MILANO ODIA: LA POLIZIA NON PUO SPARARE (ALMOST HUMAN)

Thomas Milian, Henry Silva, Ray Lovelock, Anita Strindberg

Guilio Sacchi (Thomas Milian in his favorite role) at the opening of the film, is the driver for a bank robbery. When a police man approaches him to move his car he impulsively shoots the cop thus introducing us to one of the slimiest cinematic character portrayals in film ever. The crooks don’t want Guilio around anymore so he shacks up with his girlfriend (Strindberg WHO SAW HER DIE?, LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN) and through her spies a very pretty girl from a rich family. Guilio plans to kidnap the girl and hold her for ransom killing her if the father doesn’t pay up. Guilio eventually gets the girl but along the way commits some extremely distasteful acts such as when they trace the girl to a house in the woods where they torture and machine gun the inhabitants kids included. The group holes up in an abandoned boat while they wait for their money. Meanwhile, Inspector Grandi (Silva) tries to find them and convince the father they will not let his daughter go even if he pays them. It all ends badly for the principle cast members in one of the most violent films I’ve ever seen regardless of genre.

Milian owns this movie and turns in his best performance ever. On the 30 minute interview with him on the disc he says this is his favorite performance and initially, he was to play the cop role but opted for the sleazy villain instead as the film is surprisingly, built around the villain for the most part. You really grow to hate his character and want to see him get his in the end.

The angelic Ray Lovelock is suited at Milian’s side as he is drawn into Guilio’s world and becomes (although on a much smaller scale) a psychopath as well.

Henry Silva, veteran screen heavy is somewhat subdued here as Inspector Grandi and his stone faced, almost inhuman expressions suit the film well as he ultimately succumbs to unorthodox methods to bring Guilio down in a great final scene that is symbolic of the Guilio character.

Umberto Lenzi directs again and pulls off another great little film. There is only one car chase but what an exciting one it is. The remainder of the film is built around Guilio and the evil tactics he uses to survive caring nothing for anyone or anything. The film plays almost like a horror film and if I remember correctly this is how it was marketed on video here.

If you’re a Milian fan this release is highly recommended to see him chew through so much scenery.

Review for…
I VIOLENTI DI ROMA BENE

Antonio Sabato

Inspector Gregorio is on assignment trying to capture a gang of thugs responsible for a spate of robberies, rapes and eventually murder. The main culprit is found to be a young man who comes from a wealthy family making it difficult for Gregorio to nail him. In fact, all members of the gang are young. As the
violence escalates Gregorio gets the evidence he needs and goes after the gang.

One of the sleaziest and most mysogynistic and unsettling films I’ve seen. Not surprising coming from sleaze merchant, director Sergio Grieco (BEAST WITH A GUN). One scene has the gang repeatedly grate a woman’s face across barb wire before raping her. Copious amounts of violence and nudity. For pure
exploitation value the film excels, but none of the characters are developed very well.

Antonio Sabato isn’t very memorable as Gregorio who also is a Karate black belt and gets to shows his stuff in a decent martial arts scene when crooks
wearing hoods (the young gang) attack him and his girlfriend in a gym. One of the crooks even rips away Gregorio’s girlfriends blouse revealing her breasts. All the women in the film end up defiled, raped or murdered often all three. Definitely a 42nd street item.

I don’t recognize any of the other cast members and the soundtrack sounds like a porn flick of the time but one piece is very reminiscent of the Jimmy Page music he did for the memorable DEATH WISH 2 soundtrack.

6 out of 10.

Review for…
BLACK CHRISTMAS- 1974

During the holidays, a sorority house full of young girls receive obscene and threatening phone calls from an unknown assailant. Once one of the girls disappears and the calls escalate, it’s discovered a psychotic killer is on the loose. The girls are dwindled down to one and in a then terrifying twist, it is discovered that the calls are coming from inside the house. After the last girl supposedly kills the “killer", a final shocker of a twist is revealed.

One of the greatest horror pictures ever made unjustly overshadowed by HALLOWEEN which came out four years later. After BLACK CHRISTMAS was a success in Canada, director Bob Clark was approached to do a sequel. The script was written but Clark passed on it. He gave it to a young John Carpenter and told him to do it. Carpenter in turn took the script and tweaked it slightly and what was originally to be BLACK CHRISTMAS 2 became HALLOWEEN.

Seeing the movie today it still retains its power to be as scary a horror movie as you’re ever likely to see. It was even cancelled from a Halloween showing on NBC for being too terrifying. For all its scenes of suspense and impending horror, there is no gore save for a brief bit of blood. It all owes to Clark’s masterful handling of the material that the film succeeds on many levels.

The music is VERY unsettling and creepy. Probably the single most nerve shattering aspect of the film are the sinister phone calls the girls receive. At first, the calls sound like simple pranks. They soon become very sexual and at times sound as if more than one person is on the phone. Through the calls, you learn clues about the killer and who he is and possibly, what his motivations may be. Another great touch is that aside from a shot of an eye through a cracked door, you never see the killer. In fact, by the end, you learn the killer is still on the loose in the attic after the cops have left the last survivor alone in the house sedated after her ordeal.

Amidst all the seriousness, there is a certain amount of humor that is quite hilarious. Whether it be dirty posters on the wall, the drunken house mother or the foul mouthed, free spirited and likewise drunken Barbara played perfectly by Margot Kidder. According to John Saxon who plays another cop role here, Margot was, in person, very much like the character she played in the film.

Saxon, whose credits span a couple hundred movies and TV shows, frequently played policemen during the 70s and 80s. He replaced another famous actor at the last minute whose name escapes me at the moment. Right after Saxon got off the plane in Canada, he began shooting his first scenes.

All the performances here are good especially Kidder. Several red herrings are thrown in for good measure. The film was a big hit in its native Canada but only a minor success in America where the film was perceived as too real. Several serial slayings were prominent in the news at the time and possibly kept audiences away. It was re-released on a few occassions here. It was known as SILENT NIGHT, EVIL NIGHT and A STRANGER IN THE HOUSE. The latter title is what I saw it under one evening on HBO years ago.

In 2004 pre-production began on a remake of BLACK CHRISTMAS which had original director Bob Clark on board as an Executive Producer. The film, which captured a nice moody atmosphere and had several nods to the original even having one of the sorority girls play the house mother in the remake. The gore is piled high in the ‘05 version and a seriously twisted mean streak is implemented for the new film. It’s okay but not a patch on the original.

Director Clark got his start directing several classic horror films all of which are set for remakes. His first, CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS is a wonderfully macabre zombie picture with much spooky ambience and convincing zombie make-up by star Alan Ormsby. Next was DEATHDREAM, a take on the short story, ‘The Monkey’s Paw’. This spooktacularly creepy terror tale featured early work by a young Tom Savini. Clark would also direct one of the best remembered comedies of the 80s, PORKY’S which is also set for a remake by shock jock Howard Stern. But clark will forever be remembered for one film in particular, the delightfully personal movie A CHRISTMAS STORY. What other movie in history gets its own 24 hour marathon?

Sadly, Clark and his son would be killed in an auto accident earlier this year by a drunk driver. Whether or not the planned CHILDREN…remake will forge ahead is unknown. Hopefully not. One of Clark’s last interviews can be seen on the new DVD documentary GOING TO PIECES: THE RISE & FALL OF THE SLASHER FILM.

Review for…
DAWN OF THE MUMMY 1980

Fashion photographers on a shoot in Egypt desecrate a tomb and unleash a very tall mummy and his flesh-eating minions to kill everyone in sight including crashing a wedding celebration during the finale.

Not particularly well liked by fans, I have a soft spot for this movie. The locations help immensely and the gore from Maurizio Trani is quite good even though most of it doesn’t arrive until the final 20 minutes. The actors are nothing special and some of them overact quite a bit. This may grate on some viewers nerves. I’ve only seen one of the actors again and that was on a Cinemax After Dark movie so that was surprising.

The score is very good IMO. Sounding like an upbeat, synth, egyptian disco score at times, it has some nice suspenseful and action oriented sections that add to the movie especially the cue when you see the undead mummies rising from the desert as the sun rises. Some very good scenes are found in this movie. The Mummy Sefaraman’s first appearance scared the crap out of me when I saw this as a kid. It still sends a chill up my spine for some reason. I wasn’t expecting him to just jump up out of the sarcophagus like that with quick edits closing on his visage.

Another great bit is an attack on one of the models at night. Her throat is ripped out then she is pulled under the sand by one of the mummies. Then, the no-holds barred assault on various characters and the wedding party are packed with gore. The final confrontation with Sefaraman is quite good as well with one last shock before the credits roll. A CD issue of the score would be great. It was released on Record and Tape back in the 80s. The score was done by the same team responsible for importing the Japanese Tokusatsu shows here that became the POWER RANGERS programs.

The AB UK disc sports a commentary from the director. The actor playing Sefaraman was really as tall as he appears in the movie. A shame the print isn’t in very good shape. It’s miles away better than the HBO Video release.

I first saw this on television at 1 am and believe it or not the movie was uncut! How that passed I don’t know. What’s strange is that the tv version I saw is much clearer than any other version I’ve seen including the AB disc which is the second best. I remember clicking through the channels and came across the scene where the girl rolls down the sand dune and bumps into a torn up decapitated head in the sand and I watched from there on out. I caught it again on the same channel a year or so later.

A US-Italian-Egyptian co-production and the only flesh-eating mummy movie. A lot of gore, wonderful location work and a good score enliven the film. From the director of the formerly banned QUEEN KONG (1976).

Review for… Johnny Oro

AKA Ringo and His Golden Pistol

After directing the rather tame Minnesota Clay, Sergio Corbucci’s next western project was a, surprisingly, violent entry to the italian western genre and also a semi-homage to Richard Boone’s “Palladin". Johnny Oro stars Mark Damon as the over-confident, smart mouthed, bounty hunting anti-hero of the film’s title.

Johnny Oro, famous bounty hunter who carries a golden pistol and spurs, guns down notorious outlaw Sancho Perez for some reward money. Juanito Perez, Sancho’s seemingly innocent little brother, wants to avenge his sibling’s death and hires an entire tribe of cut throat Apaches to track down Oro and kill him. Unfortunatly for Oro, after a little mishap with some explosives, he has been incarcerated by the Sheriff of the border town of Coldstone. So now the Sheriff and a few townsfolks must defend the jailhouse (holding Oro) against the rampaging red skins.

This is certainly an enjoyable film. Miles ahead of Corbucci’s first western effort Minnesota Clay (significant for preceding Leone’s “Fistful of Dollars” by a few months). The Corbucci touch is not quite there yet but we see more than just a few hints of it here. For one, the violence. Women and children are brutally murdered on-screen, corpses are used as shields against bullets and outlaws are blown to bits. This is unusual for a spaghetti western made so early in the game. You can expect this kind of stuff after the release of the monumental Django (Corbucci’s next picture) but it’s difficult to find such outlandish violence before it. The light heartedness of the picture makes the violence even more unsettling, much like in Pistol for Ringo and the MacGregor films.

Damon plays Johnny as a cocky smart ass whose quick on the draw and only interest is gold. This is similar to his character in Johnny Yuma (his attitude not his motives), a spaghetti western that was made the same year. He does fine in this film. Though I think his hero characters are too light. He plays a much better villian (see Kill and Pray).

I have a few gripes. The segment between Oro getting captured and the Apaches finally arriving to kill him can get a bit draggy in places. Also there is a saloon whore (Oro’s main squeeze) that has a singing segment. Saloon whores in westerns breaking into song is always a minus for me. It’s pointless and it slows down the film.

Before the film’s release, the title of Johnny Oro was changed to “Ringo and his golden Pistol” to capitilize on the major success of the two “Ringo” movies (both directed by Duccio Tessari and both starring Giuliano Gemma). In the english dub Oro’s character is referred to as “Johnny Ringo". To make matters even more confusing the italian language theme song retains the character’s original name during production (Johnny Oro) but this is not so in the english language theme song.

The music, composed by Carlo Savina, is very nice. The theme song harks back to a Gene Autry type cowboy tune while the instrumental tracks are full of bells and whistles.

Recommended for newbies and hard-core fans alike.

8 out of 10

Review for “Black Killer”

Thomas Weisser calls this a “text-book example of the genre” and for once he couldn’t be more correct. This very entertiaining flick is a perfect example of the genre. A gritty “revenge for a slaughtered family” plot mixed with “corrupt town boss” schtick. It’s violent, bloody and has some added quirk and nudity in it. A full lengthed role by Klaus Kinski is added for good measure.

A mysterious Man in black (Kinski) rides into the town of Tombstone. He says he is a lawyer named James Webb and carries a gaggle of thick law books around with him. He acquires himself a room at the local hotel and begins to take part in some shady conversations with the town judge. He is especially interested in some land that two mexican outlaws, inaccuratly called the “O’Hara brothers", have stolen.

When the O’Hara’s kill a town sheriff, Webb wastes no time in dispatching some of their lackies using his pistols that are intricatly hidden inside his text books and are rigged to go off when he pulls on a book mark. Of course at this point we don’t know why he does this nor do we know what he is up to. His motives are not revealed until the very end of the picture.

After the first twenty minutes another Stranger by the name of Burt Collins rides into town and Kinski’s character takes a back seat throughout the rest of the picture (he is just shown sneaking around town dropping in on secret conversations held by some villains and shooting from his books when necessary), instead the film becomes the adventures of Burt Collins.

Burt has come to tombstone to visit his brother Peter who is living on the outskirts of town with his indian wife Sarah (another unusual name for a certain character). While Burt spends the night at Peter’s house, the house is raided by the O’Hara brothers and Peter is killed. Sarah is brutally raped and Burt gets beaten to a Pulp and left for dead.
Both Burt and Sarah head to the O’hara’s hideout for revenge.
The movie has a lot of female frontal nudity, mostly from a saloon girl named Consuelo but Sarah the indian girl shows her back side a few times as well (Nudity is a rare occasion in the genre).

Enjoyed the flick but I have a few minor gripes with it, first and foremost the costumes the O’Hara brothers wear, they have these really ridiculous color coordinated costumes that make them look like circus performers. One of the brothers (the red suited one) has a utility belt full of throwing knives, he only uses these once. The knives should have been a running theme and his death should have involved something with a knife as oppsed to just getting shot.

The very end (I won’t get into details as not to spoil anything) shows the revenge driven hero (Burt) to be not so honest as one would expect. In fact his activities at the end make him seem indifferent to his brothers death.

otherwise great action packed film.

The actors:

Kinski is noteworthy as Webb, he brings this mystique to the film that few actors can accomplish.

Fred Robsahm plays Burt Collins very well. In fact I liked him for all the reasons Shobary (http://spaghettiwesterns.1g.fi/black/killer.htm) didn’t like him. Shoabry writes ” looks dirty and probably smells bad too". I think that’s the whole point of a down and dirty spaghetti western hero but I guess it’s different strokes for different folks (shrugs).

Marina Mulligan is cute and sassy as the Indian girl seeking revenge on the villians for killing her husband and raping her in the process. Surprisingly this remains to be mulligan’s only contribution to cinema.

The Music:
I enjoyed the horror music esq. type tune for the “James Webb theme” but everything else is barely passable as an Italian western score.

Verdict: a solid spaghetti.
8 out of 10

Review for…
“Death Walks in Laredo”

This is an odd ball spaghetti. Just as goofy as “heads you die, tails I kill you” but far more entertaining and better, despite it’s lower production values and it’s less capable director (Carmineo is far better than Enzo Peri)…

The story is of three strangers drifting into the town of laredo to proclaim their rightful inheritance to a gold mine that each of their fathers left them…but wait! We later find out that these three strangers are from the same father with different woman…thus making them siblings.
They are quite a strange trio indeed…each of them have their own little gimick. White Sibley (Thomas Hunter) carries an arsenal of gadgets including a four barrled revolver, his asian half brother Kato is a master of martial arts (The weakest gimick) and finally his french brother Devereaux uses the power of magnetism to stop baddies from using their pistols .

Together these three caballeros use their gadgets, fists and jedi mind tricks to stop the corrupt town boss who has stolen their father’s land.
The town boss is Julius Cesar Fuller (Enrico maria Salerno) and he fancies himself to be THE Julius Cesar. Some may think that he is an excellent baddie but I dont. He is quite memorable but he fails to be threatening, he kinda just sits around barking orders at his lackies until he is finally disposed of at the end (surprise surprise). His Surroundings are far more interesting then he is…he’s house is like a Roman palace complete with indoor bathing house, elevator and scantily clad woman who “service” him.
It was surprising ( and disappointing) to me that he did not have a large gladitor arena outside in his back yard. It would have been nice to see him pit our three heroes in a ring with bulls and some of his best men. Oh well…wishful thinking for the remake .

You wont find anything special with the music…perhaps the title theme may be of some interest.

The action scenes are well put together and their is a lot of them. There is not a dull moment in the whole film.

The acting is what you would expect from the likes of Thomas Hunter…Terrible. He is best suited for silent films rather then talkies. the rest of the cast is of little mention except for maybe Salerno as the memorable (but hardly threatening) Cesar.

On special mention their is a great cat fight between two woman about an hour into the film. Not to be missed!

7 out of ten

Review for “Death Played the flute".

An average spaghetti. This is a really no nonsense brutal film in which the director waste no time by trying to make you laugh with a cutesy joke or two, he wants to get to the nitty gritty right from the get go.

Our hero Barton comes back home to find that his daughter has been raped and his wife murdered. He sets out to seek for the baddies that did his family wrong…only…there is one problem…he doesnt know what they look like.
He hires a shady flute playing gunslinger named Whistler who claims to know what the bad guys look like. What Barton doesnt know is that Whistler was involved in the murder/rape. We are never really given a reason as to why Whistler wants to help kill his old comrades..we just have to assume it was because he felt bad for the crime he witnessed, which the movie does set-up in the beginning, but it is rather vague.

I must say that Barton is the most useless spaghetti hero I have ever laid eyes on. The guy never once kills a member of the gang that raided his home. In fact…he only kills like two guys in a completly unrelated segment to the plot. The one who ends up avenging his wife’s murder is Whistler. He kills all the members of the gang one by one and that sorta sets him up as the hero (even though he is a semi-baddie).
Barton never even finds out that Whistler was apart of the raiders…
The most unlikly of characters kills Whistler at the end ( I wont say who though).

The action scenes are sometimes bland but always entertaining.
The theme song is called “a man is made of love” which deserves to be shoved into a lesser movie like “shoot the living ,pray for the dead". The rest of the music is mostly suspense music that fits the movie well.
The direction is much like the action sequences…sometimes Bland but most of the time pretty dynamic and fun.

Whistler is a cool “Hero". He wears a neat leather duster and plays a flute which can shoot darts (ok fine. He uses it in one scene ).
Unfortunatly he has the worst hair-do I have ever seen…even worse then Tony Anthony.
I sometimes mistook him for an Elvis impersonator.
And he has quite an annoying laugh , more of a nervous chuckle really.

overall a good entertaining obscure spaghetti that doesnt try to be something special.

6 out of 10

Review for
“Sartana kills them all”

This film has nothing to do with the very popular Sartana character sw fans know and love. Garko plays a character named Sartana but he is not the same mystical gambler most fans are familiar with. The name was borrowed to cash in on the success of the Sartana series. In fact the spanish (it was backed by spanish money and a spanish director apparently) title,"un par de asesinos” (which means “Pair of Assasins"), shows no mention of Sartana at all. The culprit of this hijacking is the American or English distributors.

Gianni Garko stars as a low down thieving bandit named Sartana (Looking more like a hatless Davy Crokett than the black clad gambler/avenger) who is searching for $100,000 worth of loot along with his less than trustworthy mexican pal Marcos.

Both bandits are being relentlessly chased by a sheriff and his deputies. Along the way our “heroes” meet up with an unsavory but good looking woman who wants to be apart of the gang. A relationship developes between the girl and Sartana (or so we think). Marcos becomes increasingly jealous of the pairing and the movie begins to hint that Sartana and Marcos will not be partners for long.

That is the best I could do with the plot because honestly there is way more going on. The movie has several sub-plots (some get resolved and some don’t), it’s usually just to add a bit of action in between the main plot.
The best of these sub-plots is undoubtably about a family gang of murderous scum named “The Kirbies". Father Kirby and his four dim-witted, but deadly, sons hijack a stagecoach and stow away the passengers in an abandoned barn house where they happily murder them all. The Kirbies later run into Sartana and co. and a suspenseful confrontation ensues.

Towards the end things get a little farcical with stupid sight gags but all of that is forgiven by this reviewer. I had a hell of a time watching something I expected very little from.

Non-stop action, a good score*, sleaze and fun characters make this spaghetti worth a few looks.

*The main theme is VERY catchy and the whole soundtrack is well put together.

8 out of 10

Review for…

“California” (1977)
Directed by Michele Lupo

A spaghetti western made late in the game. This nice installment to the genre was released one year after the brilliant “Keoma” and the same year as the decent “Mannaja".

The Plot

It’s the end of the American Civil War and confederate soldier California (Gemma) has been released from a Union prison camp. He begins to make trails to no where imperticular when suddenly a younger ex-confederate soldier named Willy Preston (played by singer Miguel Bosé) runs into him and wants to befriend him. At first California wants nothing to do with Willy but they soon learn to bond after realizing Mercenaries are after the price on freed confederate prisoners’ heads (that includes them!). After dodging a fearsome and sadisitic Bounty hunter by the name of Whitaker, the two companians reach a ghost town where they are ambushed by Confederate hating Northerners. The Vigilantes shoot and hang Willy leaving California no choice but to make trails to Willy’s home in Georgia to tell the bad news to his folks and older sister.

After California tells of the grim news to the Preston Family he is welcomed to stay at the farm for as long as he likes. Willy’s sister Helen (who is played by Miguel Bosé’s real life sister Paola) predictably falls in love with California and the two share a budding romance…. that is until Helen is kidnapped by the mean, nasty, terrible, ghastly and all around bad bounty hunter Whitaker.

California must saddle up and search for Helen even if he must side with the enemy to do it.

my take:

The film very much feels like three movies in one. You have the half hour relationship between California and Willy(which feels like the first part of a buddy movie), you have the sappy romance segment in the middle of the film and then you have the search party (which consist only of one man) stuff for the thrid act. Needless to say the movie rambles here and there and perhaps it’s a little too long for it’s own good but it’s a well crafted film with some very well done action sequences.

The fist fights are particularly excellent (Which is saying something in a genre that has some of the worst fist fights ever put to celluloid). During a scuffle you can be sure that wood planks, fences and even brick walls (!) will be destroyed to make way for the competitors to further duke it out without breaking a sweat or getting exhausted. It’s all good fun until somebody is beaten to death or impaled by a stake, then it just becomes down right COOL.

The gunfights are equally nice, always taking place in some deserted ghost town with buildings that crumble at the firing of a bullet. I must point out that set designer Carlo Simi did his best work for this movie. All the ghost towns are especially spooky with muddy streets and ram shackled buildings. One set even includes craters on the town street formed by cannon fire during some recent battle.

Gemma is great as the loner known as California. He seems to have some sort of past that he wants to desperatly put behind him but we never quite find out what that past is (shades of his character in “and for a roof a skyful of stars") and we don’t need to. It’s not important. He tells us all we need to know about him through his performance.

William Berger has a small role as Willy Preston’s father. For you Berger fans out there don’t expect him to be shooting anybody or even take part in any action sequences. Fair warning.

The soundtrack is mostly mood music although there is an attempt to have some memorable score with the main title theme but it is an utter failure in the memorable department (shucks).

Director Michele Lupo made five other spaghetti westerns besides this one (three starring Gemma ). I have seen three of the five and so far this is his best effort. An enjoyable film, one of the last (if not THE last) good spaghetti westerns before the genre was buried on Boot Hill.

71/2 out of 10

Review for
And God said to Cain

After enduring ten years of hard labor for a crime he did not commit, Gary Hamilton (Klaus Kinski) is given a a presidential pardon (preposterous, but who cares?) and is let out of prison. After ten years of shoveling and smashing rocks in the hot sun there is only one thing on his mind, revenge. Revenge on Acombar, the man who framed him. Gary soon finds out that this same man is now the wealthiest land baron in the territory and is also sleeping with his wife. Gary purchases a rifle and (with what seems to be a never ending supply of bullets) sets out to extract his revenge on Acombar. But before Gary can get to him he must face 30 of Acombar’s bodyguards during a conveinantly well timed tornado at night.

Antonio Margheriti (better known as Anthony Dawson or Anthony S. Dawson) returns to his horror roots to direct this suspenseful revenge story.
The movie has some fabulous atmosphere. The character of Gary Hamilton is treated as a supernatural by the villains. Wind picks up whenever he appears, animals make strange noises when his name is uttered and his arrival is signified by a threatening Tornando. This all adds to the horror element of the movie (also the fact that a large portion of the film takes place at night).

It’s a good little western with a few atypical twists. However it doesn’t all go off without a hitch. There is a very nasty pacing problem during the 45 minute storm segment where Hamilton hunts down each and every one of the villain’s gunmen. Hamilton does this by firing from windows then ducking before the return fire reaches him and by firing his rifle from holes on the ground when down in a tunnel system under the town’s buildings.
This goes on for quite awhile. I’m sure you can agree with me when I say there is nothing more dull than some prick hiding behind a barrel and randomly picking off people every now and again. I Hate to see that in westerns.
It’s alright if it’s used once or twice but when several action scenes are devoted to it for long periods of time something is certainly wrong.

In it’s defense there are some really creative death scenes, an interesting use of a church bell as a weapon is of particular mention, however there is a severe lack of them overall. Too bad.
I also thought that the virtually non-existant tornado should have played a larger role in the film as opposed to making a few cameo appearences as a gust of wind every now and again (they had a nice dust devil effect in “Matalo!". Why not here?). Perhaps the twister could have taken out a few baddies? mmm? Just a thought.

The cast is a good one. Kinski stars as the anti-hero Hamilton. It’s almost a sick joke casting Klaus Kinski as a hero. The famous actor played mostly villains throughout his entire career and I have yet to see him playing a good guy in a spaghetti western. I suppose he liked the role because he would usually snag a part where he was on set for as little time as possible for as much money as possible.

Peter Carsten as the greedy Acombar does his job as a slimy no good and the pretty Marcella Michelangeli is unforgivable as Hamilton’s cheating wife.

Composer Carlo Savina makes a good soundtrack here. I really like the title theme.

Despite it’s faults And God Said To Cain is a welcome addition to any spaghetti western library and worth picking up.

8 out of ten