfight, which is handled well.
In Bury Them Deep (All'ultimo sangue, 1968 ), another Craig Hill vehicle (and also scored by Fidenco), the footage of the bank raids was reused, though the context was completely changed which, with some minor editing, completely reversed the situation portrayed. The robbers in the one film become the robbed in the next!
Though Valerii would develop his own personal approach to the genre, his last western was made again in connection with Leone who served this time as producer - My Name Is Nobody. This film matches Leone's style so much that there is constant speculation as to how much of the film Valerii is responsible for and how much was the result of the producer's involvement.
Top spaghetti western list http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=21849907
Average SWs http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=21849889
For fanatics only (bottom of the barrel) http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=21849890