Gli fumavano le Colt... lo chiamavano Camposanto

This film was written by Enzo Barboni (also known as E.B.Clucher), the man who wrote and directed Lo chiamavano Trinità (1971) and ...continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità (1972). Those two films starred Terence Hill and Bud Spencer and they are, in my humble opinion,two of the best spaghetti westerns ever made. I agree that they are not as 'serious' and cool as the spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood, but still I enjoy them, mainly for their good stories and their funny and entertaining nature. Since I am a huge fan of the two movies I just named I decided to take a look at this one as well (mainly because Barboni wrote it).

NOTE: Just like all Terence Hill and / or Bud Spencer movies I see, I saw this one spoken in German.

Now, to be honest, this is not a film I'll recommend you to see. First of all, it is not nearly as funny as either Trinità film I mentioned before and second of all, the story isn't too good. I mean this film has a simple and basic story (as do most westerns), but I am afraid, the characters in it were just not that good. The cool guys were not cool enough, the bad guys were not bad enough and the McIntire boys were not put down well enough for me to like them. Also the myth surrounding 'The Stranger' was given away way too soon. The best scenes in this film were the ones in which Gianni Garko (The Stranger) and William Berger (Duke) shared the screen, particularly those towards the end of the film. The rest of the film just wasn't funny or exciting enough and reminded me a lot of E poi lo chiamarono il magnifico Barboni wrote and directed a year after this one was released. Stay away from this one and try Lo chiamavano Trinità or ...continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità instead.

4,5 out of 10 (of which 0,5 were counted as a bonus for the decent ending)

Seriously, where did Spaghetti Western Comedies go? The literal translation (best I could do) is "The Smoking Colt ... Call Him Cemetery" and don't worry about the fact it doesn't translate well, every other portion of the movie does.

There is an amazing theme song, good humor, plenty of gun fights, just in general a real positive energy throughout the entire film. The quality of the print was pretty awful, so I hope someone picks this up and restores it. The man called cemetery is a grizzled veteran of Westerns All'Italiana who appeared as the anti-hero several times and knows how to stare down a bad guy and can not-be-bothered-while-people-are-shooting-at- him with the best of em. Take the time out to watch this forgotten gem.

Rating: 30/40

A Bullet for a Stranger( or 'They call him Cementary') is a film thats howcases the best of spaghetti westerns. It's got humour, it's got awesome shootouts, and it has a great score.

The Characters are great,especially 'the guardian angel'. He is very similar to Blondie in the good the bad and the ugly. He is looking out for the two brothers, who are somewhat annoying, but eventually turn out to be admirable heroes.

The DVDs restoration is terrible quality, and should really be restored. But even with the sloppy DVD quality, the film stills holds through as epic and highly entertaining,

A bullet for a stranger is a great film and should be held up as one of the best Spagehtti westerns made.

Two fancy-pants brothers return west after years of eastern schooling and almost immediately anger the local gang of murderous extortionists. However, the boys have an ace up their sleeves in the form of ultra-cool gunslinger Gianni Garko, a mystery man with a debt to pay.

After the first several minutes of pretty silly slapstick, things get good, with lots of amusing touches and a neat performance by Garko, dubbed into English by an actor sounding like he's doing an impersonation of Clint Eastwood!

Whenever Garko disappears too long though, the movie begins to suffer. Still, it's worth recommending for spaghetti western fans who've already seen everything.

I've noticed that other viewers seem to overlook the connection between the brothers and the gunfighter, why he's protecting them. It's actually explained quite early on, in pretty certain terms.

The curse of following a formula is that you will necessarily be compared to the best examples of that formula. And the best of this pocket of movies is the Leone stuff. We've actually, I think, adjusted our definitions of camp and happy excess to suit those, because of a couple elements that appeal: the musical riffs, the Eastwood grin.

This one has a stylized west, absolutely no females in any frame. Good, bad and samurai. As with the Leone/samurai model, all the plot devices revolve around the noble rules of "the guild" of gunfighters for hire. All the humor is based on coolness associated with lethality. For those of us that like this sort of thing, the ultimate trip starts with Kurosawa, runs through Leone's copy and ends with Walter Hill's "Last Man Standing.

So this is a sort of waste of time, is less of everything that is defined elsewhere. But if you stumble on this, pay attention to the rule of twos. Its a simple way for writers to create superficial folds after the manner of Tolstoy.

Here you have two gunslingers, two bad guys, two factions in the good guys (the breeders), two comic sons, two more comic Mexican servants of the sons. If there were real writing going on, you'd see reflections from one pair to the other, tensions between pairs reflected in certain pairs and so on.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.