For the best films of 1968 poll on ICM,I decided that I would watch a number of Italian films from the year. A fan of his since Spasmo introduced me to the Giallo genre,I was thrilled to find one of the two Spaghetti Westerns auteur Umberto Lenzi had made was in 1968,which led to me opening the 100 coffins.
View on the film:
Made just before his Giallo era,director Umberto Lenzi & cinematographer Alejandro Ulloa load up on elements which would dominate Lenzi's unique style,as ultra-stylised whip-pans are shot with a scatter-gun energy by Lenzi,with the camera riding on Slade's bullets of revenge.
Toning down his usual liking of violence,Lenzi displays a sharp eye for "space",where the lone sound of Angelo Francesco Lavagnino's light Jazzy score builds anticipating to Slade's shootout with an outlaw.
Initially looking like an episodic revenge tale, Marco Leto/Eduardo Manzanos Brochero and Vittorio Salerno get Slade to put his revenge Western pistol down by getting him involved in the gritty local politics of the town,which along with giving the flick a neat line in gallows humor, also sets the town up to give Slade and the viewer an excellent twist of the gun.
Joined by a stern John Ireland as town leader Douglas, Peter Lee Lawrence (who died of cancer just 30 years old in 1974) gives a wonderful performance as Slade,who masks Slade with an eerie look of false calm,which cracks as Slade opens the hundred coffins.
View on the film:
Made just before his Giallo era,director Umberto Lenzi & cinematographer Alejandro Ulloa load up on elements which would dominate Lenzi's unique style,as ultra-stylised whip-pans are shot with a scatter-gun energy by Lenzi,with the camera riding on Slade's bullets of revenge.
Toning down his usual liking of violence,Lenzi displays a sharp eye for "space",where the lone sound of Angelo Francesco Lavagnino's light Jazzy score builds anticipating to Slade's shootout with an outlaw.
Initially looking like an episodic revenge tale, Marco Leto/Eduardo Manzanos Brochero and Vittorio Salerno get Slade to put his revenge Western pistol down by getting him involved in the gritty local politics of the town,which along with giving the flick a neat line in gallows humor, also sets the town up to give Slade and the viewer an excellent twist of the gun.
Joined by a stern John Ireland as town leader Douglas, Peter Lee Lawrence (who died of cancer just 30 years old in 1974) gives a wonderful performance as Slade,who masks Slade with an eerie look of false calm,which cracks as Slade opens the hundred coffins.