Spaghetti Western Locations

Continuing with locations from “Duck You Sucker”. As Colonel Reza and his convoy reach the bridge below. Sean pushes the plunger and the bridge explodes sending men, horses vehicles and  debris everywhere. After the cloud of dust and smoke blows away little is left of the bridge. What is left can still be seen in the ravine below.

  For a more detailed view of this site and other Spaghetti Western locations please visit my friend Yoshi ‘Garringo’ Yasuda’s excellent website: http://y-yasuda.net

 

Lee Brougthon DVD Review

DVD Review by Lee Broughton

Peter Lee Lawrence Double Feature.  Wild East, USA.  Format: NTSC Region 0.

This addition to Wild East’s ongoing Spaghetti Western Collection series serves as a tribute to the German actor Peter Lee Lawrence.  Something of a genre stalwart, Lawrence (AKA Karl Hirenbach) starred in over fifteen Euro Westerns before his untimely death in 1974.  Few of Lawrence’s films have made it to DVD to date, so this release will be warmly welcomed by genre fans.  Both titles are revenge-driven tales that involve their lead characters operating in an undercover capacity.  Leon Klimovsky’s Hands Up Dead Man! You’re Under Arrest possesses a somewhat spoofy vibe but Rafael Romero Marchent’s Revenge of the Resurrected is played completely straight.

Hands Up Dead Man! You’re Under Arrest Widescreen (1.85:1).  Directed by Leon Klimovsky.  92 minutes.  1971.

Towards the end of the Civil War, two Rebs called Kid Johnson (Peter Lee Lawrence) and Brown (Franco Agostini) are lucky to escape with their lives when a victorious Union officer, Grayson (Aldo Sambrel), suddenly starts executing his wounded Confederate prisoners.  Years later, Grayson is a ruthless businessman who is using brutal tactics to force a community of settlers off of their land.  Kid Johnson is now a Ranger and he teams up with Brown (who is now a padre) and a mysterious fellow Ranger called Dollar (Espartaco Santoni) in an attempt to bring Grayson to justice.

Cult horror auteur Leon Klimovsky displays a remarkably steady hand here.  But while this obscure genre entry is a stylish and competently assembled show, the tone of its narrative content and action set pieces remains quite uneven.  Things start out gritty, brutal and deadly serious with the Civil War-set intro, which probably ranks as one of the most disturbing sequences ever to appear in a Spaghetti Western: Aldo Sambrel is on top form as the murderous Grayson and it’s a big relief when a hand wound brings an end to his extermination tactics.  Unfortunately, when the film’s narrative moves into the post-Civil War era, Klimovsky begins to adopt an increasingly tongue in cheek and spoofy approach. The show's early gunfights employ a selection of wild canted shots and comic strip-style editing that brings to mind the action scenes found in the Batman TV series. However, the film’s final gun battle, which sees Kid Johnson, Dollar and Padre Brown taking on Grayson’s gang of bad guys, is mostly played for fairly silly laughs.

The acting here is decent enough and Sambrel in particular excels as the despicable land-grabber Grayson.  Some genre fans feel that Peter Lee Lawrence was something of a wooden performer but I’ve never got that impression from the few Lawrence films that I’ve come across.  He turns in a good performance here but when Kid Johnson goes undercover as a perfume salesman (!), his previously angry desire for revenge and justice is replaced with a cocksure smugness that makes his character a little less appealing.  Espartaco Santoni's mysterious Ranger character comes on like Oded Fehr's Ardeth Bay from Stephen Sommers’ Mummy films much of the time.  Fans of Euro cult cinema will enjoy Luis Barboo's turn as a villain who is apprehended by Kid Johnson and Helga Line's sizeable role as Grayson’s game squeeze Maybelle.   Alessandro Alessandroni turns in a fairly likeable selection of cues that mostly veer towards breezy and comedic take-offs of typically generic musical themes. Picture quality here is near enough excellent: the image is sharp and the show’s colours are particularly vibrant. The presentation’s sound quality is very good too.

Extras:  Italian trailer, Spanish front credits sequence and an image gallery.

Revenge of the Resurrected  Widescreen (1.85:1).  Directed by Rafael Romero Marchent.  90 minutes.  1972.

Sharp-shooting Danny O’Hara (Peter Lee Lawrence) is also a talented artist and his father (Luis Induni) convinces him to try his luck professionally in St. Louis. Alas, bandits attack the stagecoach that the pair are travelling on and old man O’Hara is needlessly slaughtered along with the rest of the passengers.  Having only seen the villains from behind (and from a distance), Danny can only identify them via their distinctive fashion and firearm accessories.  Seeking help in the next town he comes to, Danny is alarmed to discover that sheriff Sullivan (Andres Mejuto) is one of the bandits.  After making friends with the sheriff’s daughter Janet (Orchidea De Santis) and taking a job with the local blacksmith, Porter (Raf Baldassarre), Danny devises an ingenious plan to flush the bad guys out.

Revenge of the Resurrected is a really obscure genre entry that takes much of its initial inspiration from Giulio Petroni’s classic Death Rides a Horse.  In a fairly well executed early scene, Danny is thrown from the stagecoach that he is trying to defend from bandits.  When he finally catches up with the stagecoach -- minus his gun -- he’s just in time to see the passengers being brutally executed.  He can’t see the villains’ faces but he does spot distinctive elements of personal clothing, etc, (spurs, hatband, gun holster, gun handle and boots) that he can use to identify them at a later time.  It’s revealed early on that the sheriff is one of the gang when Danny spots a distinctive set of spurs hanging on his office wall.  However, by employing inventive camera angles, imaginative blocking and commanding point-of-view shots, director Rafael Romero Marchent and cinematographer Mario Capriotti manage to detail the nefarious activities of the remaining villains without revealing their identities. This allows Marchent to generate a suitably paranoid and enigma-laden atmosphere which gives the show an impressively disorientating and almost giallo thriller-like feel.

Needless to say, there are red herrings aplenty here.  And the ensuing confusion allows the gang to attempt further violent robberies at a nearby town and a nearby fort as well as actively pursuing a number of other murderous endeavors.  Whenever a crime is committed, Danny tries to stir things up by secretly placing "wanted" posters around town that accuse prominent local citizens of being gang members.  He signs these posters as being from "the Resurrected" but it doesn’t take the gang members long to deduce that Danny is responsible for them and he is soon fighting off a number of assassination attempts.  Revenge of the Resurrected is a fairly low budget affair but Marchent makes the best of his limited resources and the film’s narrative content is just different enough to allow the show to stand out from the crowd.  Peter Lee Lawrence works fine here as Danny O’Hara and the rest of the cast perform well enough too.  Sergio Leone regulars Frank Brana and Lorenzo Robledo and genre stalwarts Raf Baldassarre and Carlos Romero Marchent all have fairly prominent roles here.  Genre stalwart Nora Orlandi’s rousing music underscores the show’s many action scenes to good effect. The picture quality here is perfectly serviceable but there are odd outbreaks of small scratches and flecks present throughout the show and the quality of the film’s colour fluctuates a tad.  The show’s sound quality is pretty good for the most part. 

Extras: trailers for four Peter Lee Lawrence Spaghetti Westerns and an image gallery.

© 2012 Copyright Lee Broughton.

More detailed reviews of these two titles can be found here:

 http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s3847lee.html 

  

Guess Who I Am

I was born in Cetraro, Italy in 1934.

I was a stuntman and actor who appeared in over 50 films 31 of which were Euro-westerns.

I was known for my participation in many saloon brawls in Hill and Spencer films.

Guess Who I Am.

Two readers  Breccio and and Hanick Fabien Costa both named Riccardo Pizzuti as this weeks photo.

A Long Ride to Eden

Ein Langer Ritt nach Eden – German title

A Long Ride to Eden – English title

A 1971 West German production [Günter Hendel Productions (Munich)]

Producer: Günter Hendel

Director: Günter Hendel

Story: Robert S. Gordon

Screenplay: Robert S. Gordon

Cinematography: Lutz Ziervogel [color]

Music: Stanley Fromm, Walter Geiger

Running time: 83 minutes

Cast:

Rachel Stevens – Ingrid Steeger (Ingrid Stengert)

Lucy – Karin Heske

Elmer – Derek Brand

Kamiah – Nevanka Dundek (Nevenka Dundek)

Langer – Mike Run (Manfred Eder)

Joshua – Achim Hammer

Jack – Günter Hendel

With: Boris Cavazza

 

Two gringos arrive in a ghost town named Cripple, where they meet two Quaker couples from Pennsylvania. The Quakers live simply in a hut surviving on watered down soup and bread. Soon it turns out that the two gringos are bandits who are waiting for their fellow gangster. The two Quaker women awaken certain natural needs of the gangsters, especially Mrs. Stevens who is particularly liberal with her body, bathing naked in front of them. Otherwise the outlaws are not lead on by the women. While waiting for their friend they decide to terrorize the couples with violence and force the women to have sex with them.

New DVD Release

THE STRANGER RETURNS - WESTERN JACK - Special Edition (2DVD)

(Un uomo, un cavallo, una pistol)

(1967)

Director: Luigi Vanzi

Starring: Tony Anthony, Dan Vadis, Ettore Manni

Label: Colosseo Film #DVD6120

Anamorphic 16:9

Original format - time 1:31:40

Languages: German,  English, Italian

Sound: German (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)

Subtitles: German

Extras

- Original English Trailer

- Original German Trailer

- Audio Commentary with Tony Anthony

- Photo Gallery

Available: April 12, 2012

Ordering link: http://shop.dtm.at/product_info.php?products_id=47480&osCsid=406dc1178b78b6fde384c7fb0405eddf

 

Happy 55th Birthday Christophe Lambert

Christophe Guy Denis Lambert was born in Great Neck, Long Island, New York on March 29, 1957. His father was a French diplomat at the United Nations. His family left the U.S. when his father was transferred to Switzerland.  At the time Chris was only two years-old so he was educated at private boarding schools in Geneva. Appearing in a play when he was 12, he went to the Paris Conservatoire where he remained for two years. After small parts in French films, beginning in 1980, he successfully competed for the title role in “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes” (1984). The movie was popular with Tarzan buffs for basically remaining faithful to the original story. Two years later Lambert starred in “Highlander” (1986), and again in the futuristic “Highlander II” (1991) and “Highlander: The Final Dimension” (1994). Christophe has appeared in only one Euro-western “The North Star” (1996). In recent years he has become a producer while continuing to act in mostly action/adventure films. Today we celebrate Christophe Lambert’s 55^th birthday.

Eduardo Fajardo opens the 'Walk of Stars' on April 13th.

Eduardo Fajardo, the Galician actor based in the capital, will be the first to be featured with a star. Located on the street Poet Villaespesa, the event will take place on April 13th.

The Galician actor Eduardo Fajardo has lived for more than two decades in Almeria will be the first to have a star on the 'Walk of Stars' which the city of Almeria created in the environment of the Teatro Cervantes and squares and Paul Cazard Marquis de Heredia within the project 'Almeria Earth Film', with which the Department of Tourism aims to attract the attention of experts, amateurs or mytho-maniacs of the big stars who over the past few years have filmed in Almeria.

The event will be held at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 13 on the street Poet Villaespesa, where the actor will place the first star with his name inscribed in bronze. Almeria mayor, Luis Rogelio Rodríguez-Commander, said the actor was "very excited" by this recognition and thanked the mayor for the honor of opening this avenue of film art which is tied to the province.

Almeria film history

For the mayor, the election was not made by chance. "Eduardo is a huge part of not oly Spanish film history, but also Almeria film, as many of his films were shot in our province, where years ago he decided to take up residence and where he is doing a great job bringing theater to people with disabilities" said the politician.

The project 'Almeria Film Land' began in January last year with the opening of the Casa del Cinema, in the neighborhood of Villablanca, a cultural city from with which honor film memory and some of its recent history, and all cinema lovers can come to know what the factory of illusions that is film came to mean to a land far away from everyone and almost everything.

Now the "Walk of Stars', a place where they will be left footprints of actors and directors who are filming in Almeria or who have done so previously and whose contribution to the promotion of the city and province as a land of cinema has been a recognized.

The third pillar of this initiative is the marking of places in town where scenes from famous films have been shot, such as Cathedral Square, where they filmed scenes for 'Patton'.

A LONG RIDE FROM HELL

Vivo per la tua morte – Italian title

Dispara o cavate la fosa – Italian title

Vivo para tu muerte – Argentinian title

Vivo pela Tua Morte – Brazilian title

Живея за смъртта ти – Bulgarian title

Det lange ridt fra helvede – Danish title

Veriset dollarit – Finnish title

L'évadé de Yuma – French title

Ich bin ein entflohener Kettensträfling  – German title

Killer auf der Flucht – German title

Django - Ich bin ein entflohener Kettensträfling – German title

O drapetis pou efyge apo tin Kolasi – Greek title

Guarda tu pistola Judas – Mexican title

Vivo Para a Tua Morte - Portuguese title

Eu traiesc pentru moartea ta – Romanian title

Guarda tu pistol Judas – Spanish title

Vivo para matarte – Spanish title

Cehennemde firtine – Turkish title

I Live For Your Death – English title

A Long Ride from Hell – U.S.A. title

A 1968 Italian production [B.R.C. Produzione (Rome)]

Producer: Manolo Bolognini

Director: Alex Burks (Camillo Bazzoni)

Story: Judas Gun by Gordon D. Shirreffs (Gordon Donals Shirreffs)

Screenplay: Roberto Natale, Steve Reeves (Stephen Reeves)

Cinematography: Enzo Barboni [Eastmancolor]

Music: Carlo Savina

     Song: “The Long Ride West” sung by Don Powell

Running time: 95 minutes

Cast:

Mike Sturges – Steve Reeves (Stephen Reeves)

Marlin Mayner – Wayde Preston (William Strange)

Roy Sturges – Sergio De Vecchi

Deputy Sheriff Harry – Lee Burton (Guido Lollobrigida)

Sheriff Max Freeman – Dick Palmer (Domenico Palmara)

Ruth Harper – Silvana Venturelli

Bill Savage – Ted Carter (Giovanni Pazzafini)

Ranch hand - Ivan Scratuglia

Incarnacion – Rosalba Neri

Bobcat Bates – Spartaco Conversi

Mason – Franco Balducci

Shorty Yeager – Bruno Corazzari

Tracy – Remo De Angelis

Castleman – Franco Fantasia (Francisco Fantasia)

Mexican bounty hunter – Aldo Sambrell (Alfredo Brell)

Felicias – Silvana Bacci

Naco bartender – Mario Maranzana

Mrs. Sturges – Emma Baron Cerlesi (Emma Bardon)

Gambler – Fortunato Arena

Baldy Morris - Enzo Fiermonte (Vincenzo Fiermonte)

Sturges’ cellmate – Simon Arriaga

  Mike Sturges and his family own a horse ranch in Arizona but his life suddenly changes when his horses are stolen by a band of outlaws. Mike and his younger brother Roy head out to find the horses and the thieves. Along the way, they run into a railroad security agent named Marlin Mayner who warns them to stay away from Dragon's Pass. It turns out, the outlaw gang is planning on robbing the oncoming train of its gold and the Mayner wants to keep Mike out of harm's way. But Mike, determined to find his horses, doesn't listen, and after he is shot, and his brother disappears, sheriff Freeman shows up and accuses Mike and Roy of the crime. The brothers are sent to the hell hole, Yuma State Penitentiary. There, a cruel guard tortures Roy to death, and Mike having no other choice is determined to escape, or die trying. When Mike eventually does escape he decides to seek revenge on Mayner and the lawman who set him up.

YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by5T7d2wn1w