Massacre at Grand Canyon Review
Massacre at Grand Canyon (Massacro al Grande Canyon)
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| MASSACRE AT GRAND CANYON (1964) |
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Quite a few years ago, while zapping, I stumbled upon some western action. Being a western fan, I decided to stay with the movie. It looked good, was moderately entertaining, but not particularly distinguished. Some of the landscape looked like the locations used for the Winnetou movies, but the action was a bit tougher and there were no Indians in sight. I was very surprised to find out afterwards that I had watched a movie directed by Sergio Corbucci.
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After he has avenged his father's violent death, Wes Evans (Mitchum) returns to his hometown, to marry his fiancée Nancy and settle down. But a war has broken out between two families, and because she thought Wes was dead, Nancy has married the oldest son (Ardisson) of one of the warring factions. Wes offers to act as a mediator and finally manages to restore the peace in the valley, but not after a series of bloody shootouts have taken place.
To watch, and review, within a week both The Great Silence and Massacro al Grande Canyon, Corbucci's first western, is a bit of a confusing experience. Average in nearly all departments, there are only few indications of what Corbucci would be capable of in the next few years. Of course he was not the only director of the movie. Actually, the movie was started by Albert Band, a man Corbucci used to call a half idiot. Why a half, and not a complete idiot? Band was an American with an Italian background: his real name was Alfredo Antonini and he had a dream of bringing the western genre to Italy. Brand/Antonini had been assistant-director to John Huston and even directed his own American western in 1956, The Young Guns. The first italian western he co-produced, was Duello nel Texas (1963), for 'Jolly films', the company that would produce A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari) one year later. Even Corbucci had to admit he had some merits for the Italian western in producing and helping to finance some of the early examples. Therefore: only half an idiot. Band/Antonini not only had started to direct Massacre at Grand Canyon, he had also contracted James Mitchum, son of Robert (apparently to please scriptwriter Corbucci, who had - probably for fun - proposed the father). Soon after filming had started, assistent-director Franco Giraldi (who would be assistant-director to Leone for A Fistful of Dollars was asked to take over direction; Giraldi proposed Corbucci, who was preparing his Minnesota Clay project and therefore not interested; but Corbucci was ordered by personal friend and co-producer Turi Vasile to ex-Yugoslavia. While filming, his lack of interest dissolved a little: he afterwards admitted that the experience confirmed his idea that the western was the right direction for him to take.
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The script (co-written by Corbucci) has in rudimentary form some elements that would define the spaghetti western genre, such as the warring factions with the man in the middle, the taciturn western hero seeking revenge for his father's violent death, and the man coming home after a few years' period, finding his girl married to another, of course a scoundrel. It's funny that most Italian critics sustain that the script is closer to a Sicilian proto-mafia story than a story set in the West , while 'foreign' critics have always underlined the American nature of the movie. Anyway, the meandering script isn't very eventful and leaves the dispute between the two families underdeveloped. But there's one terrific sequence, a film in the film, starting with a gang entering the western town, filling the widescreen from side to side (a composition Corbucci would use again in Navajo Joe and Django), leading to a siege (probably in homage to Rio Bravo) that erupts, after a short silent moment when the villains have been lured out of their shelter, in a very abrupt shootout in the town street at night. If you watch the Koch media disc, it's the eleventh chapter. It makes an otherwise indifferent movie worthwhile.
Overall Corbucci's direction is anonymous and Robert's son James looks most of the time as if he's a bit puzzled about what going on, which was probably the case. His opponent Ardisson was offered to take over his part when a third of the movie had already been filmed. But Ardisson refused, saying he didn't want to hurt Mitchum's feelings, according to him a very nice guy. The film was shot in the Bruno Ceria studios near Trieste, most outdoor scenes across the border with ex-Yugoslavia, in Grobnicko Polje, near Rijeka. Director of photography Enzo Barboni (who would later direct the Trinity movies) made the very best of the Croatian locations, its green pastures and impressive mountain range in the background. There's a lot of confusion about when the film was made and released. The evidence seems to show that it was shot in the spring of 1963; for this reason they had to use a western town built for the Winnetou movies; for Band's next project, The Tramplers, started in august '63, the interiors were shot in the brand new western town of Elios studios, 13 kilometers outside Rome. The film was released, without much success, in may '64. It was re-released in 1965, on a much larger scale, after Leone had created a western craze with his A Fistful of Dollars.
Reviewed DVD: the Koch Media release, titled Keinen Cent für Ringo's Kopf is not anamorphic but still quite alright, even though there are a lot of flickering white specks that may become annoying after a while. There are two audio tracks: DD 2.0 Mono German and English, both unimpressive but adequate. Oddly enough the score is different on both tracks. Gianni Ferrio is the only composer listed, so apparently he wrote two scores for the price of one. Both are mediocre, by the way, like the movie. But watch that 11th chapter.
--By Scherpschutter
