Peter Lee Lawrence stars in a rather uninspired Spaghetti Western from director Umbero Lenzi. German R0 X-rated Kult DVD.
The Film
In
the mid-1960s, Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci turned the Italian
Western from a small sideshow into the most popular genre of the day,
and within a couple of years every producer, actor and film-maker in
Europe was hurrying to get involved - in 1968 alone, more than 70
Spaghetti Westerns were released, averaging more than one a week - accordingly the quality was extremely varied...
When
the Civil war breaks out, Jim Slade (Peter Lee Lawrence) refuses to
fight, citing his Jehovah's witness faith, and he is duly sentenced to
two and a half years hard labour. After the war he is released and
returns home where he finds his family have been murdered and their
farm looted. Decrying his pacifism, Jim sets out to track down the
four men responsible, and kills three of them easily - but the fourth,
Corbett is leading a ruthless gang in an assault on a small town
holding a lot of money, and Jim finds himself drawn into the middle of
the fight to defend the town.
The
film starts very quickly and races through Jim's characterisation,
leaving a lot of questions unanswered. A big deal is made of him not
knowing how the use a gun, but we never find out how he learns to use
it, he simply arrives at the first killing as a pro. There was plenty
of opportunity to have his first kills being very messy, or complete
failures, but it is never taken. Equally the potential to make some
political or religious points is also missed - we could have seen Jim
sent to jail as an innocent lad who would not hurt a fly, but emerge a
hardened killer, or perhaps seen how pacifism is folly in the face of
desperate criminals (or contrastingly, seen Jim abandoning his pacifism
to fight back against the gang, leading to his parent's death). Instead
the film rushes through the opening and the first three kills in just
17 minutes before getting into the main body of the story, at which
point his character seems to be nothing more than a typical Spaghetti
Western anti-hero and the opening of the film becomes all but
irrelevant.
The story once Jim arrives at the town is pretty
typcial Spaghetti Western stuff, the addition of the crowd of jailed
lunatics is the only thing that really makes the film stand out, but it
does seem like those scenes were simply added for that reason, and they
play no real part in the film. Fans of Umberto Lenzi will doubtless be
disappointed that these scenes eschew the gore and sex for which
he is best known, and in this regard the film certainly shows its age,
with sleaze kept to a real minimum. Pacing is pretty slow, but
fortunately the build up to the climax is strong with some clever
twists and turns, and the ending is very fitting.
Director
Umberto Lenzi is best known for his later crime and horror films, but
spent most of the 1960s directing action movies. His work here, on one
of just two Spaghetti Westerns he ever made, is solid, but certainly
nothing special. The film looks and feels just like a typical genre
entry, and the soundtrack from Euro-cult regular Angelo Francesco
Lavagnino makes it sound just like one too.
Peter
Lee Lawrence was the babyface Italo-Western star, and was used well in
roles where he loses his innocence to become a gunfighter (cf. Su le mani, cadavere! Sei in arresto (1971)),
but with the script racing over these scenes, he doesn't get much to do
except look moody and fire his gun. Big American actor John Ireland had
been a star of several American Westerns in his day, but by the late
1960s had found more work in Europe, appearing in several
Italo-Westerns, he gives a solid performance as the preacher, but never
gets very much to do either. Piero Lulli is perfectly cast as the
villaneous Corbett, a role he played in dozens of genre films, and
looks just the part here. Spaghetti Western fans will recognise plenty
of familiar faces in the supporting cast, especially Eduardo Fajardo (Major Jackson in Django (1966)) who plays an axe-wielding maniac. Ultimately,
Pistol for 100 Graves is a decent, but rather generic Spaghetti
Western, with pedestrian direction, some average peformances and a
script that misses a lot of interesting potential but does build to a
good ending. Fans of the Italo-Westerns might enjoy this, but it
certainly does not rank among the genre's best, while Umberto Lenzi and
Peter Lee Lawrence fans willl similarly find that there are a lot
better films to see first, and neither are on top form here. Not
generally recommended.
In brief:
Anyone famous in it?
Peter Lee Lawrence - the youthful star of several Spaghetti Westerns including I Giorni Della Violenza (1967)
Directed by anyone interesting?
Umberto Lenzi - an Italian director best known for his cannibal horror films Cannibal Ferox (1981) and Eaten Alive (1980) and the low budget zombie movie Nightmare City (1980).
Any gore/violence?
A number of deaths but only mild blood.
Any sex?
None.
Who is it for?
Spaghetti Western fans might enjoy this, but it is not on the must-see list.
The DVD
Visuals
Original Aspect Ratio - 2.35:1. Anamorphically Enhanced. Colour Picture quality is decent, colours are rather washed out, but there is minimal print damage or grain. The
night-time scenes, shot day-for-night, are very dark and it is almost
impossible to see what is happening - noticably bad in the key scene
when the lunatics escape.
Audio
English
mono - sounds good most of the time, but there are some drop-outs and a
couple of missing sound effects. Lip-sync is noticably off at times. German mono - sounds okay, slightly tinny. Italian mono - sounds best, with the best lip-sync.
Subtitles
None.
Extras
The disc includes:
Original Italian theatrical trailers.
Photo gallery - including posters, publicity stills and lobby cards. As a video file with music.
German title sequence.
Two of the blue-tinted day-for night scenes, without the tinting.
The disc also includes:
Bonus film - Vengeance
(1968) - anamorphic 2.35:1 presentation, with a good looking print.
German only, runs to 95 minutes (so it might be the shorter German
version of the film - see DVD Rewind.)
Includes a trailer and two deleted scenes.
Availability
German release. DVD title - Ein Colt für 100 Särge
Packaging
The DVD is contained in a large hard-box case (there might also be an amaray version).
Region
Region 0 - PAL
Other regions?
None known.
Cuts?
Believed to be fully uncut. Print is Italian.
Summary
A rather generic Spaghetti Western with nothing to particularly recommended it. For genre fans only.
An imperfect but mostly watchable print with a light selection of features (German speakers get a bonus film however).
