La mort était au rendez-vous

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

When Bill (John Phillip Law) was a young child he witnesses a gang kill his father, and rape and kill his mother and sister, while he was spared. Now Bill is a young man who is now intent on exacting revenge on those who were responsible for killing his family. He also meets a gunslinger/ex-con Ryan (Lee Van Cleef) who has just been released from jail and who's out to even the score with those exact outlaws, which betrayed him. So, now the two, tussle with each other to see who'll get to them first, but with the time they spend with each other, Bill also learns some valuable tips from Ryan.

As a kid growing up I loved my Westerns, but they had to be Cowboys and Indians, if there were no Indians, I just didn't give a damn. But how have times changed. I have just started to get back into the genre (and no, I don't care if there ain't no Indians), and lately the spaghetti western sub-genre. I'm a big fan of Sergio Leone' s Dollar films, which people say are the catalyst for spaghetti westerns. I didn't know anything of this film and probably wouldn't have paid much attention to it, but since I read some positive comments about it on a thread (in the horror board, of all places), I thought it would definitely be worth a look. But, I didn't have to go out of my way to find it, as it pop up on TV a week or two later. Anyhow, I've babbled enough about my personal experience, back to the film.

What gripping stuff! It surly was better, than I expected. A lively spaghetti western that had plenty of surprises along the way and it just wasn't a shoot-'em-up story with plenty of violence, but the cleverly laid out plot, builds on the revenge tale with some mystery and panache and kept the violence within the story's limits. Everything comes together rather perfectly with such a dark and macabre opening to its fitting finale. The story did kind of reminded me off Leone's "For A Few Dollars More", which Luciano Vincenzoni who penned this film, was also co-writer in the last two Dollar films. As for the script, there is lot spite, wit, but also it was rather standard and stiff dialogue. There probably could've been a bit more flair, especially from American actor John Phillip Law who was basically dead as wood in delivery and probably the film's weakest point. But the same can't be said of legendary actor Lee Van Cleef's performance. He brought a hard-boiled character that also added some dry humour and sizzling skills that ideally fitted in the overall tone. Combination between Cleef and Law goes down quite well and adds another dimension into the film (father and son figure). The rest (especially, the villains) gave your usual mean performances. Though, throughout the film, those Mexican outlaws seem to find the funny side of things, out of really nothing. I just find it rather amusing, especially because of the irony of it all. Ennio Morricone (also from the Dollar films) came up with a standout music score, which mixed some soothing Mexican music with an uplifting and rousing western score. The camera-work isn't that potent, but it still gets some flashy treatment. With its sharp and encroaching shots. It also captured the vastly desolated landscape that sprawls on the screen. Direction by Giulio Petroni keeps the film grounded and keeps a rather brisk pace. He creates some well-designed shootouts and sequences. One being the eerie opening and another an explosive showdown amongst an empty town during a dust storm. By the way, it's a great title isn't it?

A must-see for any Western or Lee Van Cleef fan.

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.

This is probably one of the better "spaghetti" westerns to come along ... far better than the putrid "Django" series with Italian actor, Franco Nero...

The scenery chewing Lee van Cleef is perfect as the avenging angel to beautiful blue eyed hunky ingenue, John Phillip Law, who must have captured the hearts of the director of photography with that sweet face of his because there are so many intense closeups of his pretty blue eyes that it dominates half the movie ...

Nonetheless, the movie is about John's character, Bill, who as a child, witnesses the robbery, rape & murder of his family by Van Cleef and his less than band of merry men .. who subsequently leave Cleef's character to take the blame and force him to 15 years of hard slave labour in a chain gang ... but, after his release he goes on a revenge bend and tracks down his former mates ..

He manages to meet up with Bill and at first the two spare off at each other like a snake & mongoose, but, they come to trust each other from a distance, in as much, as busting each other out of jail, to ultimately team up to take down the motley gang ....

Along the way, there are a lot of stringy musical interludes teamed up with intense facial closeup shots to show either grief or fear or anger .. which closely resemble as the same expression, but this movie is still one of the best tried and true and the surprise ending left me jumping out of my seat wanting to fast forward to the end just to see how Law & Cleef finally gel..

I would highly recommend this film as pure cinematic genius counseled with fine acting and great supporting characters .. Pedro and Paco are so bad they're good ..

Fans of John Phillip Law will not be disappointed, well, maybe by his monotone panned John Wayne vocal impression, but his pretty face and great body in those pants of his, paired with the gun belt, will make you wish that time crept slowly ... so you could stare at him a little while longer..

Lee Van Cleef shirtless or stripped to his waist is twice the bonus ..

This film is a gem .. highly recommended .. 8/10 all the way :-)

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!