Ein Halleluja für Camposanto

This exciting picture displays Western noisy action , gun-play , fun situations and bits of humor. The film gets the comic remarks from Western parody united the features of typical Spaghetti . ¨Camposanto¨ is an entertaining SW with lots of mayhem , crossfire and funny incidents and fun ; however , being slightly mediocre . This time the new hero is named Camposanto o Cemetery (John Garco) who looks exactly like Sartana , he is a tidy and rapid gunfighter . Camposanto protects a young pair of brothers , sons of a baron land whom is blackmailing some hoodlums (Ivano Staccioli) . Cemetery join forces with Duke (Austrian actor resident in Italy named William Berger who played several Westerns and unforgettable co-starring in ¨Sabata¨ as the banjo man) , another blond and long-haired gunslinger against nasties who are suborning cattlemen . The dark , elegant hero , a freelance gunman , named Camposanto (Gianni Garco or John Garco) appears to chase the nasty gunfighter and discovers the rackets and killings . The confrontation will be inevitable between the town's despots , a cruel murderous , and , of course , Sartana .

This first movie on Camposanto character starred by Gianni Garco is plenty of action , shootouts , tongue in cheek , double-crosses, twists and loads of violence . This bewildering picture gets the humorous remarks from Western parody combined to features of Spaghetti . Camposanto is another hero of second class in the S.W. genre as Sabata (Lee Van Cleef) , Sartana (Gianni Garco) or Cuchillo (Tomas Milian) . Cemetery character bears remarkable resemblance to Sartana . ¨Cemetery¨ or ¨Camposanto¨ is a two-fisted and tough gunfighter with technical weaponry (like a Western James Bond) and a lot of tricks similarly to previous Sabata . Giuliano Carmineo , alias Anthony Ascott, directed various Sartana with George Hilton who replaces Gianni Garco , as Hilton played more natural and roguish than Garco who was cold and peculiar . This entertaining picture gets the humorous remarks from Western parody combined to features of Spaghetti . The movie gets the usual Italian Western issues , such as : greedy antiheroes , violent facing off , quick zooms , exaggerated baddies , among them . It appears secondary actors who are habitual in Italian Western and Peplum genre , such as : Nello Pazzafini , Ivano Staccioli and Rick Boyd . Special mention to androgynous Franco Ressel , Spaghetti's customary as a powerful tyrant . Enjoyable musical score by Bruno Nicolai , Ennio Morricone's usual collaborator , full of guttural sounds and whistles . Average cinematography by habitual Stelvio Massi and atmospheric set decoration by Carlo Leva .

The picture was regularly directed by Giuliano Carmineo or Anthony Scott , subsequently he directed another Spaghetti-hero named Sabata with Gianni Garco in the title role . Giuliano Carmineo realized several Spaghettis , most of them featuring mainly the same cast again , such as "Di Tresette Ce N'è Uno, Tutti Gli Altri son Nessuno" ,"Lo Chiamavano Tresette... Giocava Sempre Col Morto" that actually was the last time George Hilton/Chris Huerta and Carnimeo worked on such a western comedy together , ¨The moment to kill¨, ¨Find a place to die¨ , ¨Uomo Avvisato Mezzo Ammazzato... Parola Di Spirito Santo¨ (original title) or "His Name Was Holy Ghost" , ¨They call me Hallaluya¨ , and the Sartana movies : "Have a Good Funeral, My Friend, Sartana Will Pay" , ¨Sartana the gravedigger'(69) ,"Sartana's Coming, Get Your Coffins Ready" , ¨Light the fuse Sartana is coming¨(1971) , among others . Giuliano also directed other kinds of genres , as Sci-Fi : ¨Exterminators of the year 3000¨, ¨Computron¨, Giallo : ¨The case of the bloody iris¨ , Crime thriller : ¨Secrets of a Call Girl¨ , Buddy movie films : ¨Convoy Buddies" or "Kid Stuff" , "The Diamond Peddlers" . This "They call him Cemetery¨ is clearly inferior to his entries in Sartana series . Rating : 5.5/10 . Acceptable and passable .

Seriously, where did Spaghetti Western Comedies go? The literal translation (best I could do) is "The Smoking Colt ... Call Him Cemetery" and don't worry about the fact it doesn't translate well, every other portion of the movie does.

There is an amazing theme song, good humor, plenty of gun fights, just in general a real positive energy throughout the entire film. The quality of the print was pretty awful, so I hope someone picks this up and restores it. The man called cemetery is a grizzled veteran of Westerns All'Italiana who appeared as the anti-hero several times and knows how to stare down a bad guy and can not-be-bothered-while-people-are-shooting-at- him with the best of em. Take the time out to watch this forgotten gem.

Rating: 30/40

The curse of following a formula is that you will necessarily be compared to the best examples of that formula. And the best of this pocket of movies is the Leone stuff. We've actually, I think, adjusted our definitions of camp and happy excess to suit those, because of a couple elements that appeal: the musical riffs, the Eastwood grin.

This one has a stylized west, absolutely no females in any frame. Good, bad and samurai. As with the Leone/samurai model, all the plot devices revolve around the noble rules of "the guild" of gunfighters for hire. All the humor is based on coolness associated with lethality. For those of us that like this sort of thing, the ultimate trip starts with Kurosawa, runs through Leone's copy and ends with Walter Hill's "Last Man Standing.

So this is a sort of waste of time, is less of everything that is defined elsewhere. But if you stumble on this, pay attention to the rule of twos. Its a simple way for writers to create superficial folds after the manner of Tolstoy.

Here you have two gunslingers, two bad guys, two factions in the good guys (the breeders), two comic sons, two more comic Mexican servants of the sons. If there were real writing going on, you'd see reflections from one pair to the other, tensions between pairs reflected in certain pairs and so on.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

This film was written by Enzo Barboni (also known as E.B.Clucher), the man who wrote and directed Lo chiamavano Trinità (1971) and ...continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità (1972). Those two films starred Terence Hill and Bud Spencer and they are, in my humble opinion,two of the best spaghetti westerns ever made. I agree that they are not as 'serious' and cool as the spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood, but still I enjoy them, mainly for their good stories and their funny and entertaining nature. Since I am a huge fan of the two movies I just named I decided to take a look at this one as well (mainly because Barboni wrote it).

NOTE: Just like all Terence Hill and / or Bud Spencer movies I see, I saw this one spoken in German.

Now, to be honest, this is not a film I'll recommend you to see. First of all, it is not nearly as funny as either Trinità film I mentioned before and second of all, the story isn't too good. I mean this film has a simple and basic story (as do most westerns), but I am afraid, the characters in it were just not that good. The cool guys were not cool enough, the bad guys were not bad enough and the McIntire boys were not put down well enough for me to like them. Also the myth surrounding 'The Stranger' was given away way too soon. The best scenes in this film were the ones in which Gianni Garko (The Stranger) and William Berger (Duke) shared the screen, particularly those towards the end of the film. The rest of the film just wasn't funny or exciting enough and reminded me a lot of E poi lo chiamarono il magnifico Barboni wrote and directed a year after this one was released. Stay away from this one and try Lo chiamavano Trinità or ...continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità instead.

4,5 out of 10 (of which 0,5 were counted as a bonus for the decent ending)

This isn't a profound movie and doesn't try to be. It's a low budget action comedy (with a little bit of parody) which is great fun to watch, but doesn't try at all to be a classic.

Film scholars are gonna have nothing to go on here, but will inevitably compare it to Leone and Kurosawa just like they do to every other Spaghetti Western (or Samurai film in the case of Kurosawa specifically). Here's a hint: Just because it's a Western made in Italy doesn't mean the movie was trying to accomplish what Leone was.

The movie itself? As a fun movie I'd give it a ten out of ten, because it's perfect for what it is. If you have some spare time or if you see it in a bargain bin or whatever, go for it. It's a funny, quirky little movie. It's not a great film, but if movies like this didn't exist, I'd go freaking nuts. As much as I appreciate Citizen Kane, I'll never enjoy it like I enjoy these kinds of movies.