The Grand Duel/Il Grande Duello/Hell's Fighters/Grand Duel/Storm Rider/The Big Showdown (1972) - Lee Van Cleef is cool sheriff in action-packed, derivative western

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A cool and smudgy, dirty-looking, sand, blood and tar-colored poster for Giancarlo Santi's The Grand Duel

A sheriff captures a young man, who is sentenced for execution, and brings him to the town of Saxon City. But here the town's powerful tyrants don't agree with the sheriff about the transgressions of the young, long-haired delinquent!

 

The Grand Duel is written by Ernest Gastaldi (Prey of Vultures/Un Dólar de Recompensa (1972)) and directed by debuting Giancarlo Santi (Once Upon a Time in the West/C'era una Volta il West (1968, first assistant director)).

Lee Van Cleef (Ripcord (1962-63)) is the sheriff, who can stop a bullet with his teeth and control everything, and Alberto Dentice (The Girl Who Couldn't Say No/Tenderly (1968)) is photogenic as the doomed junior. The film is full of fun and good action, - in particular falls and explosions, - and many stand-offs, before the story arrives at the evil brothers of Saxon City: One of them gay, in a white suit, with ugly pockmarks in his face and a predilection for massacres!

The Grand Duel is obviously almost a knock-off of Sergio Leone and others' great spaghetti western hits from the preceding years; it is complete with an Ennio Morricone-like score (by Sergio Bardotti (Summertime Killer/Un Verano para Matar (1972)) and Luis Bacalov (Sea of Dreams (2006))), close-ups by the boatloads and lots of returning, 'significant' flashbacks. Don't look for a dramatic of thematic width here, but The Grand Duel is entertaining.

 

Watch the film's title sequence here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[The Grand Duel was released 29 December (West Germany) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place in Italy, including Rome, around July 1972. The film was not released in most of its 13 listed markets until in 1974, including USA. Some of the film's score was reused in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003). Santi returned with Quando c'era Lui... Caro Lei! (1978). Van Cleef returned in Mean Frank and Crazy Tony/Dio, Sei Proprio un Padreterno! (1973). 2,660 IMDb users have given The Grand Duel a 6.5/10 average rating.]

What do you think of The Grand Duel?

God's Gun/Diamante Lobo (1976) - Van Cleef/Garrett pair for revenge in trashy Italo-Israeli delight

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Lee Van Cleef strangely seems to be wearing a shiny diamont earring on this beautifully painted poster for Gianfranco Parolini's God's Gun

A priest is murdered by a ruthless thug, but his twin brother will come to take his revenge!

God's Gun is written by John Fonseca (The Great Adventure/Il Richiamo del Lupo (1975)) and co-writer/director Gianfranco Parolini (The Old Testament/Il Vecchio Testamento (1962)).
It is an entertaining and well-paced b-picture western that's also semi-exploitation; it has several shoot-outs, hot ladies and elaborate rape scenes. It also has a cool Lee Van Cleef (The Perfect Killer/Quel Pomeriggio Maledetto (1977)) in the dual twin brother roles, Jack Palance (Young Guns (1988)) as the heavy and the unusually pretty (at the time) Leif Garrett (The Next Tenant (1998)) as the boy Johnny, who helps the justified vengeance along. Also with a 'ghost' duplicity plan, which is well thought up.
Dragging down God's Gun are involuntarily funny scenes, primitive effects and a monotone photographic expression that relies on zooms in just about every second scene!

Listen to the film's theme in a video here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[God's Gun was released in Italy some time in 1976 and runs 94 minutes. Shooting took place in Israel. Sybil Danning, who plays Johnny's mother, was only 9 years older than him. Richard Boone left the film drunk and in poor health, before he had done his dub, (which was then completed by another actor), later calling the film "the worst picture ever made", as he derided its producer and director to an American reporter. The film was released in North America and at least 7 European markets, but its performance and budget is regrettably not known. It has apparently fallen into public domain and can be seen and downloaded free and legally here. Parolini returned with Giant of the 20th Century/Yeti - Il Gigante del 20° Secolo (1977). Van Cleef returned in Vengeance/Kid Vengeance (1977); Palance in Welcome to Blood City (1977). 1,182 IMDb users have given God's Gun an average 5.1/10 rating.]

What do you think of God's Gun?

For a Few Dollars More/Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (1965) or, Return of the Poncho Killer

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A familiar figure in a poncho returns on this striking painted poster for Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More

Manco is a hard-nosed bounty hunter in the wild West, but in his hunt for the evil bank robber Niño, he runs into the vengeful colonel Mortimer, and the two partner up in what becomes an extremely dangerous duplicity.

For a Few Dollars More is written by Italian master co-writer-director Sergio Leone (The Colossus of Rhodes/Il Colosso di Rodi (1961)), Luciano Vincenzoni (Beyond Justice (1992)), Sergio Donati (Almost Blue (2000)), Enzo Dell'Aquila (The Brute and the Beast/Le Colt Cantarono la Morte e Fu... Tempo di Massacro (1966)), Fernando Di Leo (Loaded Guns/Colpo in Canna (1975)) and Fulvio Morsella (My Name Is Nobody/Il Mio Nome è Nessuno (1973)). It is the middle film in Leone's Dollars Trilogy, which starts with Fistful of Dollars/Per un Pugno di Dollari (1964) and ends with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly/Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo (1966). There seems to be a trend among online film critics to praise this film over the others now, because it is the least commonly hailed among the three, but I still feel that For a Few Dollars More is the weakest among Leone's western films, which include two subsequent films: The masterpiece Once Upon a Time in the West/C'era una Volta il West (1968) and the great political epic Duck, You Sucker/A Fistful of Dynamite/Giù la Testa (1971).
This in no way makes For a Few Dollars More a poor film, however; it is extremely entertaining, but also feels a little like a playground for the champion filmmaker to develop and reuse effects, devices and techniques, which not until his following two films would place him as an incontestable western maestro.
The film is well acted: Clint Eastwood (Honkytonk Man (1982)) is great as the dogged gunslinger Manco; Lee Van Cleef (How the West Was Won (1962)) is good as the colonel, and Klaus Kinski (Paganini (1989)) is fun in a wild supporting role. But it is Ennio Morricone's (Sabato, Domenica e Lunedì (2012), TV movie) original and innovative music that to me is the greatest part of For a Few Dollars More.

Related posts:

Sergio Leone: A Fistful of Dynamite/Giù la Testa, Coglione!/Duck, You Sucker (1971) - Sergio Leone's cinematic cornucopia 
A Fistful of Dollars/Per un Pugno di Dollari (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho

Listen to Morricone's unequaled theme for the film here

Cost: 0.6 mil. $
Box office: 15 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[For a Few Dollars More premiered 18 December (Italy) and runs 132 minutes. As Fistful of Dollars was released to immediate success in Italy, a sequel came up fast. But locking Eastwood for it was challenged, as the film was not yet released in the US. The producers rushed an Italian print to him, and screening it along with some friends, Eastwood was impressed by the film and signed up for the sequel upon realizing Leone's talent. The first script was reportedly written by Vincenzoni in 9 days. Charles Bronson was approached for a role but passed, as he had done with the previous film as well. Eastwood was paid 50k $ and Van Cleef 17k $. Shooting took place in Spain and in the Cinecittà studios in Rome, Italy. The film became an even greater success than Fistful of Dollars in Italy, where it by 1967 had become the highest-grossing film in the country ever. It did not get a North-American release until May '67, 4 months after Fistful of Dollars, and was a big hit, grossing 5 mil. $ (33.33 % of the total listed gross) there. The film was also successful in France; there it was the 7th highest-grossing film of 1966. It has since been re-released countless times. Leone returned with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), which was also Eastwood's next movie. For a Few Dollars More is fresh at 94 % with a 7.8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of For a Few Dollars More?

Escape from New York (1981) - Carpenter introduces Kurt Russell as action star in dystopic dream

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This terrific poster for John Carpenter's Escape from New York recalls the iconic images and posters for sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes (1968) of the beach-inundated Statue of Liberty

Snake Plissken is a prisoner for life in the near future of 1997, but he also possesses fantastic abilities that get him hired, when metropolis-turned-walled-in-prison Manhattan gets a new inhabitant, who wasn't supposed to crash-land there: The US President!

A seductive kind of dystopic air hangs over every part of the marvelous, character-driven Escape from New York, the 5th feature from New-Yorker master co-writer-director John Carpenter (The Thing (1982)), co-written with Nick Castle (Tap (1989), writer-director). It establishes its strong action-thriller concept well and remains compelling entertainment throughout.
Kurt Russell (Tango & Cash (1989)) is the very cool, chivalrous Plissken and is joined by a great cast that includes Lee Van Cleef (Lawman (1958-60)), Ernest Borgnine (Oliviero Rising (2007)), Isaac Hayes (Ninth Street (1999)), Harry Dean Stanton (Stars and Bars (1988)), Donald Pleasence (Eye of the Devil (1967)) and Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog (1980)). It is a film with lots of thrills and a dark beauty to it. It also has a great, electro-synth score, composed by Carpenter and Alan Howard (Boo (2005)), terrific costumes, visual effects and production design.

Related reviews:

John Carpenter: Cigarette Burns (2005, TV movie) - Carpenter burns out in weird, tiresome TV movie
Christine (1983) or, Bad Plymouth!
Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) - Solid action guerilla film-making

 

Watch the animated opening credits for the film here

 

Cost: 6 mil. $

Box office: 25.2 mil. $ (North America only)

= Huge hit

[Escape from New York was released 10 July and runs 99 minutes. Carpenter conceptualized the film based on Death Wish (1974), specifically its portrayal of New York City as a jungle-like crime center, and on the cynicism that resulted from the 1972-74 Watergate scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation. Big studios were not interested; Carpenter has said that they thought the script was too scary, weird and violent. A worn-down stand-in for a future New York was found in East St. Louis, Illinois, which was mainly rubble after a destructive 1976 fire, and St. Louis, Missouri, with additional shooting in California, Arizona and New York, where the mostly nightly shoot took place from August - November 1980. It involved the production buying a bridge for a dollar from the local government (for liability issues) and selling it back to them for a dollar again after shooting; shutting off electricity of up to ten blocks at night at a time, and the first night shoot on Liberty Island ever permitted. James Cameron (Titanic (1997)) worked as a photographer on the film and helped with the simulated computer-graphics rendition of NYC, which was accomplished with a miniature lined with reflective tape. The film became a summer hit in the US, where it was the year's 32nd highest-grossing film, and was also successful abroad, particularly in West Germany, where it reportedly grossed more than 10 mil. $ alone. The film led to a novelization, a video game, comic books and a less interesting sequel by Carpenter with Russell, Escape from LA (1996). A remake with Gerard Butler was proposed but didn't happen; it now seems a remake and possibly more than one film might be in the works at Fox. Escape from New York is certified fresh at 85 % with a 6.9 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Escape from New York?

Death Rides a Horse/Da Uomo a Uomo (1966) - John Phillip Law and Lee Van Cleef's macho stand-off in Petroni's stylish spaghetti western

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A 60s-stylish, colorful poster for Giulio Petroni's Death Rides a Horse that cries excitement and carnality

QUICK REVIEW:

As a boy, Bill Meceita witnesses his family get murdered, and 15 years later, he meets the man who will kick-start his quest for vengeance.

He is John Phillip Law (Thunder III (1988)) with the beautiful, cool, Mediterranean-blue eyes, and his gunslinger tutor is the always good Lee Van Cleef (For a Few Dollars More (1965)). Together the two blast through more than a few prickly situations here in Giulio Petroni's (Tepepa (1969)) keen revenge spaghetti western, written by Luciano Vincenzoni (Orca (1977)).
Death Rides a Horse is comparable to spaghetti western master filmmaker Sergio Leone's (Once Upon a Time in the West/C'era una Volta il West (1968)) films in quality, and the West is certainly as gritty and dirty here as in any of Leone's movies.
Quentin Tarantino (Jackie Brown (1997)) lifted quite a bit of inspiration from the classical vendetta story and style of Horse for his Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2003; 04).
The last half of the film, which runs 114 minutes in the US cut and 120 in the Italian cut, drags on a bit, but Death Rides a Horse is still a solid, well-photographed (by Carlo Carlini (Black Emmanuelle (1975))) and -scored (by Ennio Morricone (Duck, You Sucker/Giù la Testa (1971))) Euro-western.

Lee Van Cleef came up with the Italian title for the film, (which translates to 'as man to man'), since he disliked the original choice, which translated to Duel in the Wind

Lee Van Cleef, chewing tobacco in Giulio Petroni's Death Rides a Horse

John Phillip Law in one of the less enviable situations he finds himself in in Giulio Petroni's Death Rides a Horse

Watch the original US trailer for the film here, which shows how it is both a hokey, stylish, cool and funny film to watch, - that also has a really cool tag-line: 'When you've waited 15 years to find a man... It's a shame you can only kill him once!'

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[Spaghetti western fans embrace and love Death Rides a Horse, - critics in general are more lukewarm: The film only has a 5.2 rating on Rotten Tomatoes (though based on just 5 reviews), but a 7.2 user average on IMDb. The late film critic legend Roger Ebert was hard on the film back in 1969, dishing it a snooty, mere 1-star review.]

What do you think of Death Rides a Horse?
Seen other films by Giulio Petroni?
If so, how was/were it/they?

The Conqueror (1956) - John Wayne's inauspicious turn as Genghis Khan

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The colorful poster for Dick Powell's The Conqueror

QUICK REVIEW:

The story of Genghis Khan's becoming the greatest war hero in the world gets told here as a pure, happy cock-and-bull story, or like a western removed to the East, complete with Pedro Armendariz (From Russia With Love (1963)), Lee Van Cleef (For a Few Dollars More (1965)), Susan Hayward (The Snows of Kilimajaro (1952)) and John Wayne (True Grit (1969)) in the title role.

Particularly Hayward and Wayne seem to compete in trying to be the most absurd in their roles; vampy, horribly mercurial Hayward wins. Although Wayne also does his part (in)justice with hammy lines such as, "I call that women's talk, my mother!" (Script by Oscar Millard (Angel Face (1952)).)
The Conqueror is very stiff throughout and amusingly theatrical, not unlike Yul Brynner's concurrent turn as Cossack war hero in J. Lee Thompson's Taras Bulba (1962).
Yet the film as such is also well-paced, lavishly produced (by Howard Hughes (Hell's Angels (1930)) in his penultimate film) and excitingly colorful, (in rich Technicolor.) It is directed by actor-director Dick Powell (The Hunters (1958)).
The Conqueror has become notorious as 'the film that killed John Wayne.' - Referring to the stomach and lung cancer that killed him in 1979: The movie was filmed near St. George, Utah, about 140 miles from a military site where nuclear tests may have affected the 200 some film crew with radiation, although the government had deemed it safe to be there. Reportedly, by 1981, 91 persons of the film's cast and crew had developed cancers, (leaving 46 dead at that time.) A lawsuit was never filed, and no-one was ever held accountable for the possible disaster.
- But it is said that Hughes felt bad about the film's production, and especially its shoot at the possibly hazardous site; so bad that he bought back all of its prints for 12 mil. $ and kept The Conqueror out of the public loop, (until Universal bought it from his estate in 1979, three years after his death.) Reportedly, Hughes saw the film - and the 1968 espionage thriller Ice Storm Zebra, - obsessively in his last years.

John Wayne ironically really wanted this one of his most inauspicious roles, as Dick Powell's The Conqueror

Titanic also in terms of real human tragedy, some might say. Here's the trailer for the film

Cost: 6 mil. $
Box office: 9-12 mil. $
= Flop
[The film made 4.5 mil. $ of its gross in the US, where it was the 11th biggest hit at the box office of 1956, which, however, wasn't enough to make it a success. The Conqueror became known as one of the worst films of the 50's (and, to some, of all time.) - But not to Film Excess, it isn't!]

What do you think of The Conqueror?
Please, share any trivia knowledge about it that you may have

Captain Apache/Deathwork/The Guns of April Morning/Hunt the Man Down (1971) - Cheesy entertainment with Cleef as an Indian hero

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A blazingly colorful poster for Alexander Singer's Captain Apache

QUICK REVIEW:

Captain Apache is a damn fine Spanish-British, romantic low-budget western with a funky score (by Dolores Claman (Mr. Scrooge (1964), TV movie), heavy 70's-style and so many western elements and corny lines in it that a western fan (and especially a lover of Euro-westerns) simply has to love it.

Lee Van Cleef (God's Gun (1976)) is the titular Indian captain, who is hated by every evil white man, can lay every lady down, and who hunts for the truth behind the mysterious codeword, 'April Morning'.

The film was possibly thought up as an Indian counterpart to the burgeoning blaxploitation sub-genre. Apache also has one odd, gratuitous scene in which Cleef disrobes before a chief as if his bulgy muscles were supposed to carry forward some inherent meaning. Cleef also performs the film's opening and credit songs, for the first and only time in his career.
Apache is directed by New Yorker director Alexander Singer (The Fugitive (1965-66)), who mostly directed TV.
Here's an example of the film's many straight-faced, funny dialogs:

New Indian chief: "We're gonna move the Indians to Yellow Snake Creek."
Captain Apache: "Yellow Snake Creek...? - But it's full of snakes!"

Watch the cheesy trailer for the movie here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 25.6 mil. ESP (Spain only)
= Uncertainty
[About half a million people paid to see the film in Spain, and 75,000 in Sweden. But with no other numbers, it's impossible to say whether or not Captain Apache was a hit or not.]

What do you think of Captain Apache?
Know of any other movies that could count as 'Indiansploitation'?

Blood Money/The Stranger and the Gunfighter/El Kárate, el Colt y el Impostor (1974) or, The Tough Guys and the Fortune of the Butt Cheeks

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Lee Van Cleef's furry chest features prominently on this kitschy cool poster for Antonio Margheriti's Blood Money

QUICK REVIEW:

The pretty sleazy story of Blood Money is that a bank robber and a kung fu-heir from China pair up to get their hands on a great treasure, which is only possible to find through a series of four maps in four different cities, concealed as tattoos on the buttocks of hot ladies! Meanwhile they have to fight off a fanatical priest, who also wants the fortune.
The Stranger and the Gunfighter is an amusing genre-cook-down, but not a very successful film, and not very interesting for anyone besides fans of Lee Van Cleef (For a Few Dollars More (1965)), who plays the bank robber, and fans of obscure genre mixes as this.
It was made as a co-production between Spaghetti western Italians and the Hong Kong-based Shaw Brothers, who were behind Bruce Lee's films among others, as part of their effort at the time to branch out to new markets. They collaborated with the English Hammer studios the same year for The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, a film that mixed Gothic horror with kung fu.
Blood Money also features Indonesian Hong Kong-based kung fu star Lieh Lo (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)). It was directed by Italian genre and exploitation director Antonio Margheriti, who also directed such appetizing titles such as The Long Hair of Death (1964),  Mr. Hercules Against Karate (1973), Cannibal Apocalypse (1980) and Commando Leopard (1985).

Click to enlarge this other poster for the film, which also features scarcely clad ladies!

Watch the super-cool, original exploitation trailer here

Budget: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of Blood Money?
Do you know any better instances of trying to mend the western with the martial arts genre?

The Bravados (1958) or, Complications of Revenge!

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A spectacularly colorful poster alluding to illicit gang on woman action and macho revenge for Henry King's The Bravados

Gregory Peck (The Omen (1976)) is the avenging Jim Douglas, whose wife has been raped and killed. SPOILER He seeks out a gang of four men and kills three of them, before he finds out that they were not the ones responsible for his tragedy.

 

The Bravados is written by Philip Yordan (Brigham (1977)), adapting the same-titled 1957 novel by Frank O'Rourke (A Mule for the Marquesa (1964)), and directed by Henry King (Should a Wife Forgive? (1915)).

The film is a solid revenge-themed western drama that is a joy to dream oneself away in for its 98 minutes. Because the simple justice served turns out to be against the wrong men, The Bravados also becomes a tale of Christianity and morals. And that doesn't make it any worse.
Lee Van Cleef (For a Few Dollars More (1965)) can be seen in an early supporting role; and Joan Collins (Dynasty (1981-89)) is the woman with a very silly cowboy-hat.
Darkness is incorporated deftly into the beautiful images of Bravados, (cinematography by Leon Shamroy (Cleopatra (1963))), in line with its dark subject matter.

Peck has stated that the film was written as an attack on McCarthyism, which he was very much opposed to. The Communist 'witch-hunt' spearheaded by Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy had largely ended by '58, (McCarthy died in '57), but the topic was still red-hot. 
Peck decided to become a cowboy himself while working on Bravados, and he bought a ranch near Santa Barbara stocked with 600 heads of prize cattle.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 2.2-4.4 mil. $ (North America only, different reports)
= Uncertain but likely a big hit (projected return of 5 times the cost)

[The Bravados was released 25 June (New York) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place around February 1958 in Mexico. If made on a realistic 1 mil. $ budget and projecting a 5 mil. $ final world gross, the film would rank as a big hit. It won a National Board of Review award.  King returned with This Earth Is Mine (1959). Peck returned in The Big Country (1958). 6.3k+ IMDb users have given The Bravados a 7.00/10 average rating.]

What do you think of The Bravados?