Una lunga fila di croci

Two bounty hunters (Anthony Steffen, William Berger) team up to take on a criminal network led by a powerful landowner (Riccardo Garrone) who smuggles Mexicans across the border to treat them as slaves. The large landowners of an American region bordering Mexico , representatives of the fiercest capitalism, need workers since their compatriots do not want to do certain jobs and then just as it happens today, they resort to illegal immigration and labor exploitation. A certain novelty -although not profound, since we are talking about Pasta Western- involves presenting so early the wetbacks clandestinely crossing the Mexican border to go to the United States to collect salaries of 50 pesos. The large landowners of the South no longer have black slaves to do certain jobs, so they hire Mexicans at miserable prices. It is not so bad that the scoundrels who organize the transfer kill them unceremoniously at the slightest risk of being detained by the Army. The nasty band who illegally introduce them into the United States, will not hesitate at the slightest problem to get rid of them and keep all the money.

A spaghetti western that has all the right ingredients, it's sinister, dark, violent and features two of the genre's most prolific stars. Film directed by Sergio Garrone in 1969 that has a somewhat original story, but that also never overcomes the limitations of the genre. Una lunga fila di croci(1969) has the peculiarity that it contains certain social content: Here there are no black slaves to work and to take advantage of the misery of the inhabitants of their countries, Southern neighbors hiring Mexicans who try to escape pagan poverty at a low price, and while the ambitious owners exploit them at work. Unknowingly, they pay for the trip to a gang of swindlers to smuggle them into the United States. But the band gets rid of them and keeps all the money. Given the army's inability to control the border, it has been decided to put a reward on the heads of the gang members, which will attract two bounty hunters by unknowingly traveling to a gang. Given the impossibility of the army to control the border, as it is very wide, it has been decided to put a price on the heads of most of the members of that gang, which will attract two bounty hunters. That's why our two tough bounty hunters: Anthony Steffen and William Berger show up . They will join forces to kill all the bandits and distribute the reward. I found Anthony Steffen more convincing than usual, perhaps because his character looks a lot and speaks very little, but as he always acts stoic and silent. And as a companion, called the preacher and carrying a kind of machine gun, is the usually effective William Berger stands out as the black-clad, Bible-reading, six-barreled shotgun-wielding bounty hunter. While the bad guy, an intelligent and Machiavellian individual who undoubtedly takes advantage of people's poverty, is played by a correct Riccardo Garrone, brother of the director in his third collaboration. Along with them is Mario Brega in an insubstantial role and the female presence, in a quite attractive role, of a beautiful Nicoletta Machiavelli, as well as the charming Maria Angela Giordano as a harassed Mexican.

We are looking at a spaghetti that is quite careful from a formal point of view since it has, in my opinion, acceptable direction by Sergio Garrone, which can be seen in the concern and care for the composition of the different scenes such as that of the duel final, a nice photograph by Franco Villa and a more than worthy setting. The soundtrack composed by Kojucharov-Mancuso, a tandem that collaborated on several spaghetti, is quite atmospheric. In addition to the script, also by Garrone, I think it is a little more worked than usual in spaghetti, although it is a shame that in the last third of the film there are several twists that seemed a little simple and not very believable to me. Sergio Garrone provides a professional but flawed direction, it's all gratuitous violence, implausible situations and run-of-the-mill performances, but being passable. Rating: 5.5/10.

Una lunga fila di croci (AKA: No Room to Die/A Noose for Django/Hanging for Django) is directed by Sergio Garrone and features music by Vasco and Mancuso, with cinematography by Franco Villa. It stars Anthony Steffen, William Berger, Nicoletta Machiavelli, Mario Brega and Riccardo Garrone.

Mexican's are being smuggled over the border to work as cheap labour for wealthy land baron Fargo (Garrone). Fargo's gang is made up of known criminals with bounties on their heads, this greatly interests two bounty hunters, Brandon (Steffen) and Murdock (Berger), who may have to team up to achieve their goals and stay ahead of the game?

On plot terms it's simplicity 101, a couple of cool dudes are waging a war against the evil and wealthy town boss and his gang. In true Spaghetti Western style a lot of blood is shed, there's plenty of scowling from scuzzy men and pouting from the lead babe. A twist is thrown in for good measure, and on an action quota basis this never lacks in that department. In fact I think there might be more gunplay than actual dialogue!

It's what I would call a safe Spaghetti Western, a chance to make a telling political point is wasted, but there's a lot of style around to ensure that the pic is never once dull. Garrone (Django the Bastard) knows his Spaghetti and indulges in the staples of the genre, with canted angles, revolving frames, whippy pans, zooms in and out, up-tilts and fight scenes that literally come through the camera. Add in Berger's 7 barrelled shotgun with its endless supply of bullets, a schizophrenic musical score, the gorgeous Machiavelli getting a female role of some substance, and it's all good really.

Not top tier Spaghetti, and it is hardly original, but it keeps the plate warm with bullets and punches galore. 7/10

This film begins on the banks of the Rio Grande, where a vicious outlaw named "Manuel Santana" (Emilio Messina) learns of an approaching cavalry unit intending to arrest him and his gang for smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States. To avoid being caught red-handed, Santana decides to kill all the illegal immigrants he has hiding in his wagons and ride off. Needless to say, activities like this have already drawn the attention of the United States government. Since the U. S. Cavalry cannot go into Mexico to apprehend these men, a bounty is soon issued to help in that regard. That being said, within no time, a highly efficient bounty hunter named "Johnny Brandon" (Anthony Steffen) arrives on the scene to capitalize on the situation. Yet even though he swiftly ends Santana's operation, he soon realizes that there is a much bigger smuggling operation in that area and, to that effect, he turns to another skillful bounty hunter named "Everett 'Bible' Murdock" (William Berger) to help him out. What he fails to take into consideration, however, is that his primary target is a man named "Mr. Fargo" (Riccardo Garrone) who is much more resourceful than Santana could ever be. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was one of those Spaghetti Westerns that had all of the right ingredients but never really attained what potential might have been there. One case in particular had to do with the casting of Nicoletta Machiavelli (as "Maya"), who was poorly utilized throughout the course of the film. Additionally, some of the alternate titles, like "A Noose for Django," are extremely misleading, as there is nobody named Django in this film at all. Be that as it may, while this film wasn't a complete waste of time, I was still left somewhat disappointed, and I have rated this movie accordingly.

Experience taught me that, in case of spaghetti-westerns, it's always useful and interesting to Google-translate the original Italian titles. For some reason, the international titles in English are either irrelevant (most titles refer to in one way or another to the character of "Django" because that was the biggest commercial success) or nearly not exciting enough. Please disregard the English titles "A Noose for Django" and "No Room to Die" as the original title literally translates as "A Long Line of Crosses", which is – in my humble opinion as a western fanatic at least – a much more exhilarating and meaningful title. That being said, "A Long Line of Crosses" isn't the prototypic kind of spaghetti western that I would recommend in case you're fairly new to the genre. The film contains a number of fantastic elements, including a massively high body count and a terrific use of filming location and camera angles, but writer/director Sergio Garrone's script is too often confusing, incoherent and (unnecessarily) complex. Admittedly I often couldn't quite figure out why certain things happened, why some of the characters kept on double-crossing each other, or why the enemies didn't kill each other much earlier. The poor English dubbing obviously didn't help, neither. I'm relatively sure that the main plot focuses on the rich and supremely evil Mr. Fargo (depicted by the director's brother) who runs the highly immoral but profitable business of illegally smuggling poor Mexicans across the Texan border. Once he cashed the little amounts of money these people own, he sadistically dumps them into a ravine. The large list of notorious outlaws that he works with lures two different bounty hunters to town. Johnny Brandon and Everett "Preacherman" Murdock have two completely different personalities, but their pistols are equally fast and deadly. They close a pact to hunt down all the wanted criminals together, but Brandon is a defender of human rights whereas Preacherman is simply interested in the rewards. I honestly wouldn't ponder too much about the plot and merely enjoy the grotesque violence and delightful spaghetti western trademarks. "A Long Line of Crosses" bathes in that typical raw and filthy atmosphere, with lots of nasty-looking gunmen sweating and stinking in the burning sun, and the number of thugs falling dead from the cliffs or to the ground is practically countless. Anthony Steffen and particularly William Berger give away adequate performances, but – as usual – I personally liked the bad guy the most. Garrone is definitely the least brilliant Sergio of his generation of Italian western directors (defeated easily by Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Sollima) but I still appreciate his movies very much.

The movie is entitled "A Long Line of Crosses" and I suggest watching it in Italian with subtitles to appreciate what it was supposed to be like. American release titles are often 100% marketing in the genre, and have NOTHING to do with the movie or the people that made it. This has to be the most extreme example. I don't think it counts as a spoiler to note that a) There is no Django in this, and b) there is no hanging. There's no long line of crosses for that matter, but it's an apt title.

For me, there are four major classes in the genre. First, those that are great movies outside the genre, second, those that are not as good as that but better than the average example, those that are fair to middling and those that are below par. For me, this was a solid example of the second class.

It's slightly over the top in terms of self-consciousness of the genre, but that's OK for lovers of Spaghetti Westerns. Yeah, we can see The Preacher is obviously an imitation of Klaus Kinski in The Great Silence and lots of other over the top flourishes, but they never detract from the flow. I enjoyed it.

Many of the genre were social commentaries on American's place and actions in the world and issues of concern to progressives in the 1960s. This one does that solidly, but gets so much right about US/Mexico border issues that it is still relevant as I write this in 2016. I would have given this 7/10, but that raises it a point in my estimation.

Meal pairing suggestion: Camarones a la Diabola with rice and refried beans and flour tortillas.