La mort était au rendez-vous

Fifteen years after the brutal massacre of his family by vicious outlaws, Bill (John Phillip Law) is finally ready for revenge, having perfected his gun-slinging skills; however, the young man finds himself facing competition from recently released criminal Ryan (Lee Van Cleef), who is also gunning for the murderous gang.

Death Rides a Horse marks my very first foray into the spaghetti western genre outside of the relative safety of Sergio Leone's better known movies, and while it's not quite on a par with the Leone classics, the film is still a solidly entertaining adventure that certainly can't be accused of not trying…

Between the film's brutal, rain-lashed opening massacre and its wind-swept gun-fight finalé, Death Rides A Horse delivers almost all the elements one might reasonably expect from the genre: a dashing, gun-slinging hero hell-bent on revenge, a grizzled ex-convict with a score to settle, loathsome villains, wonderful widescreen cinematography, a jail-break, a lynch-mob, fist fights, whisky drinking, poker playing, lots of rapid-zoom close-ups of eyes, a cool Ennio Morricone score, a village of scared Mexicans, and just a little gallows humour.

Where the film suffers somewhat is with its rather pedestrian plot, that offers too few genuine surprises, and which, at almost two hours, resorts to padding out the action by having the lead characters take it in turns to put themselves in mortal danger, only for one to be saved by the other. This nonsense takes some swallowing, but director Giulio Petroni's stylish handling, some gritty violence, and a fine performance from Van Cleef ensure that the film never drags.

While this might not be a top-tier spaghetti western, it's impressed me enough to make me want to check out further non-Leone movies.

This is a revenge movie, a Spaghetti Western with full of thrills, shootous and follows the wake of Sergio Leone . It starts with impressive scenes , death all a beloved family by a killer gang , there only escapes a little boy. Some years later, the survivor named Bill (John Philip Law) seeks vengeance . Meanwhile , a convict (Lee Van Cleef) goes out of prison where he was for fifteen years and he also wishes revenge and reckoning. Mysterious gunman Ryan acts as protector of the young gunfighter and vice versa , Bill also saves him when Ryan is falsely accused of bank robbing. Duo starring undergoing a strange relation of comradeship and paternal-filial feeling .

¨Da Uomo a Uomo¨ that was subsequently retitled "Death Rides a Horse" is a "man to man" story; being one of the best spaghetti western of the film history in connection Sergio Leone's universe by intervention of writer Luciano Vincenzoni and musical score by Ennio Morricone, both of them are habitual Leone's collaborators , and artificers of 'Trilogy of dollars' : ¨A fistful of dollars¨ , ¨A few dollars more¨ and ¨The Good , Ugly and Bad¨; besides , other Leone flicks as ¨Duck you, sucker¨ and ¨Once upon a time in the West¨. Duo protagonists are frankly magnificent. A serious and smooth-talking Lee Van Cleef as an experienced gunman and cool John Philip Law as a brave young , though impulsive and revenger ; at the same time (1967) he starred various hits , such as : ¨Diabolik¨ by Mario Bava , ¨Barbarella¨ by Roger Vadim, ¨Red Baron¨ by Roger Corman, among others . Furthermore, there appear other usual secondaries from Spaghetti , such as Luigi Pistilli , Mario Brega , Jose Torres , Romano Puppo, Bruno Corazzari, Ignazio Leone, Guglielmo Spoletini or William Bogart and special acting by Anthony Dawson (no confusion with Italian director Anthony M. Dawson-Margheriti), famous strangler of Grace Kelly in Hitchcock's ¨Dial M for murder¨. The film displays adequate cinematography by cameraman Carlo Carlini and powerful soundtrack by the great Ennio Morricone. The motion picture whose original title was "Duel in the Wind¨ or "Da Uomo a Uomo" was well directed by Giulio Petroni, author of another excellent S. W. titled ¨Tepepa¨ (with Orson Welles and Tomas Milian) and two minor Italian Westerns, such as : ¨Night of serpent (with Luke Askew, Luigi Pistilli) ¨ and ¨A sky full of stars for a roof (with Giuliano Gemma, Mario Adorf)¨.

This is the masterpiece of a peculiar sub-genre dealing with master-disciple gunmen relationship, Spaghetti's ordinary plot, such as : ¨Day of anger (by Tonino Valeri)¨ with Van Cleef-Giuliano Gemma ; ¨Bandidos (Massimo Dallamano)¨ with Enrico Mª Salerno-Venantino Venantini , and ¨Allómbra di Colt (Giovanni Grimaldi)¨ with Conrado San Martin-Stephen Forsyth. Rating : Better than average Spaghetti, the film will appeal to Lee Van Cleef fans. It is essential and indispensable to see it for Spaghetti Western enthusiasts, being considered worldwide one of the best, usually being among the first on the lists that are usually made.

On a remote Firebase in Vietnam, we received a 16mm movie each day by helicopter. We typically watched about 3:00AM in our small fire direction center (FDC). "Death Rides a Horse" was delivered at least 15 times in 10 months. We were moved by the expressive eyes and dramatic stares throughout the movie. After several viewings, we'd decided to leave the sound off and provide our own dialog. This movie was a great tension buster in the middle of undesired action. Thank you Lee VanCleef!

They came in the window. It wasn't to wish me pleasant dreams After thieves steal $200,000 awkwardly expositioned by one of the keepers, they attack a home, kill the husband and... I don't know, it may be inferred that there is suggested rape of the wife and daughter, but if so, they're the fastest guns in the state(see what I did there?), so more likely, they're just messing up their clothes some. Anyway, fifteen years later, the surviving boy wants revenge, and so does the bad-ass Lee Van Cleef who was framed and has been in jail for stealing the cash. Other than that the subtitles are hilarious(they write *everything* - including almost the entirety of the credits, as they're on the screen - and the punctuation is lazy), this is a pretty dependable 114 minutes of spaghetti Western. Gunslinging, card games, a saloon with doors that swing open, a sense of honor and even hot chicks. In best Leone style we have close-ups(and the great faces that make these work), build-up, genuine tension and a nice climax. The coolness is also very much present, and the dialog is good and well-delivered, and some of it clever. This is filmed and edited well, with occasional odd framing. The humor has strong moments. This has really solid acting for all involved. The DVD comes with a trailer for other works from the period. I recommend this to fans of the genre. 7/10

This is one of the most legendary Spaghetti Western titles (also because, until recently, it was so difficult to watch in decent form having fallen into the Public Domain), a fine revenge drama well handled by former documentarist Petroni (this was his first genre effort) - though it's somewhat overlong and slowly-paced to boot!

Once again, we have the tension-filled relationship between two unlikely characters - one the experienced and betrayed ex-con Lee Van Cleef and the other the brash and hate-filled youth John Philip Law - both gunning after the same gang seeking revenge. They're not exactly allies but when one hasn't preceded the other and their paths cross, they tend to help each other out (though it's more often Van Cleef who has to watch over the still-green Law); in one memorable and oft re-used scene, the latter is interred up to his neck and left to the mercy of insects, vultures and the scorching desert sun! The villains include Euro-Cult favorite Luigi Pistilli (his role here was basically replicated for Sergio Corbucci's THE GREAT SILENCE [1968]) and veteran British actor Anthony Dawson.

The twist at the end - also one which has seen much service, particularly in recent thrillers - is very effective, threatening to dissolve the growing friendship between the two men (Van Cleef has actually come to consider Law as the son he never had!) and which compels them to a face-off (with surprising results). Ennio Morricone's odd and mostly vocal score was actually utilized by Quentin Tarantino for his KILL BILL (2003/4) saga.

I had first watched this via a PD-release and this re-acquaintance came by way of a VHS recording off Cable TV, still in an English-dubbed (though, at least, featuring the leads' own voices) pan-and-scan version; I was aware that the film had been issued on R2 DVD by MGM, though I wasn't sure if the Italian track was included. Still, in spite of the lowly price, the utter lack of extras has dissuaded me from a purchase - given that it's yet to receive an official release on R1 and it may very well turn up in a SE from Italy (the director's subsequent film, TEPEPA [1968; reviewed below], received the deluxe 2-Disc treatment, with Petroni himself contributing an intermittent Audio Commentary!)...