Fistful

 

A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE-aka DUCK, YOU SUCKER!-1971-An ignorant violent Mexican bandit (Rod Steiger) and an IRA explosive expert (James Colburn) on the run from the British team up with a doctor (Romolo Valli) and his revolutionaries in Mexico to rob a bank. Unfortunately for them, there's no money. The bank was being used to house 150 political prisoners. They are liberated and the bandit becomes a reluctant political hero. 

This overlooked “spaghetti western” was the last western directed the legendary Sergio Leone (also a co-writer). He hadn't planned on directing but one story says Steiger insisted on it. 

Of course there's also a great score by Ennio Morricone. New Zealand actor David Warbeck who years later was in 2 films by Lucio Fulci appears in a flashback.

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Bounty Hunters In Italy

 

 (imdb)

THE GREAT SILENCE-1988-Somewhere in the old west (Italy), bounty hunters like Loco (Klaus Kinski; in I BASTARDI the same year)) are out of control and the governor wants to put a stop to it. Roaming the countryside is Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant from A MAN AND A WOMAN (1966)), a gunfighter who's hired by families to kill bounty hunters to avenge the deaths of their loved ones. A widow (Vonetta McGee; later in BLACULA (1972)) hires Silence to kill Loco who murdered her husband. Meanwhile, a store owner hires Loco to kill Silence. In recent years critics go on and on about this western allegory that tries way too much to be like Leone (Ennio Morricone scored it) and director Sergio Corbucci (also one of the screenwriters) needs a history lesson.

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Argento

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE CAT O'NINE TAILS-1971-A blind ex-reporter Franco Arno (Karl Malden) who likes puzzles teams up with a local reporter Carlo Giordani (James Franciscus) to solve a series of brutal murders that seem connected to a “hush-hush” genetics corporation. There are a lot of suspects but most are killed. After Arno's niece is kidnapped and Carlo is stabbed and thrown off a roof he discovers the murderer who has a “weird chromosome” make up. The ending is way too abrupt and doesn't actually tell you the fate of the Carlo character. Catherine Spaak gives a pretty bad performance in a co-starring role (and has a terrible hair style) and the plot is very confused. Even the score by Ennio Morricone doesn't help.

 

 It's the second film directed by Dario Argento who of course went on to make more interesting and stylish (but sometimes just as confusing) “Giallos”.

 

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