La colina de los muertos

This Spaghetti Western oater starts when Cat Stevens (Terence Hill or Mario Girotti) trying to save himself from a pursuit by nasties . He's picked up and healed by a circus troupe (Lionel Stander , Woody Strode, among others). Later on , Stevens reunites with Hutch (Bud Spencer o Carlo Perdesoli) , joining forces and confronting baddies . The villain is Honey Fisher (Victor Buono) , a powerful magnate in a small town and supported by heinous henchmen . A government commissioner (Eduardo Ciannelli) comes to little town and the ruthless Fisher is worried but he's usually swindling gold prospectors and gaining exorbitant price leases .

The movie contains gunplay , Western action , circus spectacle and fist-fights . Terence Hill as a tough gunslinger and Spencer as a bouncing hunk are good but still not personified the Trinity heroes characters . In the picture appears usual Spaghetti Western secondaries as Lionel Stander , Woody Strode, furthermore, George Eastman (Luigi Montefiori) , Alberto DellÁcqua and Romano Puppo . The film belongs to the Giuseppe Colizzi trilogy starred by Hill and Spencer as Cat Stevens and Hutch Bessy . This one is the third and inferior installment , the first and the best is ¨God forgives¨ or ¨Blood river¨ with Frank Wolff and the second is ¨Four gunmen of Ave Maria¨ with the great Elli Wallach . The film was produced by Manolo Bolognini , a nice producer of classic Spaghetti (Djanjo , Goodbye Texas , Keoma) and accompanied by an atmospheric musical score by Carlo Rustichelli with an enjoyable leitmotif . The film will appeal to Hill and Spencer hardcore fans .

Third and rarest pairing of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer after God Forgives... I Don't (1966) and Ace High (1967), both by director Colizzi, before the Trinity films turned them into Italy's most dubious exports of the Seventies. Hill was given these cold-eyed roles before the more familiar slaparound antics; here he plays a grimy cheroot-huffin' hombre called `Trouble', who enlists a traveling circus (led by Woody Strode and Lionel Stander) to defeat a money-grubbing land baron (Batman's King Tut, Victor Buono). Like all good Spaghetti Westerns, Boot Hill combines claustrophobic visuals and a lumpen left wing philosophy, with the added novelty of the circus backdrop. Bud's almost a supporting player, but thankfully the dumb ox still gets to throw his weight around. Recommended, muchachos.

Released in 1969 and directed/written by Giuseppe Colizzi, "Boot Hill" stars Terence Hill as Cat Stevens, a hunted and wounded man who hooks up with a circus troupe and the oppressed citizens of a small town in the Southwest to take on Honey Fisher (Victor Buono) and his murderous gang who corruptly gain leases on valuable gold-yielding land in the area. Woody Strode plays one of the trapeze artists.

"Boot Hill" is the last film in a trilogy that started with "God Forgives... I Don't!" (1967) and "Ace High" (1968), all starring Terrence Hill as Cat Stevens. It was then rereleased as "Trinity Rides Again" to cash in on the later success of "They Call Me Trinity" (1970) and "Trinity Is Still My Name" (1971) even though "Boot Hill" has nothing to do with those movies, except that Terrence and Bud Spencer star in them.

The main reason people complain about this movie is not due to the quality of the film itself, but rather the lousy fullscreen pan & scan 1:33:1 reduction print, transferred to VHS from 16mm and then transferred from VHS to DVD and typically sold for a buck or less. This crappy version often cuts out the speaker during a scene (!). The movie itself, however, was filmed on anamorphic 35mm in 2:35:1 Techniscope, and was meant to be seen in the widescreen format.

In regards to the film itself, it's a spaghetti Western in the tradition of Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy. I like it better than the first two "Dollars" movies, but it's not technically as good as 1966's "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

There are several things I appreciate about "Boot Hill." For one, Terrence Hill is as good or better than Clint Eastwood and it's surprising that he didn't become more popular. Secondly, the traveling circus sets this movie apart from other Westerns. Thirdly, it's nice to see a black character in a Western as one of the protagonists. I can only think of two other Westerns off the top of my head that have done this (not including Mario Van Peebles' "Posse" from 1993): "Duel at Diablo" (1966), with Sidney Poitier, and "The Gatling Gun" (1971), also with Strode. Fourthly, there's a cool Ennio Morricone-like score by Carlo Rustichelli.

On the negative side, the story's kinda muddled and the circus girls aren't as prominent as they should be. In fact, the latter is made out to be a joke when the high wire act starts to perform and the audience boos because they're all male, lol. I also don't like the title "Boot Hill" because I can't figure out why it's the name of the movie; I'm assuming it's the name of the main town in the story, which they should've made clearer at some point.

The movie runs 97 minutes and was shot in Almería, Andalucía, Spain.

GRADE: B-

I approached this film with little to no expectations, after reading a few fairly negative reviews here on IMDb. I was pleasantly surprised.

The film opens up with Stephens (Terence Hill) trying to evade a posse of killers chasing him through a small town, where a circus is performing. After taking a bullet, Stephens eludes his would-be killers and stows away in a circus cart. We soon learn that one of Stephens fellow gunslingers is working as a trapeze artist with the circus. Ultimately it is revealed that a local exploitative mine owner is in control of the posse and one of his henchmen eventually crosses the circus performers. So the gunslinger, trapeze artists and a local itinerant official join forces to fight against the corrupt mob lead by Honey Fisher (Victor Buono).

The film is well-paced, though not as hurried as many spaghetti westerns sometimes are. The camera work is just a touch above the standard spaghetti western, and a little different from the standard approach. There are a lot of close-ups and the camera is used effectively to create an unsettling and downright weird atmosphere throughout a good portion of the film - this puts an unexpectedly sinister spin on the seeming novelty gimmick of circus performers in battle.

Director Collizzi did a masterful job with a script and story which were - by genre standards - merely OK. Some of the characters remain somewhat weakly developed, but this doesn't really detract from the film's entertainment value. The actors perform generally well (though the charismatic Lionel Stander gets just a little irritating at times).

Recommended for fans of the western genre.

The U.S. TV print of this film is awful. There is no pan and scan so there are long sequences where nothing is in the center of the screen! I found myself almost hallucinatory after an hour of this film. None of the American actors dubbed their own voices with the possible exception of Lionel Stander. Terrence Hill plays it straight here.

I would be very interested to see this film in Italian, subtitled and letterboxed. If you get the Trinity box set here in the U.S., I recommend you throw Boot Hill out immediately, unwatched.