Leofwine_draca A weird and average low budget western, British made and shot in Spain with American leads in the cast. This film features none other than Richard Crenna as the heroic lead, a mysterious gunslinger come to clean up the town, suffering from the usual amnesia that makes him slightly vulnerable (a trope that was over-utilised in this particular genre of film-making). I do love Crenna but first and foremost he was a character actor so it's a little unusual to see him as the hero here; it's impossible to ignore the fact that he seems miscast. The likes of Stephen Boyd, Farley Granger, and Patty Shepard play in support. This film is directed by Peter Collinson, the director of such movies as THE ITALIAN JOB and STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING, and it's an interesting oddity rather than anything particularly enjoyable. The plot seems long-winded and the outcome obvious, but at the same time at least it retains the interest.

zardoz-13 "Innocent Bystanders" director Peter Collinson emphasizes action shrouded in mystery in scenarist Scot Finch's cinematic adaptation of Louis L'Amour's novel "The Man Called Noon," with Richard Crenna plagued by amnesia while a passel of trigger-happy pistoleros do their best to pack him full of lead. "Conan the Barbarian" lenser John Cabrera photographed this invigorating oater on various scenic Spanish locations where earlier westerns, such as Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West" and John Guillermin's "El Condor," had been shot, and Collinson and he frame each shot so that this dusty, windswept horse opera is easy on the eyes. James Bond movie aficionados should savor the fact that stunt man Bob Simmons (the guy in the gun barrel sequences of "Dr. No" and "From Russia, With Love" arranged the stunts. The scenes of horsemen toppling from their saddles and horses plunging into the camera are genuinely exciting. Crenna faces the same trouble that Matt Damon would confront forty or so year later with his loss of memory. Mind you, it takes one spectacular fall from a hotel balcony and later another down the side of a mountain for our stalwart hero to recover his wits while his adversaries blast away at him. Oscar winning actor Stephen Boyd and former MGM contract player Farley Granger cannot seem to figure out what side they are on and whether they are going to riddle our hero. Similarly, two women—Italian beauty Rosanna Schiaffino of "The Long Ships" and Patty Shepard of "The Stranger and the Gunfighter"—stand on either side of our protagonist, but they have already decided what they are going to do about him. The last-minute showdown between these two dames is something to see, especially with Shepard decked out in black with a flat-crowned hat. Collinson and Finch don't lollygag around in this sagebrusher. Just as Jonas Mandarin (Richard Crenna of "Catlow") has finished dressing in his hotel room in Kiowa Flats, villainous sharpshooter Ben Janish (Ángel del Pozo of "Hell in the Aegean") creases Jonas' scalp with a bullet, and Jonas crashes through his window and falls into the street. Scrambling to escape from a search party of armed desperadoes, our resilient hero climbs aboard a train pulling out of town. Janish's henchmen assemble to find, but they lose him. Meantime, Jonas dashes across the rooftops of box cars (this is splendidly staged by Collinson) as the train chugs away into the distance. He winds up in a box car with a scruffy, six-gun toting owlhoot, Rimes (Stephen Boyd of "Ben-Hur"), and they behave like partners for a while. Eventually, they end up at a ranch presided over by the lovely Fan Davidge (Rosanna Schiaffino) who suffers under the tyranny of Janish. After Fan cleans up Jonas' scalp wound, our hero joins a group of ruffians in a nearby bunkhouse and proves his wits with his fists. He slugs it out with a couple and then settles down for a long overdue nap. The following day, Jonas saddles himself a horse with Fan's permission. Rimes and he gallop off into the wilderness. Rimes warns Jonas that the area is rift with 50 box canyons with no way out of them. Nevertheless, our wily protagonist finds a fortress of a stone house off in the mountain. This innocuous looking place looks comfortable within and Jonas leads Rimes to an elevator to a cave and an outlet where they catch a ride aboard another train. Collinson and Finch release information in piecemeal fashion to keep us in the dark as long as possible, and things slowly come together when Jonas learns about a lawyer named Cullane who has been recently killed. Stealthily, Jonas inventories Cullane's office, and he runs into Cullane's homicidal sister and later a character named Judge Niland (Farley Granger of "Strangers on a Train") who initially appears to be a good guy. Later, we learn that the noble judge isn't so noble, and he wants to kill Jonas. Our hero, Rimes, and Fan are trapped in the stone-house during the last quarter hour and have to shoot it out with hordes of henchmen while they contend with dynamite being hurled at them and smoke from burning sagebrush. As you can see, Collinson refuses to let the action loiter, and "The Man Called Noon" doesn't let up throughout its 98-bullet-blasting minutes. Richard Crenna is appropriately tight-lipped and he displays his prowess with a pistol as he keeps knocking down targets on rooftops and behind doors in the fortress sequence. "The Man Called Noon" qualifies a hard-riding western that doesn't wear out its welcome.

ma-cortes This is an average Spanish/British/Italian co-production filmed of course in Almeria , Spain . It deals with Robert Noon (Richard Crenna), a gunslinger who has turned amnesiac. Helped by Rimes (Stephen Boyd), another gunfighter who has befriended him, he attempts to figure out who he is actually. He gradually aware that his wife and child have been killed . Is he Noon ? . The duo goes to ranch Rafter where lives Fan Davidge (Rosanna Schiaffino) who will support them , there the foreman named Henekker (Jose Jaspe) gives him a letter signed by Noon and Dean Cullane . As they go to El Paso where lives the scheming sister (Patty Shepard) of the lawyer named Dean Cullane . As time goes by, Noon also recalls a lot of gold buried somewhere but he is double-crossed . Niland (Farley Granger), an ambitious judge and the outlaw Ben Janish (Angel Del Pozo) along with his hoodlums ( Aldo Sambrell, Jose Canalejas, Fernando Hilbeck, Julian Ugarte) will do everything to prevent Noon and Rimes from achieving their objective .In the picture there're action western, shootouts, thrills, and a little bit of moderated violence . It follows American models more than Italian , displaying an intrigue about possible fake personality . The film is well starred by a fine star-cast though wasted as Stephen Boyd , Richard Crenna , Rosanna Schiaffino ; all of them early deceased , exception Farley Granger who passed away this same year . The starring Richard Crenna played another British Western titled ¨Catlow¨ that bears remarkable resemblance , as the same author Louis L'Amour , some actors and similar Almerian scenarios .The motion picture has been filmed on La Pedriza , Manzanares of Real , Madrid and Almeria(Spain), where during the 6os and early the 7os were shot several spaghetti western . The film well filmed in Tabernas and Texas Hollywood-Fort Bravo, Almeria, with a good production design including great a fortress , one of the best ever created , firstly used in ¨El condor¨ and where were posteriorly shot several Spaghetti as ¨ Blind man, Massacre at Fort Holman, ¨ and ¨Conan the Barbarian¨. Nevertheless, today the fort has been partially crumbled and only remain some ruins . There appears usual Spanish western secondary actors : Angel del Pozo, Julian Ugarte, Barta Barry , Ricardo Palacios, Jose Canalejas and of course Aldo Sambrell, among others. Atmospheric score by Luis Bacalov who subsequently won Oscar for ¨The postman and Pablo Neruda¨ and colorful cinematography by John Cabrera , though is necessary and urgent remastering .The movie is regularly directed by Peter Collinson. Collinson's directorial treatment provides it with action, gun-play, and suspense . He was an expert on thriller (Sell out, Target on assassin), intrigue (Spiral staircase, Ten little Indians, Open season), terror(Straight on till morning), Warlike-adventure(You can't win ém all), his biggest hit was ¨The Italian job¨ , until his early death by cancer at 41. Rating : Mediocre but entertaining .

Eric Chapman There's a thin line between good style and bad style, and this film lands squarely on the wrong side of that line. The director knows a few camera tricks, such as filming scenes from severely low angles with a cowboy boot or wagon wheel dominating the frame (copied from countless other spaghetti westerns) but he has no feel or flow. Oddball cast. Richard Crenna, not exactly the most physical of actors, is hilariously unbelievable as a tough man of action. Your guess is as good as mine as to how he wins all those fist fights. And he's either bionic or a cousin of Bruce Willis' character in "Unbreakable", because he survives a couple nasty falls and countless flurries of gunfire with nary a scratch. In fact, the villains in this movie have to be the worst shots in the history of film. The more I think about it, I'm not sure who or what they were aiming at but it couldn't have been Crenna. There's Stephen Boyd, about a decade past his prime, drawling and mumbling his way through a turn as some sort of a slippery opportunist, the Han Solo role. Actually not a bad performance. And also Farley Granger, 20 years or so removed from his fling with matinee idol stardom. He's a more interesting looking actor at this point with graying hair and richer voice, but he comes off as all kinds of ridiculous in the big dumb, senseless finale. Hard to tell if his acting is much improved with such a poor script.It's also got an inappropriately exuberant music score, bad stunt doubling, a confusing plot with too many names you never can attach to faces, and some gratuitous violence that might have been offensive if it hadn't been so nonsensical. Despite all that, at least it DOES make an attempt to stylize the material and give it a little pizazz. That's more than some films do.