ma-cortes
This Tortilla/Spaghetti Western is filled with action , thrills , horse riding , brawls and crossfire . This is a decent/passable Spaghetti starred by acceptable actors from Spaghetti ; being full of fury , action , gun-play and portentous duels . It deals with a reformed gunfighter is on his way to a sleepy town in the hope of peace but problems ensue . The gunslinger named Billy Walsh (Richard Wyler) rides into a little town and meets an old owner of a gold mine called Sam (Espartaco Conversi) . He hasn't come looking for trouble , but trouble finds him around every corner . The strange and weary Pistolero nicknamed Winchester Bill comes to defense Sam and his daughter Susan (Eleonora Bianchi) in their struggle to defend the golden mine against a nasty owner named Ted Shaw (Conrado San Martín) . As the gunfighter fighting to stifle the conflicts between a family and powerful baron land who hires a hired hand , the bandit nicknamed El Bicho (Fernando Sancho) and being supported by a corrupt sheriff (Luis Induni) . As a drifter comes to a farm in the Old West just in time to reckoning gunslingers and owners . Winchester is a mysterious gunfighter who comes to the aid of countrymen from a greedy wealthy owner trying to encroach on their land . As the gunfighter seeks vengeance against his heinous enemies . Middling Italian-Spanish Western with habitual actors , customary scenarios and realized in Chorizo/Spaghetti style. The film displays thrills , noisy action , violence , shootouts , final twist and being enough entertaining . The movie contains typical particularities Spaghetti , as it is full of fury , sadism : being buried up people to their necks , bloodbaths , and close-ups of grime-encrusted faces . This is an average Spaghetti Western with some moments genuinely entertaining if you can avoid thinking too much . Spectacular final takes place on the downtown when protagonists contend face to face and surrounded by nasties . Thrilling screenplay by Maria Carmen Martínez Roman who wrote numerous westerns such as Sheriff Won't Shoot , Réquiem for a Gringo , Dynamite Joe , In a Colt's Shadow , Fury of Johnny Kid and the classic Django kill . Richard Wyler is passable as an tough gunman who takes law on his own arms , executing thespian skills , bounds and leaps and shooting and throughly enjoys himself . Wyler was born in Essex, England and he starred some Spaghetti , as he acted in various Western as Bounty killer , Two guns and a coward , Winchester Bill , and Euro-Spy genre as Dick Smart 2007 ,Coplan . While Conrado San Martin played in ¨Winchester Bill¨, ¨Long Days of Vengeance¨ , ¨In a colt's shadow¨ and various Westerns directed by his friend Sergio Leone ; furthermore , he starred several Peplum and thrillers . However , being Fernando Sancho who steals the show as a merciless Mexican role , he holds mocking laughs in several scenes , as usual . In the movie appears customary Western support actors as Spanish people : Rafael Hernandez , Rufino Ingles , Luis Induni ; as Italian players such as Espartco Conversi , Franco Pesce , Massimo Righi . Atmospheric as well as evocative cinematography and correctly photographed by Alfonso Nieva , though is necessary a right remastering ; being filmed on location in Colmenar Viejo , La Pedriza , where were filmed a lot of Spaghetti/Chorizo Westerns along with Almeria .The motion picture was professionally directed by Alfonso Brescia , though contains some flaws and gaps . Al Bradley was a craftsman who directed all kind of genres . Alfonso Brescia or Al Bradley was born in Rome , 1930, and died in 2001 . He was a director and writer, known for directing Westerns as : Days of Violence , White Fang and the Hunter , Killer Caliber and The Colt Is My Law . Alfonso began directing muscle-men epics as The Conqueror of Atlantis , The magnificent gladiator , La Rivolta dei Pretoriani . He also directed Sci-Fi and Sword and witchery genre as Iron Warrior , Sette Uomini D'oro Nello Spazio , The war of the robots ; Adventure as Zanna Bianca , Amazons against Supermen and Wartime films such as Objetivo Rommel , Misiones Ardientes and Hell in Normandy .
MARIO GAUCI
Very minor Spaghetti Western with a dreary plot, generally uninspired treatment (by journeyman director Brescia) and an underwhelming lead in Richard Wyler (despite the frequent close-ups of his blue eyes). Typically, we get a stranger whose arrival in a town controlled by an unscrupulous man causes upheaval the latter's lackeys start dropping like flies, while the previously spineless citizens decide to make a stand (even so, for a quartet of brothers, this only leads them to be buried up to their necks in sand
though they get to show their true mettle by the end). Aiding the boss is a gang of Mexican outlaws led by an uncouth yet rambunctious Fernando Sancho.Unusually, the score (always a crucial element to this type of film) is uncredited here which suggests that it may have been compiled out of cues from various other such efforts: as a matter of fact, I did recognize Texas, ADIOS (1966)'s memorable main theme (which is heard numerous times throughout)! The film's highlight is the casual demolition of a gun-shop in a fistfight involving Wyler and a handful of the boss' men; that said, the busy climax has the wily hero pitting town boss against Mexican bandit which is followed by a genuinely unexpected, thus effective, final twist revolving around a character depicted up to that point as merely benign (and who's given an ironic come-uppance to boot). Incidentally, the American title of this one is utterly meaningless; then again, the translated original TURN
I'LL KILL YOU (actually spoken by Sancho only seconds before expiring) is equally lame!
Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic)
*FABULOUS* middle period Spaghetti Western from cult director Alfonse Brescia, better known amongst my circle as Al Brady, the mad visionary behind such Italian sci fi epics as COSMOS: WAR OF THE PLANETS, WAR OF THE ROBOTS and STAR ODYSSEY. This is the first Western of his I have gotten to see and it's pretty good. Richard Wyler -- an actor whom I was not familiar with previously -- stars as the first Spaghetti hero I have encountered who's specialty weapon is a Winchester rifle, and referred to in the film as just "Billy" but will forever be Winchester Bill to me. A stranger with an obviously dark past, he rides into a tumbleweed hellhole and for reasons all of his own helps a downtrodden prospector & his pretty blond daughter fend off both the local land baron and the great Fernando Sancho's band of Pistoleros in defending the old man's gold mine. He enlists the help of a SEVEN PISTOLS FOR THE MACGREGORS like band of blond brothers to help, with intrigue and derring-do to spare as the motley group of comrades withstands beatings, home invasions, bouts of witty menace with the local heavies and, in the movie's standardized torture section, being buried up to their necks while Sancho's gang charges at them on horseback -- probably lifted from DEATH RIDES A HORSE with the upped ante of violence & suffering with more than one bury-ee.Meanwhile, Winchester Bill puts a complex series of sucker plays into event to pit the two groups of bad guys against each other and waits for the lead to start flying to pick off the stragglers. The ending is a hoot & I won't dare give away the movie's big twist, but it certainly ends with a bang and it's a shame that Wyler didn't ride off into the sunset for a sequel or three: His character was good enough to warrant it, and I really liked the idea of him working with the brothers rather than just being a trick shot artist waiting for the big shootout to wow everyone with his 133t skillz. You can vary the formula and still come up with a very classic package, and as it turns out Brescia & his cinematographers find some interesting moments to pepper the action with like a scene where the brothers are delivered into battle hidden in barrels which burst open on cue for a well choreographed shootout. And I loved a little bit where Brescia had his cameraman sort of lean the focus to the left to simulate one of the heroes taking bead while down on the ground.Not sure who did the music (Marcello Giombini??) but it is very good & used interestingly, with the audio in the English language version I found curiously muted during passages that would usually have musical flourishes (perhaps this was a working print that wasn't finished during dubbing??) and the movie boasts the most shamelessly awful day for night photography ever used for effect. After a few minutes of blue/green haze I began to wonder if my PAL converter was on the fritz -- it goes on for a couple three scenes that made me wonder if perhaps the exposed film was not inspected until it was too late to re-shoot. Too bad: I could see casual viewers not understanding why it wasn't fixed or done better though for my money it sort of provides the movie with it's Brescia touch of (sic) unfathomability. See the plot of STAR ODYSSEY for an illustration of what I mean, and I will grant that there are viewers who will find this movie to be just as oblique, stupid and ineptly made, but that probably wouldn't include anyone reading this far. I say it's a masterpiece.Fans of Spaghetti fare will be very pleased: the film is fast-paced and genuinely entertaining if you can avoid thinking too much, and the movie has an odd juxtapositioning of obviously phony interior sound stage shots with blazing color schemes, contrasted with some nice early Cowboy Grunge aesthetic. Everyone (except the girl and the power broker) are glazed with perspiration, somewhat tired looking and covered with dust, even Winchester Bill. My favorite shot was right at the end with a close pan around a group of staring faces looking accusingly at the camera that was as good as anything from Mr. Leone or Mr. Corbucci I have seen. This is a movie that had a vision and deserves proper restoration beyond the Greek subtitled pan-and-scan version I found, but it still does the trick & emerges as one of those instant sleeper classics of the genre that fans will watch repeatedly. Alfonse Brescia may have made a series of Spaghetti STAR WARS movies that are an in-joke amongst the Euro cult sect, but here is proof that he was capable of directing very good movies when he was allowed to. Now all I have to do is track down AMAZON WOMEN VS THE THREE STOOGES and my Al Brady collection will be complete!!8/10 for being so relaxingly and enjoyably stupid. I could watch a half dozen of these every day, easy.