Django - Dein Henker wartet

"Don't Wait, Django...Shoot!" is a great looking movie. It has has some great colors. It almost looks like a Hammer movie. Unfortunately, the look of the movie is undermined by a weak script. There was a bunch of time where I wasn't even sure what was going on. "Don't Wait, Django...Shoot!" does scratch the spaghetti western itch but it's not very good.

Django (Ivan Rassimov) returns to the family home to find his father has been robbed and murdered by bandits. Ignoring the advice and pleas of his sister Mary (played by Rassimov's real life sister Rada), Django sets off to town for revenge. But this is merely the beginning of things...

There's enough enjoyment here for the very hardcore Spaghetti Western fan, but expectations levels really should be set at low. There's plenty of the standard Spag shootings, stand-offs and posturings, moody atmosphere and the music is pretty ace (Felice Di Stefano), but the structure of the pic is off.

Directed by Edoardo Mulargia and written by Vincenzo Musolino, the creators take a gamble by having the revenge aspect played out very early in the piece, the plot then thrusts a multitude of characters involved - in one way or another - in the search for the missing money taken when Django's pa was killed. The whole piece feels like a string of sequences stacked up against each other without a flowing sense of rhyme or reason. It doesn't help that this incarnation of Django is bland and it is in fact his side-kick Barrica (played by Ignazio Spalla) that engages more on the fun and entertainment front. The low budget shows on occasions (watch out for that deja vu feeling), whilst logic jumps and daftness are never far away.

Needlessly complex in telling and structure, pic is marginally saved by the action and some colourful characters, but really it is for those die-hard Spag fans only. 5/10

Django (played by Ivan Rassimov in this incarnation) returns home to find out that his father has been killed, by local banditos, in a business deal gone wrong . Revenge is sworn, and a mixture of lone gun men, gang members and other assorted western types get involved with the search for a pouch of money, missing from the deal.

To me this film just seems to be a poor mans Leone flick. All of the elements are there, gunslinging good guy, evil gang leader, revenge, a general lack of respect for life by everyone, a Morrcone style score and stylistic cinematography. The problem is that none of it is up to the Dollars trilogy standard. Ivan Rassimov is no Clint Eastwood (or Franco Nero for that matter, the original Django), it has neither the pace nor timing of something like The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and the music is pretty much cookie-cutter Morricone, that seems to have come out a bit misshapen.

Another problem Django Don't Wait has is that it has too many characters, all of them who have their own agenda, making it a bit difficult to follow exactly what happens. The lack of action and over abundance of talking, and just general filler, is probably one of the reasons I did not want to put the effort into following the plot line.

DON'T WAIT, DJANGO...SHOOT! is a lame attempt to jump onto the Django bandwagon, and it's obvious from the outset that the main character's name has merely been changed to Django in post production in order to cash in on the success of the Franco Nero movie. It's nothing like a Django film at all, the titular character doesn't even wear the trademark clothing, and is instead a standard vengeance-seeking gunslinger.

The film opens as an elderly man is gunned down by a gang of Mexican cut-throats, leaving his grown up son and daughter seeking revenge for the crime. This revenge takes an inordinately long time to play out, with the running time interspersed with routine intrigue and some very unexciting shoot-outs.

One of the most interesting things about the production, for me, is the presence of Ivan Rassimov in the leading role. Rassimov is well known for his appearances in '70s movies like DEEP RIVER SAVAGES and it's fun to watching him play against his real-life sister, Rada, but he doesn't make much of an impression in this one. Pedro Sanchez has a supporting role and plays the usual larger-than-life character. The truth is that nobody's on fire here, particularly director Edoardo Mulargia who churned out at least a dozen of these cut-price spaghetti westerns.

This Spaghetti Western from Mulargia is a very nice B-Movie with good actors, music and atmosphere.

The most time of the movie is placed in a little town and that is very good for the atmosphere of the movie. Ivan Rassimov is very good in the part of Django and also Petro Sanchez is a very good partner for him. Rassimov's sister plays his real sister Rada. You can also see the writer and director Vincenzo Musolino in the part of Hondo. The great score is composed by Felice Di Stefano who also composed a few other scores for Mulargia and Musolino.

All in all this Western is a great B-Movie and a must see for Spaghetti fans.