A Retrospective Review
By Cesare Augusto Directed by: Giulio Petroni Starring: Ryan – LEE VAN CLEEF Bill Meceita – JOHN PHILIP LAW Walcott – LUIGI PISTILLI Burt Cavanaugh – ANTHONY DAWSON When Brit rocker Pete Townshend released his third solo album sans The Who in 1982, he christened it All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes. A highly peculiar-sounding title, for sure, not to mention somewhat racist. To his credit, Townshend did try to explain the suggestive-sounding title in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, citing it as a reference to the “average American hero – somebody like a Clint Eastwood or a John Wayne. Someone with eyes like slits.” Since this is not a music analysis, I’ll refrain from making any other further commentary upon the album for now. But offensive innuendo aside, Townshend did make an interesting observation. All the best cowboys did, figuratively speaking, have Chinese eyes… at least in the movies! The Western heroes of yesterday like Clint and the Duke were known for their frequent squinting, caused by either dimming the sun from their vision, or steely intimidating desperadoes before the gun duel. And how can I forget stone-faced legend Charles Bronson, whose squinty glare helped made him the stuff of cinematic Old West legend, too? But among all caucasian movie gunslingers out there, there was no other actor with a more menacing pair of “slitted eyes” than the late great Lee Van Cleef (1925–1989). A veteran tough guy actor since the early 1950s, Van Cleef made his cowboy bones appearing in small parts in classic American western films such as High Noon, How the West Was Won, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and TV guest appearances on programs like The Rifleman, Wagon Train, and Wanted, Dead or Alive. But it wouldn’t be until 1965, when Van Cleef would help slam the cowboy genre on its ten gallon hat-wearing head when he went to Italy to costar in Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western thriller For a Few Dollars More, alongside fellow Hollywood Yank Eastwood. From there, Van Cleef would solidify his brand-new movie star career appearing in eleven Spaghetti Westerns, many of which are designated as among the greatest of the genre, along with some no-so-great cult classics. His Italian fame would mostly be attributed to his gravelly voice, cold-as-ice demeanor (even when playing heroes), and that sinister-looking squint. While commenting on his own career, Van Cleef himself said it best: “Being born with a pair of beady eyes was the best thing that ever happened to me…” This film review focuses not on Lee Van Cleef’s more famous Italo-West features like For a Few Dollars More or The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but one of his lesser-known, yet stylish and explosive pictures. After all, my blog dedicates itself to analyzing underrated and obscure cult cinema, not popular flicks that everybody and their Aunt Tilly talks about to near mutilation. The movie is 1967’s Death Rides a Horse, directed by Giulio Petroni, and costarring tall and strapping American actor John Philip Law. The movie’s plot is sadly overdone and rudimentary, with young gunslinger Bill Meceita (Law) seeking revenge on the murderous outlaws who murder his family when he was just a boy. Dogging Bill’s trail is Ryan (Van Cleef), an aging gunfighter with his own special reasons to destroy the murderers. Despite its generic-sounding premise, Death Rides a Horse provides a colorful trigger-fast shoot-em-up guaranteed to shake Spaghetti Western fans to their core. Death begins on the proverbial dark and stormy night, as a gang of masked gunmen invades an innocent family’s ranch house and proceeds to shoot the father dead, and rape the mother and eldest daughter before gunning them down, too. Describing the scene as unpleasant would be a huge understatement, especially as the family’s youngest son witnesses their murders right before his eyes, right before being whisked away to safety by another masked stranger. Fast forward 15 years later, as young Bill Meceita trains himself in deadly sharpshooting skills and a trauma-induced photographic memory to avenge his family’s brutal demise. Meanwhile, ex-con Ryan is leaving prison after serving a 15-year stretch. Ryan retrieves his belongings from the prison warden, including his pistol and gun-belt containing 27 fresh cartridges. Ryan’s memory is razor-sharp as he coolly remembers his gun’s exact hiding place inside the warden’s office, along with how much ammunition was left in the gun belt’s cartridge loops. Bill and Ryan would soon meet and engage in a cagey battle of wits to see who will lay claim to the bloodthirsty cutthroats responsible for ruining the two men’s lives. Despite their initial adversity, Ryan would take a bit of a liking to Bill, and vice versa, as a begrudging respect forms between both veteran and rookie gunslingers. There was an interesting recurring character dynamic occurring in this movie and some of Van Cleef’s other Spaghetti Westerns, as his character acted as a kind of mentor to a younger, rougher-around-the-edges pupil. For a Few Dollars More saw Van Cleef’s world-weary Civil War colonel providing mentorship assistance to Eastwood’s wily bounty killer. In Day of Anger, an edgier Van Cleef portrayed a sort of Old West Obi-Wan Kenobi as he trains inexperienced greenhorn Giuliano Gemma in frontier combat. In Death, the early hostility between Van Cleef’s Ryan and Law’s Bill is highly evident, as both men compete to satisfy their own personal retributions first. Eventually, the two would recognize the other’s need for justice, and reluctantly agree to join forces and defeat their common enemy. Their relationship, like Van Cleef’s aforementioned previous efforts, adds to the film’s strength. After taking a closer look into these three movies, I couldn’t help but remind myself of some of Sean Connery’s late-1980s era films where he, like Van Cleef, would lay out wonderful veteran character mentorship relationships with younger movie stars, including Christopher Lambert in Highlander, Kevin Costner in The Untouchables, and Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Like Connery, Van Cleef’s chemistries with his young western charges were warm and fatherly up to the climactic, gun-blazing showdowns. Adding a much-needed dimension to the film’s otherwise standard premise is its cast of villains. The gang of outlaws thankfully aren’t book ends where they all think and look alike. On the contrary; the film’s evildoers consist of fellas with different intentions and personal pursuits that they seek to fulfill years after the heinous act they committed that fateful stormy night. One killer, played by noted British actor Anthony Dawson, would run a run-down, grungy saloon/casino. Another former outlaw, portrayed with sweaty grime by Spaghetti Western favorite Luigi Pistilli, has big political aspirations, only to have them derailed by Bill’s vendetta run. While yet another outlaw has a secret I wouldn’t dare spoil for you here. But it packs one helluva punch near the movie’s climax, just so you’re aware! Due to its heavier emphases on gun-play and macho posturing, Death Rides a Horse lacks the artistic depth of Van Cleef’s two previous works within Leone’s Dollars Trilogy. Not that it was Lee’s fault, of course; a bland plot and a conventional script add to the movie’s weaknesses. Also, John Philip Law, while an otherwise fine movie star, was no Eastwood. His Ken Doll-esque good looks and exaggeratedly-deep baritone voice all felt badly out of place in a gritty revenge Western. While Law’s matinee idol handsomeness was certainly more fitting for fantasy pictures like Barberella and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, it did him very little good in this picture. It comes to very little surprise to me that this would be John Philip Law’s only foray into the Spaghetti Western. That said, Death is a wonderfully grimy and entertaining piece of the Italian cinematic west. Lee Van Cleef strikes this one out of the park with his badass, commanding performance. And I cannot conclude this review without referencing the film’s darkly yet rousing score, composed by the ever-brilliant Ennio Morricone. It’s ominous medley and memorable, almost warlike chanting chorus helps to earn Death its deserving place in Spaghetti Western history. It’s no wonder film fanatic Quentin Tarantino would recycle the main theme to Death Rides a Horse to surge the tension within the upcoming climactic sword battle in his ode to the exploitation flilck, Kill Bill, Vol. 1! See the original trailer here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMNBMTLYeGs
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About Yours Truly
Unearthing great forgotten and criminally underrated pop culture mediums is my specialty! Whether the topic be about cinema, television, music, or other fun bits of obscure minutiae, I love analyzing and unleashing these lost treasures to the unwitting public! Archives
October 2020
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