Seven Winchesters for a Massacre Review

Director: Enzo G. Castellari - Cast: Edd Byrnes, Guy Madison, Ennio Girolamo, Louisa Baratto, Federico Boido, Attilio Severini, Pedro Sanchez, Music: Francesco de Masi

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Aka: Payment in Blood

The second western for Enzo G. Castellari as director, and the first he directed all by himself. It was also the first of two westerns he made with American actor Edd Byrnes, who was popular in Italy thanks to his work on the TV series 77 Sunset Strip, in which he played the detective 'Kookie'. Written by Castellari and Tito Carpi, the script is a bizarre hodgepodge of ultra-violence and humour of a rather questionable kind. The opening is very powerful: the southern Colonel Blake (Madison) refuses to give up his arms when the Civil war is over, assembling a marauding mob to continue his private war. In reality he is not interested in any political cause and simply wants to lay his hands on a load of gold, hidden by southern general Beauregard in a secret place (shades of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). The members of his mob (a Mexican, an Indian, a sadist who uses his spurs to kill or torture people, even a Frenchman, who works as Blake's private cook and sommelier) are introduced one by one, and we see them pillaging and killing at random while looking for the gold. The victims aren't Yankees, so we are told, but southerners, like the colonel himself.

The opening seems very much the preamble of a serious, melancholic western about lawlessness in a post-war society, but once the gang is joined by the poncho clad Byrnes (shades of For a few Dollars more) the film takes a very drastic turn towards ... I-don't-know-exactly-what . It's supposed to be funny and exciting, but it's neither. At nearly every opportunity Castellari throws in one of his traditional fistfights and there's one scene in which he seems to pay homage to Sergio Leone, which gradually degenerates into sheer silliness. In Leone's movies gunslingers sometimes prove their abilities by shooting (for instance) a cigar out of another person's mouth. I don't particularly like those idiosyncrasies, but kept within bounds, they're not too obnoxious either. But here candles are shot from a candlestick, a water-jug is shot from a person's mouth, playing cards are shot from another person's hands, a gun is whipped (yes, whipped) out of a holster, a holster shot from a hip and ... and God knows what more.

Seven Winchesters for a Massacre is is the work of a young man with considerable talent, but little experience, showing a surplus of ideas but a lack of self-control. After the silly, meandering mid-section, the film turns back to a more serious tone with the bloody massacre (of almost Peckinpah pretentions) that gave the film its title, and a reasonably well executed finale, set on an Indian graveyard. But when it seems all over, one more twist (involving female lead Luisa Baratto) is added, that is quite ludicrous if you think about it. All these jarring shifts in tone are especially detrimental to Byrnes character: he is presented as a governmental agent, charged with infiltrating the gang, who soon turns out to be as ruthless as the people he joined. But finally we're supposed to believe that he masterminded every step and turn and isn't a bad guy after all. Byrnes would play, with more success, a similar character in Any Gun Can Play (Vado... l'ammazzo e torno), but in that film he got able support of George Hilton and Gilbert Roland, while the more whimsical and serious aspects of the script were much better balanced.

Byrnes still makes the best of it, keeping a smile on his face and that famous fifties forelock in shape. Madison, on the other hand, is merely adequate as the renegade Colonel. Apparently he had drinking problems while making this film, and constantly looks as if he hasn't been able to sleep off his liquor. Luckily some sparks are added by Luisa Baratto, as a mysterious beauty, and the relatively unknown Attilio Severini as the sadistic 'spur killer'. I haven't been able to find out where the film was shot, but some locations looked very much like Tuscany. Anyway, set on both sides of the American-Mexican border, the film looks far too green. Like the film's script, Francesco de Masi's score is a mixed bag. It's moody and atmospheric during the first twenty minutes and more cheerful afterwards. Appropriately I had mixed feelings about it.

With both an exciting opening and an entertaining finale, this is not a bad film. But it's very uneven and Castellari would do better in the future.

Reviewed DVD: French Seven7sept. Like most releases of this prestigious label, this is a DVD of high quality. Colours are strong and apart from one or two hairs the image is free from print damage. But it's a bit soft, especially during the opening minutes, leading to some (very minor) colour bleeding and ghosting effects. But that's splitting hairs. There are two audio options: Italian and French, both DD 2.0 Mono. The French is the better of the two: it's a bit louder and far more dynamic. The Italian audio (accompanied by forced French subtitles) is rather ramshackle, although dialogue is understandable most of the time. There are no English subtitles.

--By Scherpschutter