The Spaghetti Western thread

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

Another amazon exclusive, Gianfranco Baldanello's THIS MAN CAN'T DIE (I Lunghi giorni dell'odio, 1968) starring Guy Madison, went up as an mod today:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...pf_rd_i=507846

I know nothing about it. I might have this film in one of the box collections.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

"Sclaps: Indian Revenge [DVD]"
Products: EUR 15,00
Shipping: EUR 14,00
------
Total before tax: EUR 29,00
Tax: * EUR 0.00
------
Total amount: EUR 29,00 > $37.27 + bank's currency conversion fee $10 = $47.27 for the DVD.

This is why American consumers need a local importer. Someone other than Diabolik who refuse to carry many foreign / cult titles.

[Robin Bougie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Robin Bougie]

What a fantastic cover. Criterion should find out who did the graphic design for that, and hire them on the spot. This level of talent can't be left to languish simply doing Amazon exclusives. The people must seeeeeee it.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

The film isn't much but it had a few way-western posters. They all sell me.

Not many of Guy Madison's excellent classic westerns (Border City Rustlers, The Hard Men, The Charge At Feather River 3-D, Reprisal etc) are available on DVD. His sojourn through the spaghetti western wasn't as good, but maybe amazon will offer Five for Revenge (1967) next:



Sette winchester per un massacro (Seven Winchesters For a Massacre, 1968) came out on Wild East double-feature DVD under the title Payment In Blood and is now oop. The American poster:

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

In Studies In Classic American Literature (published 1923), English professor D.H. Lawrence -- who was writing from Taos, New Mexico which had not yet grown out of its horse & buggy days -- wrote of James Fenimore Cooper:

But you have there the myth of the essential white America.
All the other stuff, the love, the democracy, the floundering
into lust, is a sort of by-play. The essential American soul is
hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.

A famous quote, but what would he have thought of the Italians if he had lived long enough to see a spaghetti western?

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

The Koch Media DVD with the documentary on Ferdinando Baldi is oop and going for insane prices. Has anyone seen this Australian edition? According to the back cover, it's 105 minutes which means uncut, widescreen anamorphic, and NTSC. NTSC in Australia? Can anyone confirm that? how is the picture quality?

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

I've got the Koch Media disc. Been a long time since I watched it but I don't think the documentary is English-friendly. I could be wrong, however.

Don't have a clue about the Australian disc, Richard. Sorry.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Blindman should come out on Blu-ray.

Just sayin...

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Cover art for the 5/27/13 DVD/Blu-ray release from Arrow.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6439[/ATTACH]

This has been pushed back to 6/10/13.

[Andrew Monroe Pallid Hands Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew Monroe]

Blindman should come out on Blu-ray.

Just sayin...

Just echoin'

While they're at it, Digit needs to rerelease the BLINDMAN soundtrack; it's been OOP for ages and commands a pretty penny. I have it but there are a lot of people who would jump on that. Cipriani!

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I've got an MP3 rip of it but would buy it on CD if it were reissued at a fair price.

[Jason C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jason C]

I watched the RHV Italian Blu-ray of FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (Per un pugno di dollari). It looks fantastic. I immediately put in the MGM Blu-ray and listened to Sir Christopher Frayling's commentary and the difference in the transfer is startling. Not only is there less detail, but the colors look like shit and the day for night stuff looks terrible.

I really enjoy Frayling's commentaries. One thing that I found interesting is the great amount of detail he went into in explaining how FISTFUL is different than every western that came before it. Growing up (in Kansas), the Leone westerns were the standard in my house. It was the other stuff that was foreign and strange.

My favorite western moment starts with Clint saying "Get three coffins ready" and ends with "My mistake. Four coffins". Frayling mentioned how this was a reference to Yojimbo. Pretty clever.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

S P O I L E R S

FrancoCleef's main source for EL PURO (1969) appears to be the French DVD, which is mis-framed. His secondary source appears to be a VHS which is considerably lower quality but more properly framed. The film is 1.85. At 94 minutes and 8 seconds it is the longest version available, although there are some jumps indicating missing footage. That having been said I have no complaints about Riek's transfer. He assembled the longest and most complete version from the best sources available and, judging by the date on the parcel, dropped it in the mail two days before I paid him.

The idea is okay, but the film is made by amateurs. The actors do fine. I wish the script were more developed and the interaction between the two leads more keyed up. The script doesn't make clear what Rosie sees in El Puro to want to help him, or why she is willing to suffer for him. I wish El Puro had responded to her more, and shown us why he backs off from committing to her. There were other ways for the actors to play it; her love, rather than her death, should have prompted him to start pulling himself together. Then her death later on becomes the setback that he must overcome. There were openings for little asides and bits of business here and there that nobody thought of. In other words, crank up the bittersweet romance and spend less time showing us how psychotic the bad guys are. When El Puro faces the bad guys, there'd be more tension if they came upon him before he is ready. When he faces them it should be with a degree of self-doubt that is resolved within him as the gunfight progresses. At least the film is character-driven, which is always the best way to tell a story and which is rare in spaghetti westerns. It is thankfully free of comedy skits and acrobatics. The coup de gras at the end was a mistake: I'd rather see El Puro ride off alone, forced to live with his loss and still facing the temptation of the bottle. Living is said to be harder than dying. I wish the direction were more pictorial, the interaction more dramatically assured, the camera set-ups more artful. If this were a 2K scan of the camera negative I doubt if I'd be impressed with the photography and art direction, which are no more than functional. There are no classic or particularly memorable moments, but the film has spontaneity and manages to generate some melancholy mood and tension. It delivers all the nihilism, ambivalence and sadism that one requires from a spaghetti western. I'll definitely watch it again.

How's that for a review.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

Anyone seen ONE SILVER DOLLAR (1965):

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Yes. I haven't seen it in years but I remember it being entertaining and well paced, if fairly generic.