Wizard-8 This isn't a spaghetti western as some people have labeled it to be, seeing that there was no Italian involvement. Instead, it was a co-production between the United Kingdom and Spain. However, it all the same looks and feels just like a spaghetti western despite having an American (Robert Parrish) in the director's chair. Parrish certainly gives the movie a nice gritty feeling. Unfortunately, he seems unable to do much with the script. The story starts off making a reasonable amount of sense, but eventually starts to get very confusing thanks to the multiple characters and the various twists and turns. It doesn't help that a lot of the dialogue is poorly recorded, making it hard at times to figure out what the characters are saying. In the end, the movie becomes somewhat boring due to the confusion, as well as the fact that there is a lot less action than you might think. It also wastes a very interesting cast, who all seem to know they are stuck in a lesser movie and give half-hearted performances as a result.

FightingWesterner That's the question viewers continually ask themselves while watching A Town Called Hell.Mexican Colonel Martin Landau wants Aguila captured, while former revolutionary Robert Shaw, now a priest knows what Aguila looks like but he's not telling and Stella Stevens thinks Aguila may have murdered her husband (when not lying in a coffin, pretending to be a corpse!), offering twenty thousand dollars to the person who points him out.Macho posturing, a great all-star cast including Telly Savalas as the towns sleazy mayor, and strong visuals are all wasted on a confusing script and bad editing in this wannabe spaghetti western made by British filmmakers in Spain and set during the Mexican Revolution.Everything's cleared up in the film's weird final scene, but by that time the viewer is so mentally exhausted as to no longer care! However, I'll grudgingly recommend this strictly for the action sequences and an odd dance-hall scene featuring a soundalike cover version of Johnny Horton's hit song "The Battle Of New Orleans", featuring a few verses I've never heard before!

bsmith5552 "A Town Called Hell" (aka "A Town Called Bastard"), a British/Spanish co-production, was made on the heels of Clint Eastwood's success in the Italian made "Man With No Name" trilogy. The template used in most of these films was to hire recognizable American actors, whose careers were largely in decline and dub their voices. This film is no exception except for the fact that they used some British actors as well.It's difficult to summarize the plot, but here goes. The story opens with rebels or whatever, led by Robert Shaw and Marin Landau raiding a church and killing everyone inside, including the priest. Fast forward to the subject town a few years later where the Shaw character is masquerading as a priest. The mayor of the town (Telly Savalas) is a brutal leader who thinks nothing of meting out justice with his gun.Throw into the mix a grieving widow Alvira (Stella Stevens) who is searching for her husband's killer. Add to this the fact that she rides around in a hearse lying dead like in a coffin for God knows why. After the mayor is murdered by his henchman La Bomba (Al Lettieri) the town is invaded by a federale Colonel (Landau) in search of a rebel leader (I'm sorry but the name escapes me). The Colonel takes over the town and begins summarily executing the townsfolk to force them to reveal the identity of the leader.Even though they opened the film side by side, its difficult to tell from the dialog that the Landau and Shaw characters know each other. A blind man (Fernando Rey) claims he can identify the rebel leader by touching his face. He does so and..............................................I'm sure the principals regretted making this film. It's just plain awful and well deserving of my dreaded "1" rating. Shaw spends most of the film fixating his trademark stare at whomever is handy. Even Landau can't salvage this film. The beautiful Ms. Stevens is totally wasted here too. Having just made Peckinpah's "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" the previous year, I found it odd that she would appear in this mess of a movie. Savalas made several of these pictures, ("Pancho Villa" and "Horror Express" come to mind) during he pre-Kojak period.Michael Craig is also in it somewhere as a character called "Paco".Fernando Rey appeared in many of these "westerns" although he would emerge to play the villain in the two "French Connection" films. Al Lettieri would also emerge with a role in "The Godfather" (1972) and go on to other memorable roles before his untimely death in 1975.In all fairness, the version I watched ran only 88 minutes rather than the longer running times of 95 or 97 minutes listed on IMDb, however I can't see where an extra 7 or 8 minutes would make much difference.Avoid this one.

doctor tongue hoolahan This movie is a triumph of the spirit, if by "triumph of the spirit" you mean "I have no idea what's actually going on with this movie." However, it creates obsessions. Have you ever seen that movie "SIEGE" where a group of Nazis called "new order" take over a gay bar? Neither have I though I would have liked to.My first exposure to this amazing piece of cinematography came shrink-wrapped from a junk store in New Hampshire next to blood and semen-stained ALF sheets and a shrunken goats head. Back then it was known as "SIEGE," and with a plot like SIEGE's, who would not want to see it? Expecting fascist gay bar follies, and being stoned, I was taken aback to find Telly Savalas ruling the screen. . . ruling the town, really.This movie has no plot. Strike that, it has 17 plots, all of which last for two minutes. If you do the math though, I think the actual movie is longer than that. Due to the fact that the opening screen clearly said "SIEGE," the electrifying introduction of this movie, which I understand has Mexicans, is lost forever in the sands of time. Telly Savalas is clearly the mayor of a town called Bastard, and frankly, it's about friggin time. He's crucified five minutes later. He's replaced by a Mexican who find's Telly Savalas' barechested, muscle-bound shoes too !LIVE! to fill. I can't remember if the Mexican dude is bumped off, but a general comes in five minutes later. I'm pretty sure the general is also a Mexican.A woman rides in on a hearse. There is also a priest.My mind explodes.If you want E*X*C*I*T*E*M*E*N*T, "Speed 2" can't touch "A Town Called Bastard" with Ernest Borgnine's weenis at the end of a ten foot pole. Period. I love when somebody writes the word period after a sentence they want to emphasize. It really doubles up the finality of it all. Period.p.s. the guy from jaws is in this movie.