Special Birthdays

Antonio Mayans (actor) is 80 today.

Rocco Siffredi (actor) is 55 today.

Spaghetti Western Trivia ~ Food for Thought

In the 1971 film “Trinity is STILL My Name”, The sequence where Trinita and Bambino eat at the restaurant was not written. Terence Hill and Bud Spencer created it on the set.

Keoma Blu-ray Review

Horror Fuel

By Dan XIII

April 6, 2019

Keoma (Franco Nero), a half-breed former Union gunfighter proves the old adage that you can’t go home again as he returns to the land of his youth to find the entire place stricken with a plague. As if that wasn’t bad enough, his racist AF half-brothers have teamed up with a real shit heel of a dude, the Confederate tyrant Caldwell (Donald O’Brian) and the lot of ’em keep the town strangled under an iron grip of terror. Soon our hero teams up with his father (William Berger) and aging mentor George (Woody Strode) to attempt to rid the town of those no-good sidewinders!

Coming near the end of the spaghetti western cycle, Enzo G. Castellari’s (1990): The Bronx Warriors,  Warriors of the Wasteland) Keoma is stylish, loaded with over-the-top violence, and surprising levels of soul searching from our stoic, sharp-shootin’ hero.

And while the basics of the story…ultra-serious gunfighter blows into town and has to protect the people from a gang of evil bastards…are Western 101, Keoma presents the material with some truly off-beat and surreal flourishes including flashbacks that play out as dreams in the middle of sequences playing out in the story’s present, the presence of an aged witch (Gabriella Giacobbe) that advises Keoma and gives the proceedings a Shakespearean flavor (as does our hero’s relationship with his brothers), and a sound track (courtesy of Guido and Maurizio De Angelis) so absolutely fucking bananas your brain may well refuse to process what fills your eerie earholes!

Additionally there’s a rich sense of religious allegory (Keoma bares more than a passing resemblance to Jesus, and is even crucified and “resurrected”) that gives the entire a story a sense of epic neo-mythology.

As for extras to accompany the feature, Arrow Video have included an impressive array of bonus content! First up we get both the English and Italian language versions of the film, and an audio commentary featuring spaghetti western experts C. Courtney Joyner and Henry C. Parke. This is an energetic and illuminating listen that brings details of not only the production at hand, but the spaghetti western genre itself to light.

Following that comes all new interviews with Nero, Castellari, Screenwriter (and legendary genre actor) George Eastman, editor Gianfranco Amicucci, and Actors Massimo Vanni and Volfango Soldati, as well as a fascinating video appreciation of Keoma and the end of the spaghetti western biz (as well as the tropes of Castellari’s cinematic oeuvre) by the academic Austin Fisher, and an archival introduction to the film by filmmaker Alex Cox (Repo Man, Sid and Nancy).

Bringing up the rear we get two trailers for the film, and a handful of stills galleries comprised of promotional material.

Keoma is epic, surreal, and beautiful…and one of the greatest of the spaghetti westerns. This one comes highly recommended boils n’ ghouls, and with the hours of special features included on this release there’s no better way to go!

Special Birthdays

Carmen Martinez Sierra (actress) would have been 115 today, he died in 2012.

Renate Blume (actress) is 75 today.

RIP Alessandra Panaro

Italian actress Alessandra Panro died in a health clinic in Geneva, Switzerland on May 1, 2019 he was 79. Born in Rome on December 14, 1939 she studied acting under Teresa Franchini and made her film debut at 16 years old, and found success in 1956 thanks to the Dino Risi's comedy film “Poor, But Handsome”. She then specialized in romantic comedies. In 1957-1958, together with her “Poor, But Handsome” co-star Lorella De Luca, she assisted Mario Riva in presenting the popular RAI game show Il Musichiere. She appeared in over 40 films including Peplum and three westerns: “Pyramid of the Sun God” and “Treasure of the Aztecs” (1965) as Rosita Arbellez, “30 Winchesters for El Diablo” (1965) as Pamela Webb under the pseudonym Topsy Collins.