Odia il prossimo tuo

This Eurowestern has a solid revenge storyline that holds your interest from start to finish. Horst Frank is fantastic in the role of the cool as a cucumber villain Chris Malone. George Eastman also gives a great performance as Malone's enforcer/partner. The score is typical of the genre, which to me, since I really dig spaghetti western music, means that it is excellent even if it doesn't rank among the very best. There is a little bit of that annoying kind of unfunny comic relief in this one, but thankfully just a very small amount. The overall feeling here is brutal and dark. And it has a bit of that spaghetti western strangeness that I love so much. I would have given this movie a 7 1/2 if I could have. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's great even if it isn't "one of the greats." I highly recommend it if you are really into these movies like I am.

Ken Dakota seeks revenge for the killing of his brother Bill and wife. In his search for the murderers he runs into conflict with the evil Mexican land owner Chris Malone (Horst Frank) who lets peasants fight against each other for pure pleasure. The plot isn't straight and simple and more often than not it is difficult to find any serious reason for what is going on. E.g. why putting Eastman over a snake pit. If he dies everything is lost and he won't talk anyways. Well, there is the reason of maintaining a constant flow of carcasses. Despite the rather violent and dark plot with various scenes of torture the film is beautifully shot in a nice landscape with lakes and waterfalls in front of a blue sky. Often the violence is accompanied by nice music and even the villains prove to be skilled musicians. This generates a strange contrast. George Eastman acts with pleasure and Horst Frank plays a credible villain. Nicoletta Machiavelli has definitely some problems with her role.

The film is pretty long for a Spaghetti Western and able to entertain as long as the viewer doesn't care about the plot. It seems to be filmed in 4:3 format.

Along with the town undertaker, a Man follows his brother's killer (George Eastman) to Mexico, where sinister (and I mean sinister!) gringo Horst Frank forces his Mexican slaves to fight to the death using steel claws. Frank then sets his sights on Eastman's secret goldmine, holding him captive and torturing him until the justice seeking brother comes to take him away.

A fairly standard revenge plot is helped along nicely by some interesting ideas, unusual developments, and some fairly graphic violence, keeping things exciting and entertaining throughout.

Due to the crackpot nature of some of the film's plot elements, this seems more like a drive-in movie than a spaghetti western.

Horst Frank is a lot of fun to watch as the deranged, yet urbane bad guy, while George Eastman is good and nasty too. However, the hero is too bland and cardboard. You don't really feel anything about him, one way or another.

"Hate Thy Neighbour" combines the classic Spaghetti revenge scenario, with the regular Spaghetti "map" tale. The story centres around Ken Dakota's search for the murderer of his brother, who was killed by bandit Gary Stevens, at the behest of Mexican land owner Chris Malone, for a goldmine map. Stevens tears the map in two, and gives Malone half, spiralling into a running feud of double crosses between the two, whilst Dakota attempts to bring the men responsible for his brothers death to justice.

This is a really enjoyable Spaghetti Western, albeit with the odd moment of corny dialogue. It includes some really exciting moments, such as peasants and bandits duelling with metal claws for Malone's pleasure, torture by hanging over a pit of snakes, and some very talented bandito musicianship! My experiences to date have highlighted that Director Baldi can come up with some great movies (Blindman, Viva Django) and some absolute turkeys (Get Mean and, so I've heard, Rita of the West). Hate Thy Neighbour doesn't hit the highs of Blindman by any means, but is certainly an enjoyable view, with George Eastman (as Stevens) and Horst Frank (Malone) putting in good roles, and the plot having some quality twists and turns.

Not the easiest of movies to get your hands on, but certainly worth the effort if you are a fan of the Spaghetti genre.

After "Preparati la bara!", director Baldi made another movie with the same team of villains: Horst Frank as the boss and George Eastman as his right hand man. "Odia il prossimo tuo" is just a minor work, but overall enjoyable. Ken (Spiros Focas) wants to kill his brother's murderer Gary Stevens (Eastman), but Stevens seems to be protected by the powerful Malone (Frank). But when Stevens and Malone become enemies, Ken tries to get his revenge.

The three most memorable scenes of the movie are: 1) at the beginning of the movie, when Ken's brother is desperately knocking on every door trying to find help while Stevens is hunting him. 2) The duel with metal claws instead of knives, quite unique. 3) Malone tortures Stevens, hanging upside down above a snake pit. Yes, it's a violent movie. It suffers a bit from Focas not being one of the familiar (anti-)heroes of the genre, but with Eastman, Frank and beautiful Nicoletta Macchiavelli, some good actors save the flick.