Algo rojo y caliente

Dark, moody, angry, filty, windy, dusty, bloody Spaghetti Western that highlights the plight of the Confederate army following the end of the Civil War. Why would that be dark?

Guiliano Gemma is one such soldier. Just like the rest of them he's miles from home with no money and no job and one cigarette that he can only take one draw of a day. Gemma doesn't want anything to do with anyone, but ends up travelling with a young guy called Willy, who earned himself a medal for valour during the war and is now looking forward to heading home to his family.

It's not easy when everyone hates you. They also keep crossing paths with a bunch of ruthless bounty hunters who kill everyone they are tracking down (led by giant German Raimond Harmstorf, who is most famous for crushing a raw potato in his hand on television). A random fight with some relatives of a Yankee soldier lead to a sudden death and Gemma trying to find redemption.

The only light that shines through the darkness is when Gemma and Willy try to catch frogs for dinner, because after that it's short tempered gunfights and trekking across the land, hostage situations and the spectre of the war hanging over everyone. The stupidest thing about all this is that despite me watching The Master Touch, I was still taken aback by the ferocity of the fight between Romano Puppo and Gemma - they guys must have loved using each other's bodies to destroy things.

It's a shame that the Spaghetti Western died a death, because these late-era films are amongst the best. It's like directors like Fulci (Silver Saddle), Martino (Mannaja) and Lupo decided to pull out the stops give the best they could. Pity they couldn't save the genre. If you look at the films produced around this time that were more popular, sex comedies were top of the list.

Maybe they should have put some boobs in there.

In the days following the Civil War, defeated Confederate Giuliano Gemma and a young traveling companion encounter various killers, low-lives and unsympathetic citizens. When his friend is killed, Gemma stays with the boy's family and protects them from a vicious gang of bounty hunter turned outlaws.

As usual, Gemma's good. However, he's defeated by an unrelentingly depressing story, an atmosphere of doom and gloom and a grating, almost non-stop soundtrack. One interesting thing though, are the sights of the crumbling, once great spaghetti western sets of the previous decade.

One thing I didn't quite get is that early in the movie, the boy makes a big deal of how he comes from Georgia and his family lives in Georgia and how he's headed back to Georgia. When Gemma gets to the family farm, it's in the middle of the desert! What happened to Georgia?

Watch The Outlaw Josey Wales instead.

Michele Lupo does a creditable job of directing CALIFORNIA. Photography is far superior to what you normally see in a spaghetti western, and the acting generally better, too. Gemma posts one of his finer career performances and the script is reasonably logical, so I did enjoy it.

The negatives: overlong by about 15 mins, far too much boxing where shooting would have been expected, and a 1970s soundtrack in a movie about people who lived about 100 years earlier.

Interesting revisionist angle on the revengefulness of Union in relation to the Confederacy. and touches of a road movie as Gemma and Miguel Bosé travel long distances together, on foot and on horseback.

Twilight Spaghetti/Chorizo Western with dark scenarios , atmospheric cinematography by Alejandro Ulloa , good musical score in usual Spaghetti style and being professionally directed by Michele Lupo . This entertaining , engaging as well as violent movie is crammed of pursuits , fist-fights , punches , kicks , killings , overwhelming stunt-work and lots of shots . After the Civil War , Michael "California" Random (Giuliano Gemma) , is released from Union prison along with a young Confederate soldier (Miguel Bose) . Both of whom , California and his partner William , go to Missouri . Along the way , they suffer ambushes , assaults and betrayals throughout puny towns and aridity outdoors . And being attacked by a nasty group of bounty hunters (Romano Puppo , Robert Hundar as Eric Plummer , and several others) led by Rope Whittaker (Raimund Harmstorf) . After that , it happens a hanging and Michael California decides to return the belongings to his family : father Mr Preston (William Berger) , mother Mrs Preston (Dana Ghia), daughter and help them against outlaws . Meantime , Michael falls in love for a beautiful woman , Helen Preston (Paola Bose) . But she is captured and later on , California sets out in pursuit the kidnappers and seeks vendetta against the cutthroats .

Charming Chorizo-Spaghetti Western co-produced by Spain , Italy and follows the American models regarding the twilight Western , as well as Sergio Leone style . This Western is a superior outing because it displays violence , thrills , emotion , shoot'em up , brawls , intrigue , riding pursuits and many other things . There is plenty of action and violent events in the movie , guaranteeing some shots or stunts every few minutes . This sinister picture is a tale of justice and revenge , as a soldier carries out a hard mission to execute a merciless vengeance when his friend is hanged and his girlfriend is kidnapped . The basic plot is typical spaghetti western fare , but what makes this movie stand out is its style . The lighting-paced storyline slows down at times , but frenetic fight/action sequences make up for it . The starring called Michael California is stunningly played by Giuliano Gemma . Giuliano is very fine , he ravages the screen , he jumps , bounds and leaps , hit and run . Gemma as a brave and two-fisted Confederate military is terrific . Gemma , along with Anthony Steffen and Gianni Garco , results to be one of the greatest stars of the Spaghetti genre . Gemma in his beginning worked as stunt-man , practiced many sports in his life, boxing , gymnastics, such as is well proved at the movie . Then the director , Duccio Tessari, gave him the first role as protagonist in the film " The Titani" and the first spaghetti western films where he often worked under the name of Montgomery Wood , playing Western as ¨A pistol for Ringo¨, subsequently the would play similar role in other Spaghettis , as ¨The return of Ringo¨ and others as ¨Adios Gringo¨, ¨Arizona Colt¨, ¨The price of power¨ , ¨Day of anger¨ and later ¨California¨. However, his first big opportunity came with the important Italian director, Luchino Visconti in ¨El Gatopardo¨ this was followed by important roles in "Angelica" , ¨Tenebre¨ , ¨Young Lions¨ and ¨The master touch¨. Then he played his most significant roles in ¨Il Deserto Dei Tartari¨ and ¨Il Prefetto Di Ferro¨ . In the movie appears habitual support actors as Spanish people : Miguel Bose , Paola Bose , Diana Lorys , as Italian secondaries : Chris Avram , Enzo Fiermonte , Franco Fantasia , Alfio Catabiano , Alberto Dell'Acqua , Ottaviano Dell'Acqua , Roberto Dell'Acqua , Tom Felleghy , and , of course , the ordinary Robert Hundar . They are a lot of secondaries from B Italian series seen in several genres as Spaghetti Western and Peplum . It's a co-production Spanish-Italian and shot on location in Almeria , Spain , and Lazio , Rome . There are many fine technicians , as nice assistant direction , excellent production design by Carlo Simi , Sergio Leone's regular , and atmospheric cinematography by Alejandro Ulloa , he creates a magnificent scenario on the interior ranch and barren outdoors , scrawny villages as well as dirty landscapes under a glimmer sun . Adequate and sad music original by Gianni Ferrio in Spaghetti style . The musician composes a nice Spaghetti soundtrack and well conducted and including splendid leitmotif ; it's full of enjoyable sounds and emotive score .

This is one of the last and best Spaghettis and was compellingly directed by Michele Lupo who made all kinds of genres . Lupo directed various Bud Spencer vehicles as ¨Bulldozer¨ , ¨The Supersheriff¨, ¨Buddy go west¨, and ¨E.T. and the Supersheriff¨ . Lupo directed Giuliano Gemma , his fetish actor , in several films as ¨Master touch¨ with Kirk Douglas , ¨Stay away¨ with Amidou , ¨Arizona Colt¨ with Fernando Sancho and Nello Pazzafini and ¨California ¨ with William Berger and Romano Puppo. This is an acceptable entertaining juvenile that will appeal to Western buffs . Rating : essential and fundamental watching for for Giuliano Gemma fans. Rating : Above average Pasta Western . Well worth seeing .

Explains why they stopped making spaghetti westerns..average, Humourless and ultimately boring