mgtbltp I finally watched "The Hellbenders" on Saturday, got the Anchor Bay DVD off Amazon.com and sat down and watched this Joseph Cotton starring flick with Norma Bengell, Julian Mateos & Gino Pernice. It also has great cameos by Benito Steffenelli, Aldo Sambrel, and Al Mulock.This was a film that looked and felt very much like an American Western, which I wasn't quite expecting (though I shouldn't say that since I've come to expect the unexpected from Corbucci) though it did have SW twists. Basically it starts with a Union Cavalry detachement that is escorting a million dollars in old currency designated to be destroyed (ie., burned). We see this detachment struggling to cross a river and there are some great action shots of this segment alone.Joseph Cotton plays the part of an ex Confederate officer determined to take the money and make a new start, resurrecting the Confederacy. This is one of Hollywood's and 50's TV Westerns staple post Civil War "characters". You've seen variations of this depiction from the officer that goads the posse into stringing up Anthony Quinn and his compadres in "The Ox Bow Incident" to Edmund O'Brien's turn as one in living in a surreal southern mansion in "Rio Conchos" starring Richard Boone these come to mind. But Cotton is not restricted to just a few scenes at the climax but is present as a somewhat sincerely dedicated semi religious looney throughout the whole film. Great stuff! So the story concerns the stealing of the money and the treck to get it to safety through a countryside swarming with soldiers and civilian posses all looking for the perpetrators of the heist.This film is pretty much devoid of any SW style standoff gunfights and derives most of its tension from the various encounters and twists in the plot. It does have some of the familiar SW symbology though. All this is very well done. The actors that play Cotton's sons could have used a bit more fleshing out but thats a minor quibble. You don't quite react to them as well as you might have.It dose have some faults however, its supposed to be just after the end of the Civil War and here my "curse of Leone" rears its head.Now I don't know about you but ever since I've seen GBU and the rest of Leone's work I've been effected by the "curse" which is Leone emphasized the weaponry and ever since I've paid attention to this particular aspect of all Westerns, both AW's and SW's and even some of the classic AW's ie. "Red River" fall prey to it. I guess pre Leone nobody really cared a Western was a Western and not taken seriously.In Il Crudeli the ex Southerners of the "Hellbenders" Regiment are equipped with Winchesters. OK in 1866 there were "Yellow Boy" Winchesters so you can over look this, but the six guns they carry are Colt 1873 Peacemakers, a big anachronisim, that could and should have been corrected, and is not easy to overlook, if you are familiar with the weaponry. Other that this, this film is entertaining but it could have been great. Morricone's score is average, nothing that memorable, not bad but not outstanding either.Al Mulock has the biggest part I've ever seen and he does an excellent job, and its worth a look for this alone. He actually does a great job, check it out. Aldo Sambrel also makes an appearance, as does Steffenelli but his is brief.The Anchor Bay DVD has just a trailer and a printed bio for Corbucci, pretty sparce if you ask me. But I'm glad to have this film.Here is a film that could be remade with a slightly bigger budget more Western landscapes and a better attention to accuracy, its a great story won't need a lot of sets, and I can see a modern version of this somewhere down the line if Westerns come into vogue again.

cengelm After the Civil War a dedicated ex-Confederate officer leads a hearse with a coffin full of money to New Mexico where he wants to revive the Confederation. His company is formed by his three very different sons and an alcoholic women. After the woman gets killed she is replaced by a seasoned female gambler who is well played by Norma Bengell. The whole story unfolds in the way of a road movie where the characters are passing through the typical obstacles of a Western environment. Due to a massacre the bunch committed in the beginning they are hunted by unionists and government officials. Corbucci manages to make the characters who are basically all criminals very likable and I was more often than not at the edge of my seat when the bunch run into trouble. Probably THE WILD BUNCH from Peckinpah got some inspirations from here and Corbucci's COMPAÑEROS can be considered a later variant with a different mood.The mood of the film is excellently supported by Morricone's score which belongs to his best. Cinematography is above average. The Spaghetti Western Web Board rated this film at #24 of all SW in 2005.7 / 10

ark30inf Good grief. I think this is the ultimate caricature of a Spaghetti Western. Its almost to the point where its an unintentional parody of a Spaghetti Western.I'm not sure they even wrote down a screenplay. I think they just got some horses, a coffin, some Mexican clothes, and a girl and made the whole thing up as they meandered along.Joseph Cotten is horribly miscast as a twisted Confederate officer bent on somehow reconstructing the Confederacy by dragging a coffin full of money through the desert with his cruel psychotic sons in tow. None of it works out right for them (or makes any sense for that matter...not that you would care) but they do all manage to remain remarkably clean-shaven throughout their horrific and agonizing ordeal in the desert which is a plus for them I'm sure.The best acting in this film comes from the assorted bit players that wander in and out of the story line for no apparent reason. The Reverend, the blind Sergeant, the Yankee Fort commander, and the card player all have more memorable performances than the main characters even though they only have one or two lines.The film was gritty enough to have some realistic feel to it, in that weird Spaghetti Western way, but there are a few jarring things that spoiled even that for me. I know I shouldn't be looking too close but its hard to ignore Joseph Cotten's 1966 service station attendant outfit that is supposed to pass as a Confederate uniform (belt loops and all) or Ben's 1966 jacket with the funky pockets. Every time I saw that coffin I had to wonder where they came up with that weird looking lizard flag. The feel of the film would have been improved drastically just by using a regular old Confederate battle flag.The musical score was good and had that familiar Spaghetti Western eeriness to it that I love. Some of the cinematography was quite interesting, particular the opening credits with the yankees trying to manhandle the wagon across the river. That scene was designed as filler for the opening credits but turns out to be a real gem. I particularly like the detail of the yankee guidon bearer using his guidon to urge the horses forward, nice work. It makes you wonder what this crew could have done if they had taken the rest of the visuals just as seriously.This film was fun to watch even though it went nowhere and there were no characters to love, empathize with, or even care about. When I get hungry for a little pasta I'll probably watch it again with friends just for the camp value.

pjojr "The Hellbenders" is Corbucci's predecessor to his genre defining "Django" of the same year. Initially, the film can be dismissed as a low-budget mess because of poor audio and cinematography, but there are redeeming qualities which make this film a landmark in the overall Western genre. It was one of the first to use Almeira, Spain as a backdrop. It follows the adventure of a gang of ruthless Conferates (three brothers and their father, Joseph Cotten) fleeing the Union cavalry, Mexican outlaws, a local sherrif, and a vengeful Indian tribe. They carry a coffin filled with booty, and a permit stating that the coffin contains the body of a dead lieutenant. Corbucci pulls in a femme fatale (Norma Bengall) to foil the gang's money heist. Along the way a Mexican bandit is backstabbed, so to speak, by Cotten, and the bandit proclaims that they will meet again in hell. I'll leave the plot twists for you to discover, but note that "The Wild Bunch," released two years later, has a similar plot and twists. Also note Corbucci's more refined and improved spaghetti western, "Django," employs the use a mysterious coffin, which houses a Gatling machine gun, just so conveniently used again in "The Wild Bunch." Ol' Peckinpah sure did his homework.