Staff favorites/Former

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These are some favorite spaghetti westerns by former staff members.


Durango/Silence's pick

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Réquiem para el gringo (1968) Cast: Lang Jeffries, Femi Benussi, Fernando Sancho, Carlo Gaddi, Aldo Sambrell. Director: José Luis Merino. The young Dan Logan comes to a ranch to visit his friend and gets a quite unpleasant surprise when he discovers that his friend has been kidnapped and the ranch been stolen by a gang of bandits. When trying to escape he gets caught, beaten up and killed in an unfair duel. His older brother Ross Logan sets out for revenge and waits till the eclipse... This might sound like your usual Spaghetti Western but it isn't. The Ross Logan character is a very mystic one. He wears a leopardo poncho and is an astrologe. This is just a great piece of film overall. Femi Benussi looks and plays great and Aldo Sambrell plays a very strange villain. One of the earlier Spahettis I watched and it's been a favorite of mine ever since. --Durango 20:48, 14 February 2010 (UTC)


Korano's pick

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Mátalo (1970) Cast: Lou Castel, Corrado Pani, Luis Davila, Antonio Salines, Claudia Gravy. Director: Cesare Canevari. Four outlaws, Bart, Phil, Ted, and Mary, rob a stagecoach and hideout in a ghost town. Their leader, Bart, was apparently killed in the robbery and the remaining three must somehow learn to co-exist with each other and three other strangers, Ray, Bridgett, and the town's sole inhabitant, Mrs. Benson. But the outlaws have a problem, greed. This film is often (correctly) described as the strangest of all Spaghetti Westerns. It was made to fit the style of the radical sixties culture with hippies, drugs, and violence. It is an acid trip of a film and if your not stoned when watching it, don't worry, this film will do the trick. It has many eccentrically strange touches. Almost no dialogue, almost no real plot, entrancing camera work, acid rock musical score, slow pace with not too many gunfights, headbands, paisley jackets, sixties style fringe, and last but definitely not least, BOOMERANGS! Some may love it, some may hate it. But it is definitely true that there will never be anything like it again. One of a kind. 5:22 13 February 2009 (CET)


Yodlaf Peterson's pick

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Companeros (1970, Director: Sergio Corbucci) Cast: Franco Nero (Yodlaf 'Penguin' Peterson), Tomas Milian (El Vasco), Ferdinando Rey (Professor Vitaliano Xantos), Iris Berben (Lola), Jack Palance (John Svedese), Jose Bodalo (General Mongo Alvarez), Karin Schubert (Zaire Harris), Eduardo Fajardo (Colonel), Gino Pernice, Tito Garcia (Tiger), Gerard Tichy (Lieutenant), Lorenzo Robeldo (Captain Jim), Simon Arriaga (Mongo henchman), Rafael Albaicin (Mongo henchman), Jose Canalejas (Mongo henchman), Alvaro de Luna (John's henchman), Jesus Fernandez, Victor Israel, Giovanni Petti, Giovanni Pulone, Claudio Scarchilli. If you are quite new to watching spaghetti westerns , this is a great place to start, there is never a dull moment and Franco Nero and Tomas Milian are superb in there roles as El Vasco and Yodlaf Peterson a.k.a. The Penguin, they play off each other superbly, Jack Palance hams it up to perfection as the evil weed smoking John who has a score to settle with Yodlaf. They are trying to get the combination to a safe that holds "All the wealth of the land", El Vasco wants what's in there to help the revolution and Yodlaf wants it out of plain greed! With a superb score by Ennio Morricone and great performances from all involved this would make my top 10 western list without fail. --Yodlaf Peterson 20:00, 15 October 2007 (CEST)


alk0's pick

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Blindman (1971, Ferdinando Baldi) - A blind gunfighter has to deliver 50 mail order brides to some miners. After he gets cheated he goes to Mexico, where they were sold, to get them back. Definitely not your typical western plot. If you think movie with such a plot must be a bomb then you're terribly wrong. This outlandish story is superbly directed by Ferdinando Baldi. Great acting by the main star Tony Anthony, who manages to create a very likable character and solid supporting cast (Raf Baldassarre, Fortunato Arena and Tito Garcia among others) also adds to the enjoyment. Let's not forget strange casting choice of Ringo Starr (yes, the one from the Fab Four) as the brother of Blindman's arch-menesis. One of the best scores in the genre is provided by Stelvio Cipriani (am I the only one who thinks this guy is seriously underrated?). If you want to have loads of fun while watching spaghetti western that's the perfect one for you. Recommended, without doubt! --alk0 18:13, 9 October 2007 (CEST)


Bad Lieutenant's pick

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Era Sam Wallach... lo chiamavano 'così sia' (1971, Demofilo Fidani) - A spaghetti western so bad that it's good, by the 'Ed Wood of spaghetti westerns' Demofilo Fidani. Robert Woods has the lead as Sam Wallash, a man who doesn't let his phobia for clapping doors get in the way of his thirst for revenge. Whenever he kills someone, he says "Amen". This movie, also known as Savage Guns, is incoherent and cheap, but it's also a lot of fun with it's absurd title character, occasional excessive violence and unintelligible plot outline. Dino Strano, Benito Pacifico and Fidani's daughter Simonetta Vitelli co-star, while there are brilliant cameos by Gordon Mitchell, Lincoln Tate and Peter Martell as hired gunmen. Lallo Gori's excellent score makes this nice piece of trash seem all the more surreal. If you like bad spaghetti westerns, this curious entry to the genre is top billing. Recommended wholeheartedly by --Bad Lieutenant 17:04, 9 October 2007 (CEST)


Lode's pick

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Se sei vivo spara / Django kill...if you live, shoot! (1967 / Director: Giulio Questi) If you think, you have watched strange movies, then you haven't seen Django kill! Definitely, this is not an average or normal Western. It is strange, it is crazy, it is gay (David DeCoteau calls it the gayest Western even. He maybe haven't seen Requiescant) and it is sinister. What sounds like a normal spaghetti start - a stranger (Thomas Milian) surviving something really cruel, set up by the own companeros, is now searching for revenge - leads to things that are bigger - most of all different. This flick shows the greed for gold and what people would do for it. This all takes place in the - in my opinion best city ever appeared in a spaghetti western - "Unhappy Place". I really don't now if you understand my weakness for this movie, but it is next to Blindman my favorite special spaghetti western. Just now, when I am writing about it, I am getting goose bumps, but I don't know why. Come on, see it and find it out. --Lode 20:03, 5 November 2007 (CET)


Dicfish's pick

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Anda muchacho, spara! / At the End of the Rainbow (1971 / Director: Aldo Florio) - Roy (Fabio Testi) escapes from an American prison and hides in a mining village, where a squire (Eduardo Fajardo) and his bandits are tyrannising the miners and take away their earnings. He works out a plan to pit them against each other...This forgotten masterpiece was a flop, because it was shot in 1971, a time, when Western-Comedies were a lot more popular than serious SWs. The final duel, where Roy appears in a poncho, reminds a little of Sergio Leone's “A Fistful of Dollars”, Bruno Nicolai's music is considered one of the 20 most popular soundtracks in Ulrich P. Bruckner's “Für ein paar Leichen mehr” and the story is told in many well used cutbacks. Apart from all that Fabio Testis acting is just great. "Anda muchacho, spara!" is definitely one of the best SWs from the late period of the genre. -- Dicfish 11:39 2 January 2010 (CET)


Bluntwolf's pick

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Cost of Dying / Taste of Death / Quanto costa morire (1968, Sergio Merolle) - When Sheriff Bill Ransom (Raymond Pellegrin) is murdered by the vicious bandit leader Scafe (Bruno Corazzari), Scafe's button-man and right hand Earl (John Ireland) switches sides and teams up with Ransom's adoptive son Tony (Andrea Giordana) in order to atone for the crime. - Nice little autumn / winter western that apparently has fallen into oblivion. The movie impresses by its thick atmosphere, great cast, fantastic score (by Francesco de Masi) and simple but interesting plot. I recommend this movie especially for people who already know all the great Spaghetti-Westerns and are searching for some little known surprises of the genre. It's a shame there's no DVD-release available because this movie certainly deserves one !!! --Bluntwolf 22:50, 9 October 2007 (CEST)


Lindberg's pick

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Viva Maria (1965 / Director: Louis Malle). Maybe not quite a true Spaghetti-Western, Viva Maria is still one of my most favourite European westerns, I love this film. The beautiful French actresses Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau make a wonderful team in this humorous adventure. The film deals with revolutions in Latin America and was an influence to some of the later more light-hearted political spaghettis. It has a lot of spaghetti-style action with machine-guns, explosives, and specially designed weapons. There are also a lot of jokes involving the Church, the Military, rich people etc. On top of this you have the charming Bardot and Moreau, they are at the front of all these on-goings, and also do some fun musical performances with their travelling circus, where they invent strip-tease! --Lindberg 03:38, 24 October 2007 (CEST)


The Halitosis Kid's pick

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My Name is Nobody / Il Mio nome è Nessuno (1973, Tonino Valerii / Sergio Leone) - If A Fistful of Dollars started the whole Spaghetti Western cycle then this possibly ended it (later classics of the genre apart), a film as much concerned with the Western Movie as the Old West itself. Leone puts the Trinity character into a serious setting, Nobody (Terence Hill) the new contender pitting ageing gunfighter Jack Beauregard (Henry Fonda) against “one hundred and fifty pure-bred sons-of-bitches on horseback", in this must-see masterpiece. Brilliant cinematography, amazing action scenes, hilarious comedy moments, a wonderful score (Ennio Morricone) and a totally engrossing story that will have you guessing what Nobody's real intentions are right up to the very end.--The Halitosis Kid 20:08, 9 October 2007 (CEST)


morgan's pick

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El Puro (1969, Edoardo Mulargia)

If you rate spaghetti westerns not by their perfection, but by their essence and style, you’ll find this one, directed by Mulargia, but allegedly under strong influence from his two main actors Robert Woods and Marc Fiorini, to be one of the most down-beat top-notch films of the filone, a story about an anguished and alcoholised gunman with a price on his head, he doesn’t exactly love life, but he is afraid to die, taken in dead broke and drunk by a saloon girl, played by Rosalba Neri, Rosie, she still has hopes for the future, she saw him once in Mexico, where and back when he got the name El Puro, “the cigar”, now buckling on his gun belt for a last shoot-out with the rabiate and obsessed prison fugitive Gypsy and his gang of degenerates.

--morgan 21 April 2018

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