I lunghi giorni dell'odio

"I lunghi giorni dell'odio" (litrall translation: "Long Days of Hate") AKA "This Man Can't Die" (1967), directed by the capable Gianfranco Baldanello, who would go on to make the infamous "Black Jack" (1968), is above average Spaghetti Western. While not on the same level as Leone, Corbucci or Castellari, this film still holds it's grip pretty well, with excellent action scenes, some well staged bar brawls, very well done shootouts and a neat, Leonesque showdown for the climax. The plot is the usual story: parents murdered and daughter raped by outlaws, the sons set out to avenge their deaths. But it's capably handled, even if the revealing of who the head of the outlaws is is no big surprise. Still, a must-see for fans of the Spaghetti Western genre.

Things are getting complicated in the Benson family. Older brother Martin is out tracking down and destroying gun runners, while back at home a bunch of jerks have just turned up at the ranch, killed Ma and Pa, and raped sister Jenny! Revenge is on hand, but only the wounded guy the Benson family find on the ranch can tell them who set the attack up. That man can't die!

At first you've got a split film, as you have Guy Madison as the more violent Benson brother wasting his way through the bad guys before he even knows what has happened back home. In fact, his girl Rosalba Neri can't get a word in to tell him what's happening while he's all over her like a rash, Elsewhere, you have the rest of the Benson clan keeping it together and trying not to let the world know that one of the attackers is still alive. Plenty of twists happen and thankfully although the film drags here and there things pick up with the gunfights at the end.

There's a pretty good gunfight in a burning house and an even better one in a bar. For the most part this plays out like an average Western but has enough in there to stand out at least slightly from the pack. Rosalba Neri helps. Of Course.

I never thought I'd live to see the day when there was a good spaghetti Western. Most of the ones we have rammed down our throats are those goofy ones Eastwood was in, the ones where men are classified into gods who can't miss, demi gods who can only miss gods, and mortals who just fill graveyards. Yawn provoking one dimensional caricatures they think can pass off as caricatures because they don't shave.

But this one combines the elements of credible characters with entertainment and an actual story line.

It helps to have Guy Madison, too. No doubt he had a large say in keeping this one from being a cartoon cardboard cut out.

Not saying it is realistic. This is a shoot em up. But the circumstances are more thought provoking and believable, because the characters actually have motivation. In the spaghetti flops that clowns like Leone directed, he simply made everyone a certain degree of a sadist to explain their actions. In this film we are spared that cliché of the modern movie. The gun play is far more believable than anything Leone ever did. There are a few clownish fight scenes with people doing flips, but not many.

Like most good Westerns, the minor characters and their treatment with dignity make this stand above the lesser ones. Again, one sees this a lot with Guy Madison, so either he had a large hand in it, or he was careful in the selection of the role.

This is entertainment.

Guy Madison was another former big name star who went to Italy in hopes of work and got to star in this pasta oater, Long Days Of Hate. The former star of Wild Bill Hickok on television must have waited for the pay check to clear before embarking on this one.

When the film opens we find out that Madison has been undercover with a gang of gunrunners, selling army rifles to the Indians, but his cover was blown before he found out who the real leader was. So what do the outlaws do? Invade his home and kill his parents and rape one of his sisters. Of course Madison and the siblings are out for blood.

There is an older sister, but she's untouched because the leader of the gang has a thing for her. If you care to see the film, you'll find out who it is.

When he was in the states Madison in addition to Wild Bill Hickok on television did a few nice B westerns and seeing him in this is really quite a come down.

Madison must have envied what happened to Wild Bill in Deadwood after working on this.

Released in 1968 and directed by Gianfranco Baldanello, "This Man Can't Die" (aka "The Long Days of Hate") stars Guy Madison as a government-hired agent looking for the ringleader of a group of gunrunner/bootleggers. Meanwhile his parents are murdered and youngest sister raped (Anna Liotti). Will he and his younger brother & other sister (Steve Merrick & Susy Benson) find the killers and their ringleader? Rik Battaglia and Rosalba Neri are also on hand.

This is a serious spaghetti Western more akin to Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968) than his comic booky (and sometimes goofy) Man with No Name trilogy. But it's half as long as "Once Upon a Time" and therefore leaner, which is better in my book (although "Once Upon a Time" is technically the better movie). While not great, it's a solid Western with a lousy English-speaking title. Too bad Anna Liotti's role wasn't bigger because she's an ultra-cutie.

The film runs 90 minutes and shot in Spain.

GRADE: B