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Released by: Mill Creek Entertainment
Released on: 3/22/2011
Director: Sergio Bergonzolli/Jaime Jesus Balcazar
Cast: Cameron Mitchell, Carl Mohner, Kitty Carver/Robert Woods, Dana Ghia, Antonio Casas
Year: 1964/1968
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The Movies:
Mill Creek has been issuing some interesting titles on Blu-ray recently as affordably priced double features. This time around they pair up a couple of semi-obscure Spaghetti Westerns. Here's a look:
THE LAST GUN
Directed by Sergio Bergonzolli in 1964, The Last Gun starts off with what is supposed to be an epic and emotionally stirring theme song but which is actually sung just a bit out of key and which comes across as hokey. This sets the stage for the movie to come as we meet a gunslinger named Jim Hart (played by Cameron Mitchell) who takes out a few bad guys in a fairly dramatic opening scene. He teams up with a guy that everyone calls Guitar (Carl Mohner, who carries a guitar with him everywhere he goes) who is lucky enough to hook up with a hot barmaid named Delores (Kitty Carver).
It seems there's a bad guy running around town with the intimidating moniker of Jess (Livio Lorenzon) causing trouble and Jim and Guitar are going to have to stop him from stealing a shipment of gold. Unfortunately for Jim and his crew, Jess has a literal army of henchmen - not to worry though, most of them aren't very good shots.
Mitchell plods his way through this one with that same lack of enthusiasm that many of his lesser roles are known for but you've got to give Mohner credit for at least trying to give his character some personality. Mitchell's Jim, a bit of a Lone Ranger/mysterious do-gooder type is surprisingly dull and not nearly as interesting as Lorenzon's Jess, a maniacal super-villain of an antagonist who laughs with sinister glee at every possible opportunity. The fact that the English dubbing is awkward doesn't help much, particularly when you notice that Mitchell is speaking English on camera but dubbed by someone who is quite obviously not Cameron Mitchell. It's kind of weird, really.
The movie is well shot and makes good use of some great desert locations and there are moments where the score, courtesy of Marcello Gigante, approaches some rather delirious heights but this one isn't really a film of much merit. It's entertaining enough as a time killer but far from a classic.
FOUR DOLLARS OF REVENGE
Directed in 1968 by prolific Spaghetti Western director Jaime Jesus Balcazar and written by Bruno Cobucci (he of Django and The Great Silence screenwriting credit), Four Dollars Of Revenge (better known as Four Dollars For Vengeance) stars Robert Woods as Roy Dexter. A U.S. Cavalry captain by trade, soon after the impressively shot opening credits finish Roy and his men find themselves under attack by a gang of ruthless bandits lead by Manuel de Losa (Jose Manuel Martin) and intent on relieving the officers of their cargo - a literal fortune in Confederate gold.
The only survivor of the attack, Dexter's courage is rewarded with a life sentence as those in charge, primarily prosecutor Clifford Hamilton (Gerard Tichy), figure he had to have been the one behind the attack in the first place. To solidify their case, they force Dexter's cousin, Dave Griffin (Antonio Molino), to testify against him. Not one to go down without a fight, Dexter resolves himself to bust out of the big house and track down the real thieves to get revenge and clear his name. Only Dexter's superior, Colonel Jackson (Antonio Casas), believes him to be innocent, but he aims on changing that.
Fairly predictable and not the fastest paced or most atmospheric film to follow in Leone's wake, Four Dollars Of Revenge is passable entertainment thanks to some really impressive cinematography courtesy of Tino Santoni. The film always looks great, from the opening shots of Dexter's cavalry riding through the western landscape with the sun dropping behind them to the reasonably tense finale and it's set to a decent score from Benedetto Ghiglia. Woods is okay in the lead, if a bit wooden in spots, and the rest of the crew are fine in their parts. That said, there's nothing here that makes this one stand out. It's all very much a by the numbers film and except for one clever twist towards the end, there's nothing particularly memorable about it at all. The shoot outs are decent, the plot sufficient and the performances fine and fans of the genre certainly won't regret checking this one out - just keep your expectations in check as everything about the movie is very average.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Last Gun is presented in 1.78.1 widescreen while Four Dollars Of Revenge is presented in 2.35.1 widescreen, both in AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfers. Neither film has been given much of a restoration, and the film elements used weren't in the best of shape so expect a fair bit of print damage and some scratches throughout the presentation. Color reproduction is generally pretty decent if periodically faded and if some minor edge enhancement and compression artifacts are visible from time to time, the films are certainly watchable enough. These won't win any 'Transfer of the Year' awards but they're okay for an unrestored source.
For whatever reason, the software we usually use to do screen caps didn't want to cooperate this time around.
English audio is available in PCM, DTS-HD 2.0 and Dolby Digital 2.0 for both films. No alternate language options are available nor are there any subtitles or closed captions provided. Quality is about on par with the video here. The dialogue is easy enough to understand and follow for both films and the scores sound good, but there is minor hiss here and there and occasional level fluctuations.
Outside of a static menu and chapter selection, there are no extras on this disc.
The Final Word:
Neither The Last Gun nor Four Dollars Of Revenge are particularly good spaghetti westerns, but it's nice to see some more obscure titles coming out on Blu-ray and hopefully Mill Creek will offer up more films like this in the future. The picture and sound quality is no great shakes even if it does improve on what DVD would offer, but the price is right.