Fort Yuma Gold DVD Review (Wild East)

R0 release by Wild East (USA) of Per pochi dollari ancora - Running Time: 1:35,46

The Film

The Civil war is over but one company of die-hard Southerners continue to fight and threaten to attack Fort Yuma. Due to the strong defence of the fort, this would inevitably lead to a massacre. A Confederate POW (Gemma) is sent to fort Yuma with a despatch in order to warn the commander of the fort for the imminent attack. He is escorted by two Unionists, a rude but basically good-natured sergeant (Nello Pazzafini) and a well-mannered but slimy officer (Angel del Pozzo). When they are attacked the sergeant is killed and Gemma severely wounded. He is nursed back to life and with the help of veteran of the war against Santa Anna and a beautiful saloon girl called Connie Breastfull (!) he manages to reveal the truth about the attack and to prevent the massacre.

Fort Yuma Gold is the second entry in a loose trilogy directed by Giorgio Ferroni and starring Giuliano Gemma (the other two being One silver Dollar and Wanted). The film has a rather elaborated script – loosely based on the novel Michel Strogoff by Jules Verne – and is quite unique in its unbiased depiction of Union and Confederate soldiers. Italian western directors usually sympathized more with the South, because just like the Italians in WWII, the Confederay was on the losing side during the Civil War. As usual, Gemma’s character is less cynical than the average spaghetti western anti-hero: he is not after personal gain but devotes himself to the general interest and gets the girl in the end. Gemma turns in one of his best performances, but the villains are mere stereotypes. The fine score is credited to both Gianni ferro and Ennio Morricone, but apparently only a few existing pieces of the maestro were used to justify his name on the credits (Morricone sued them for this). Remarkably the use of the harmonica seems to anticipate Morricone’s use of the instrument in his score for Once upon a Time in the West. The film is also known for an elaborated torture scene in which Gemma is nearly blinded.

The DVD

The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2,35:1 but has NOT been anamorphically enhanced for widescreen TV’s. It’s not a bad transfer at all, but it simply fails to be outstanding. Colours come through very strong, but despite a fairly high bitrate (6.8 Mb/s average) the image is quite soft and it lacks contrast during the darker scenes. As more often is the case, there’s some noticeable print damage where originally the reels had to be changed. There’s also some minor ghosting, but there’s no reason to call for the ghostbusters. The English DD 2.0 is very strong, but there is some indistinct background noise – as if your ears are tingling – that may become quite irritating after a while. However, dialogue is comprehensible throughout. All in all this is a very satisfying release.

The extras : Apart from the usual Wild East photo gallery, there are no less than 12 Gemma trailers, of westerns and non-westerns alike.

--By Scherpschutter