Mannaja - Das Beil des Todes

In the early 70s, Spaghetti Westerns were going through a dry spell. Countless crappy parody films had flooded the market and strangled the life out of the genre. Then Italian crime maestro and occasional Spaghetti director Enzo G. Castellari came along and directed the psychedelic, action-packed masterpiece "Keoma". Gone was the cynicism and nihilism that seperated early Spaghettis from American Westerns. Instead there was an injection of emotion. The silent hero of the past was now a heartfelt warrior who wasn't above crying in between bouts of ass-kicking. Needless to say, it revived the genre briefly and led to a few knock-offs. "Mannaja" is probably the most obvious with it's similar visual style and music score, but Sergio Martino's keen visual sense (though not as good as Castellari's) and Maurizio Merli's excellent performance allow the film to stand on it's own two legs. There's a lot of well-staged slow motion shootouts and a fistfight in the mud here and there, along with an interesting if not compelling plotline. All in all, this is a great knock-off that has just enough originality to be a good stand-alone piece. Recommended.

By 1977, the spaghetti western was already on its death throes and if I'm not horribly mistaken, Mannaja is the last major release in the genre. These latter day spaghetti westerns are all visibly different from the 67-71 ones in that they tried to push the envelope in different ways. Ironically the vast amount of tired, quickie Django and Sartana clones that sprung in the late 60's weren't the final nail in the coffin. It seems that after westerns like Mannaja the genre had nowhere to go, having explored every nook and cranny of the old west and milked every bit of potential in the process.

Sergio Martino was not a regular spaghetti western director. He made his name through a series of fantastic giallo thrillers in the early 70's (All the Colours of the Dark, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh etc) but he was generally a genre director who dabbled with anything that came his way. As a testament to his talent, he was usually successful, often with stunning results. He had tried his hand on the western once more in the Anthonio De Steffen vehicle Arizona Colt Returns, which was a pleasurable entry but business as usual for the most part. Mannaja is markedly different in that it strives for more. It has ambition and the means to pull it off.

Strangely, Mannaja takes its cue from Enzo G. Castellari's incredible Keoma (or as it was retitled for commercial purposes, Django Rides Again) from one year earlier. Maurizio Merli's Mannaja bears more than a passing resemblance to the dirty and grim looking Keoma played by Franco Nero, there are several beautiful slo-mo shots, a dream-like atmosphere in places, it's quite brutal (a hand is chopped, a woman is whipped, a man gets an axe in his head, old ladies and other innocent bystanders are shot and killed) and the score is very weird by spaghetti western standards and it can be as annoying as Keoma's (although I didn't mind the latter). Just as Keoma, it doesn't shy away from taking risks and luckily it pays off, no least thanks to Martino's skillful directing. There's visual awesomeness to be found throughout the movie. Striking compositions are enhanced by great set design lending a gritty feeling to everything from the dilapidated town to the dirty clothes to the muddy streets. Nature plays a big part in how the movie looks: rain, mud, fog are all used to great effect, the last shootout in the fog adding a surreal, ghost-town quality to it. The look of the first half hour reminded me of Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller for some reason, with a dash of Django. It also appears to be very much influenced by the work of Sam Peckinpah, whom Sergio Martino himself cites as an inspiration. Generally it's equal parts gritty and atmospheric and with enough budget to hold everything on the seams.

Maurizio Merli made his name in the Italian movie business by playing violent Dirty Harry-esquire cops in polizioto crime flicks and was quite successful as a genre actor. He can play the mean machine effortlessly and it's a real pleasure to watch him as a badass bounty hunter here. A real shame that he didn't do more westerns and even more so that he passed away 4-5 years after making this one. The rest of the cast all turn in fine performances.

Mannaja might have come during the twilight of the spaghetti western but it's easily one of the best it has to offer. A must-see for fans.

Although very much late in the game for an Italian western, (the bulk of which were made between 1965 and 1972) Mannaja (A Man Called Blade) is no slouch. It's actually a good muscular western with lots of violence and dark atmosphere, with the sun blocked out and everything bathed in a fog of dust.

Maurizio Merli plays Blade, a mysterious hatchet wielding bounty hunter with unfinished business to take care of regarding a puritanical mine owner and his psychotic number two, played by John Steiner, who's excellent at portraying nasty weasels.

Also memorable is (the late?) Donal O'Brien, who would later gain infamy as the title character in Doctor Butcher M.D. (Medical Deviate), as a scroungy fugitive who gets his hand cut off by Blade in the first scene and features prominently in the film's finale.

Director Sergio Martino is a master of Italian exploitation and really knows how to deliver the goods, especially in action/adventures. Another of his films I really enjoyed was Slave Of The Cannibal God with Ursula Andress and Stacy Keach.

Also, I really enjoyed the title song even though it was repeated way too often in the course of the film.

Eurocrime regular Maurizio Merli headlines this Italian Western about the title bounty hunter, who wields a hatchet rather than a gun. He comes upon the town of Suttonville, which is presided over by a mining boss, McGowan (Philippe Leroy) who supposedly doesn't allow any sort of "sin" or "vice". Mannaja gets caught up in the affairs of the town, going head to head with the crooked and deadly Voller (European exploitation veteran John Steiner) and seeing to some unfinished business that he has with McGowan.

"Mannaja" is directed by Sergio Martino, who was nothing if not versatile, moving from Gialli ("Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key") to post-apocalypse schlock ("2019: After the Fall of New York"), to the cannibal genre ("Mountain of the Cannibal God"). Martino gives the tale some real style, beginning and ending it with very atmospheric sequences. The violence is pretty vicious, but offsetting a certain grimness is a tendency towards levity at times. A case in point: Johnny-Johnny (Salvatore Puntillo) and his dancing girls. The music further adds to the atmosphere, having been composed by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis. Martino gets down to business with an eerie succession of scenes in which outlaw Burt Craven (Donald O'Brien) is pursued by Mannaja.

The charismatic Merli, who does indeed bear a resemblance to the more famous Franco Nero, does a capable job in the lead. He's extremely well supported by Steiner, who looks right at home in this genre; Steiner is a great villain. Leroy, O'Brien, Martine Brochard as dancing girl Angela, and Sonja Jeannine as McGowan's daughter are all fine as well.

Overall, "Mannaja" is pretty good of its type, offering up nice photography, lovely ladies, decent action sequences, a few laughs, and a plot where the hero doesn't always have the upper hand.

Seven out of 10.

Italian production full of action , excessive characters , shootouts and lots of violence . For money, for pleasure, for revenge, he doesn't care why he kills or how . It deals with a dramatic story of a feud between implacable enemies . After getting the bounty of a villainous outlaw known as Burt Craven (Donald O'Brien) , a tough bounty hunter named Blade (Maurizio Merli) arrives in a mining city called Suttonville , where is hired to track down the abducted daughter (Sonja Jeannine) of the town's crippled owner (Philippe Leroy) who has a corrupt right-hand-man (John Steiner) . Meanwhile , a bunch of bandits are looting shipment of silver from the silver mines that are run the mine owner McGregor. But Blade is double-crossed and imprisoned by the nasties and submitted to cruel tortures . Later on , there takes place some exciting scenes of men fighting to the death . At the end happens a bloody vendetta and reckoning , as usual . Sharp shoots, gun and axe with great accuracy!

This Western contains action-packed , ruthless characters , quick-fire , violence , rapacious revenge , slaughter , shoot'em up and results to be quite entertaining , though drags at times , balancing in ups and downs . A good example of twilight Spaghetti western genre from Italy ; it is daring , a notoriously violent Pasta movie , so extreme in every way , it is one of the handful of Italian Western that abounded in the 60s and 70s . This moving Spaghetti packs noisy action , thrills , crossfire , twists and turns with exciting final . There is a very odd implementation of shots in the camera work during some particular scenes as the film approaches its climax , as in the ending and the unusual conclusion . There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing some violence , shoot'em up or stunts every few minutes , including agreeable soundtrack with Morricone influence . Well starred by Maurizio Merli as a bounty killer , armed with a hatchet instead of a gun , Merli may be a name best remembered by Poliziesco aficionados, but in his day, from the mid-'70s to the late 80s, Maurizio was one of the most popular actors of the genre where he found his niche - at the time cheap B movies, now revered cult classics. The handsome, Italian-born actor began in Western genre in White Fang series (1974) and worked well enough for Marino Girolami and Fabrizio De Angelis to cast Merli as the lead in the crime drama Rome violent (1975) a year later. Much like before, Merli was cast because the film vaguely resembled the Franco Nero Film Streets of eternity (1973) ("High Crime") . Violent Rome (1975) turned out to be a huge success both in Italy and abroad and Merli found himself inexplicably catapulted to national stardom. Very similar to how Terence Hill found his niche in comedies after being discovered out of the crowd of Nero stand-ins , Maurizio Merli established himself as the leading man in the Italian crime film genre of the period . Over the brief span from 1975-1979, Merli starred in no less than a dozen crime films from the likes of noted Italian directors Umberto Lenzi , Stelvio Massi, and Fernando Di Leo including such classics as Naples violenta (1976) , and From Corleone to Brooklyn (1978) . Merli also followed Nero's footsteps once again in the Keoma-inspired Mannaja .From there, Maurizio began acting in others genres until his early death at 49 . Unlike fellow Spaghetti star Franco Nero or Clint Eastwood, however, Maurizio never became a top international box-office attraction . Mannaja is a thrilling western with screenplay by the notorious Scavolini and Sergio Martino himself , including a breathtaking confrontation between the protagonist Maurizio Merli against the heartless John Steiner and his hoodlums . Exciting Spaghetti Western and it is proceeded in violent style and ordinary narration . The film packs thrills , gunplay and high body-count ; it's fast moving , quite entertaining and including bursting with explosive violence . Here appears familiar faces from Macaroni Western such as : Donald O'Brien , Rik Battaglia , Enzo Fiermonte , Antonio Casale and special mention for Philippe Leroy as the wheelchair bound mayor McGowan and the extremely baddie John Steiner as co-starring playing the corrupt and sadistic associate.

Good production design creating an acceptable scenario with muddy outdoors, rocky landscapes from Campo Imperatore, L'Aquila, Abruzzo in the Stagecoach/Horse Riding scenes , Lazio , Rome and interiors in Elios studios . Adequate and atomspheric cinematography by Federico Zanni. Nice and sensitive musical score by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis , furthermore , catching and emotive songs performed by Cesare De Natale as Dandylion. Mannaja was competently directed by the prolific filmmaker Sergio Martino who usually uses pseudonym as Martin Dolman . Talented and versatile writer/director Sergio Martino has made a vast array of often solid and entertaining films in all kind of genres as horror, Giallo , comedy, Western , and science fiction in a career that spans over 40 years . He was especially expert on Western as proved in ¨Mannaja¨ and this ¨Arizona returns¨ and Giallo such as ¨The case of scorpion's tail ¨ , ¨Torso¨ ,¨the scorpion with two tails¨ , ¨The strange vice of Mrs Ward¨ , Cannibal movie as "Mountain of the Cannibal God", Italian crime thrillers as "Violent Professionals" and ¨Sci-Fi as ¨Destroyer¨ , "2019: After the Fall of New York" . Rating: 7/10 , above average Spaghetti , this is a great Ravioli Western in which the camera stalks in moving style throughout a story with decent visual skills . This is a bewildering story , enjoyable as well as violent , and it will appeal to Spaghetti hardcore fans .