Hailed spaghetti western with the genre icon Lee Van Cleef as more human
and weary character in the role of the Bountyhunter
as in his other westerns, the Sabata and the Sergio Leone movies. In
the extras Tomas Milian says that Van Cleef did not have
to bother about the acting as he only had to show his unique face to
own the screen and the viewing audience.
Tomas Milian was more of a method actor and Van Cleef a stylized genre
icon, two different type of actors. Yes, and other
actors with unique faces are Charles Bronson and Klaus Kinski off course,
and fitting for the genre of Spaghetti and Paella
western and the examples of actors with faces as chiselled out of rock
are to numerous to mention.
The Film has a fine soundtrack by Ennio Morricone where
someone called Christy is howling the lead motif, and this is the full
110 minutes version. About the audio versions:
The bluray has an italian dubbed audio with english subtitles and an
english dubbed audio based on the Franco Cleef restoration
of the film. The film had been cut to shreds in the US and a long version
were put together using many different film sources
and sometimes when english dialogue were missing italian original dialogue
was put in, so the english audio option can seem to
be a bit odd, especially at the beginning of the film, where one actor
talk english and the others in italian.
The Story: Lee Van Cleef is the famous Bounty Hunter
Jonathan Corbett and he's so popular and well known that he's contacted
by the railway building entrepeneur Brackston (Walter Barnes) who wants
to build a railway through Texas and to connect the
USA with Mexico. The plan for Corbett to enter politics and being elected
Senator and then to support the Brackston project.
But first, Corbett has promised to hunt down the Mexican
fugitive Cucillo (Tomas Milian) that supposedly has raped and killed
a young girl. But, this mexican proves harder to catch than everyone
thought and a Cat and Mouse game follows between them.
Finally Cuchillo manages to escape into Mexico and Corbett decides to
follow even though he has no authority there.
Soon Brackston appears too and with a quirky German Baron sharpshooter
carrying a monocle with him, and they join the
Cuchillo hunt. The ending is beautifully shot with the hunt going on
through fields of corn and up in the mountains.
The Great Sergio Sollima shows again that he had a social
message in his films, with the rich class oppressing the poor.
The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1
with italian or english audio with english subtitles, trailers, intro,
region B
DVD with extras: Spaghetti western memories as remembered
by Sergio Sollima (in italian with english subtitles) and by Tomas
Milian (in english) 49 minutes, 2012. Sollima was born in 1921 and he
was 91 years old when interviewed but seemed very alert.
A Lee Van Cleef trailer reel ... and in the later films he wore a toupee
and looked more corny than tough, picture gallery
