Dio perdona... Io no!

Their first official movie Spencer and Hill stared in together, a classic spaghetti western. Ironically it was Hill who started out as the harsher character while Bud played the more amicable guy.

It was an entertaining enough movie, but if you're looking for the humourous slapstick comedy we have come to expect from these guys, you won't get it. Unlike "They call me Trinity", it's a very serious Western with little in the way of humour, although I do find the shoot outs amusing as the guns seem to fire off more like cap guns than real guns.

What intrigues me here is the voice dubbing. Bud was dubbed by the man who was to do his voice in most of his movies; Glauco Onorato. Hill usually did his own English voice dubbing, but in this one he has someone else doing his voice, a much colder and harsher voice to match his character. I guess it's not surprising that they needed to do that, otherwise his character, Cat would just not have the same menacing aura to him. Perhaps for the same reasons Bud is normally voiced by Glauco.

This was the first in a series of three movies using these two characters.

God Forgives...I Don't! (1967)

** (out of 4)

Incoherent but violent Spaghetti Western has a train pulling up to a station but everyone on board has been shot and killed and there's also $100,000 in gold missing. Soon Terence Hill and Bud Spencer (their first film together) are trying to track down the gold, which has been buried somewhere in the west. Apparently there are at least two versions of this film out there and the one I watched was the AIP version, which got a theatrical release here in the States back in the day. The studio was known for editing and rearraging foreign films and I'm curious if that's what they did here because the film was really incoherent and didn't make too much sense as if some of the scenes were either edited or moved. Since I haven't seen the foreign version I'm not sure what the case is so I can just review what I watched. As for the film, outside it not making too much sense, it really isn't as bad as some of the reviews that I've read. This is the only film I've seen from the Hill/Spencer team, although I've got more sitting here to watch. I think the two make for an interesting duo but I've read the majority of their films together are more comedy than anything else. This one here is certainly played straight as there are very few laughs and a lot of violence. The opening sequence on the train is wonderfully done as is the following scene where Hill is playing poker against three cheaters. The violence really keeps the film moving even when the story doesn't make too much sense. This isn't the best spaghetti I've seen but I'm sure there are worse out there.

Again Hill as Cat Stevens and Spencer as Hutch Bessy team up against a baddie named Bill well played by Frank Wolff . Exciting western deals with a gunfighter robber hijacks a payroll train , kills everyone aboard and then stashes his loot . This violent Spaghetti Western oater goes on when Cat Stevens (Terence Hill or Mario Girotti) trying to save himself from a pursuit by nasties . Then meets Hutch (Bud Spencer or Carlo Pedersoli) who proposes him to discover the train robbing , allegedly committed by Bill St Antonio , and the two guys mess with Western baddies . Bill has been killed and holds on his tombstone an inscription captioning : ¨Here lies Bill St Antonio , greatest shot in the world killed by a traitor , otherwise no¨ and he receives a spectacular funeral in New Orleans style . Stevens reunites with Hutch joining forces, confronting baddies. Nevertheless , the heinous villain is alive and seeks revenge , he is a ruthless outlaw and supported by heinous henchmen .

The movie contains gunplay, action Western, bloody spectacle and fist-fights . Terence Hill as a tough gunslinger and Spencer as a bouncing hunk are good but still not personified the Trinity hero characters . At the picture appears usual Spaghetti secondaries who played ordinary characters as villains in numerous Spanish/Italian Western as Jose Luis Martin , Frank Braña , Jose Canalejas , Tito Garcia , Francisco Sanz and Luis Barboo , among others . The film belongs the Giuseppe Colizzi trilogy starred by Hill and Spencer as Cat Stevens and Hutch Bessy . This one is the first , superior and the best outing ; the second installment is ¨Four gunmen of Ave Maria or Ace high ¨ with the great Elli Wallach and more camp tendencies ; and the third is ¨Boot Hill¨ with Woody Strode and less of a budget . The film is produced by DÁmbrossio and accompanied by a musical score by Carlo Rustichelli with an enjoyable leitmotif . The movie is finely photographed by Alfio Contini, and of course is shot in Almeria , Spain, location where were filmed hundreds Western in the 60s and 70s . This motion picture also titled ¨God forgives¨ will appeal to Hill and Spencer fans and S.W. aficionados.

Even though it stars Terence Hill and Bud Spencer don´t expect this to be a light-hearted comedy flick like the Trinity westerns. Realistic clothing, dusty dark intense atmosphere and a downright good script make this one a winner. If you want every grandmothers dream, parading around in his pink shirt and right out of the laundromat jeans shooting baddies by the dozens, don´t even bother watching this one. These characters got personality and flaws just like you and me.

Buy it, Rent it or forget all about it. 8/10

This is a review of the uncut version, not the cut 'comedy' version.

"Dio Perdona... Io No!" aka. "God Forgives.. I Don't!" is not only the first film with both Bud Spencer and Terence Hill in the leading parts, it is also one of their best movies. Although the movie has many gags and humorous parts, "God Forgives... I Don't!" is not one of the usual Spencer/Hill comedies, but a pretty brutal and rather serious Spaghetti Western.

The movie starts with a train rolling into a town. Everybody on the train was massacred and the fortune it carried was stolen. Two gunslingers, Cat Stevens (Hill), and Hutch Bessy (Spencer) realize that the whole coup looks like the work of Outlaw Bill San Antonio. The mysterious thing about it is, however, that Cat killed San Antonio in a duel several months ago. On their search for the gold, the two get several clues that Bill San Antonio only staged his own death.

"God Forgives.. I Don't!" is definitely the most serious and brutal of the Spencer/Hill collaborations. Anyway, the movie also has many of the typical Spencer/Hill movie ingredients, like the numerous fistfights in which Spencer's character uses his typical hammering one punch technique.

Spencer and Hill show that they are not only great as a team in comedies, but also in a serious Spaghetti Western. Another Highlight of this movie is the great performance of Spaghetti Western Star Frank Wolff as the evil Bill San Antonio. I also liked the score a lot, especially the part with the somehow aggressive, dynamic, classical choir.

In Germany and Austria, this movie was released under three different titles. After the uncut version was released, it was re-released as a "Django" movie, and released again in its cut 'comedy version'. Terence Hill's character is also referred to as 'Django' in the uncut German version, and his dubbed voice is different to his dubbed voice in his later comedies.

All told, "God Forgives... I Don't" is a great Spaghetti Western, not like the usual Spencer/Hill movies, but a pretty brutal and serious movie, and definitely one of their best collaborations. 8/10