Von Mann zu Mann

It's hard not to think of Sergio Leone when watching 'Death Rides A Horse', and not just because Leone is the king of spaghetti westerns. The connections are even closer than that. Lee Van Cleef ("Angel Eyes" in 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly') co-stars, and the supporting cast includes Mario Brega and Luigi Pistilli, both familiar faces from Leone's Dollars trilogy. Plus it was written by Luciano Vincenzoni and scored by Morricone. Giulio Petroni however is the director instead of Leone. Maybe that's why it isn't as impressive as one might expect. Even so it's an underrated revenge thriller, and Van Cleef gives an excellent performance. He plays Ryan, an ex-con wanting some payback from a group of outlaws who double crossed him. John Phillip Law ('Diabolik') is Bill, a young guy obsessed with avenging the rape and murder of his mother and the slaying of his father and sister. Pretty soon Bill crosses paths with Ryan and comes to realize that they after the same men. The two form an uneasy relationship which in many ways is that of a surrogate father and son. 'Death Rides A Horse' may not be quite as great as Leone but it's still very good, and one of the better spaghetti westerns. It's particularly recommended to fans of Lee Van Cleef, who is just wonderful to watch.

They came in the window. It wasn't to wish me pleasant dreams After thieves steal $200,000 awkwardly expositioned by one of the keepers, they attack a home, kill the husband and... I don't know, it may be inferred that there is suggested rape of the wife and daughter, but if so, they're the fastest guns in the state(see what I did there?), so more likely, they're just messing up their clothes some. Anyway, fifteen years later, the surviving boy wants revenge, and so does the bad-ass Lee Van Cleef who was framed and has been in jail for stealing the cash. Other than that the subtitles are hilarious(they write *everything* - including almost the entirety of the credits, as they're on the screen - and the punctuation is lazy), this is a pretty dependable 114 minutes of spaghetti Western. Gunslinging, card games, a saloon with doors that swing open, a sense of honor and even hot chicks. In best Leone style we have close-ups(and the great faces that make these work), build-up, genuine tension and a nice climax. The coolness is also very much present, and the dialog is good and well-delivered, and some of it clever. This is filmed and edited well, with occasional odd framing. The humor has strong moments. This has really solid acting for all involved. The DVD comes with a trailer for other works from the period. I recommend this to fans of the genre. 7/10

This is probably one of the better "spaghetti" westerns to come along ... far better than the putrid "Django" series with Italian actor, Franco Nero...

The scenery chewing Lee van Cleef is perfect as the avenging angel to beautiful blue eyed hunky ingenue, John Phillip Law, who must have captured the hearts of the director of photography with that sweet face of his because there are so many intense closeups of his pretty blue eyes that it dominates half the movie ...

Nonetheless, the movie is about John's character, Bill, who as a child, witnesses the robbery, rape & murder of his family by Van Cleef and his less than band of merry men .. who subsequently leave Cleef's character to take the blame and force him to 15 years of hard slave labour in a chain gang ... but, after his release he goes on a revenge bend and tracks down his former mates ..

He manages to meet up with Bill and at first the two spare off at each other like a snake & mongoose, but, they come to trust each other from a distance, in as much, as busting each other out of jail, to ultimately team up to take down the motley gang ....

Along the way, there are a lot of stringy musical interludes teamed up with intense facial closeup shots to show either grief or fear or anger .. which closely resemble as the same expression, but this movie is still one of the best tried and true and the surprise ending left me jumping out of my seat wanting to fast forward to the end just to see how Law & Cleef finally gel..

I would highly recommend this film as pure cinematic genius counseled with fine acting and great supporting characters .. Pedro and Paco are so bad they're good ..

Fans of John Phillip Law will not be disappointed, well, maybe by his monotone panned John Wayne vocal impression, but his pretty face and great body in those pants of his, paired with the gun belt, will make you wish that time crept slowly ... so you could stare at him a little while longer..

Lee Van Cleef shirtless or stripped to his waist is twice the bonus ..

This film is a gem .. highly recommended .. 8/10 all the way :-)

On a remote Firebase in Vietnam, we received a 16mm movie each day by helicopter. We typically watched about 3:00AM in our small fire direction center (FDC). "Death Rides a Horse" was delivered at least 15 times in 10 months. We were moved by the expressive eyes and dramatic stares throughout the movie. After several viewings, we'd decided to leave the sound off and provide our own dialog. This movie was a great tension buster in the middle of undesired action. Thank you Lee VanCleef!

Death Rides a Horse is one that Spaghetti Western fans (and fans of Lee Van Cleef) would thoroughly enjoy. The FILM is most watchable (read below about the DVD and possible hopes for a Region 1 letterbox DVD release), and Van Cleef is at his best in this one, playing a thug who is betrayed by his com padres. We usually see him playing the ultimate bad guy in most of his films, with his knife-deep stare filling the screen. At times, though, Van Cleef exposes his compassionate side for just a tease, and then just as quickly masks his inner humanity behind The Stare, as he plays Ryan, who arm-wrestles throughout the movie with stubborn youngster Bill (John Phillip Law), who has forsaken his lady and his life by embracing only revenge - and a single spur - after watching his father murdered, only to then bear witness to his mother and older sister brutalized at the hands of an out-of-control gang, greedy for gold.

The match-up between Ryan and Bill is one that plays itself out quite well, as Ryan acts as surrogate father, dishing out advice through some memorable quotes, teaching young Bill with his words and actions. Bill's anger is worn heavily on his sleeve, while Ryan steadily and calmly works out his own dishes of revenge, suppressing his anger even better than his empathy for Bill, which he touches on even as the pair first meet. Phillip Law was okay, but not thoroughly convincing as a bitter young man who witnessed his family's killing. Every once in a while, he might could have done just another take or two, but it's an easy pill to swallow since Van Cleef balances him out.

I wouldn't want to go deeper into reviewing the movie, except that there's a nice plot twist somewhere inside the film. Many of the actors seen in this 1968 film have been in films by the great Sergio Leone. It seems that there was a core of actors who performed in a number of Italian Westerns, and for good reason: the chemistry was there. Add a good dose of Ennio Morricone film scores, and you have the potential for a quite watchable film. Most spaghetti's would be overcooked and unpalatable if not for Morricone music, which acts as an unseen, yet incredibly talented main character.

Once in a while, the dialog (like Bill's off-balance delivery: "I'll find out who he is. If he is who I think he is...get ready to get mad") detracts from the slow and steady pace of Death Rides a Horse (that line makes me want to Kill Bill, myself), but the overall storyline works well enough to entertain Spaghetti Western fans. There are very few plot holes to pick at in the film, which has an air of dread or darkness throughout much of its length. A lighter moment always seems to pop in just when the viewer might like to come up for air (like a character who offers Bill a kiss).

For those concerned about bad or unbelievable endings, Death Rides delivers without disappointment.

Now, for the DVD: Sadly, there seems to be no Region 1 release that does this nice yet overlooked film, justice. Mine, which is a 2-4-1 DVD with "God's Gun" on the same side, and "Quality" as the title logo, is horribly lacking in everything but bad quality, perhaps one of the worst DVD productions I have EVER seen. The letterboxed original, cropped to pan/scan, suffers from multi-generational degradation of image quality.

One particular scene that makes the argument to respect the director's intent by preserving a film's original screen aspect ratio is the card game between Bill and Burt Cavanaugh (Anthony Dawson). Watch as the camera pans the players. Terrible cuts were placed into the scene at the card table as the camera panned the players, in order to preserve timing since the film transfer is a TV format crop from letterbox. It's an unforgivable way to present such a scene, which can lead the viewer to believe that it was the fault of a lazy film editor, or an incompetent director . I can't wait to see the film in its original format.

There is not one frame in my DVD that has any kind of decent image quality with respect to color, tone, or saturation. Its terribly washed out and either too contrasty and bright, or too muddy and dark, and neither extreme results in any texture. And in some scenes, the image degrades to a pixelated mess, which you'll see in the opening scene, and it returns of and on throughout the presentation. The only reason I watch it again and again is to enjoy the Morricone tracks and view an entertaining film. MGM has released a PAL-Region 2 DVD, and subsequent DVD reviews suggest that they finally did "Death Rides a Horse" justice. It has the original letterbox (2.35:1) and infinitely better video quality. Search online for some businesses in the UK as I will, and once I get it, I'll burn my copy and play it in my region-free DVD player.