Le colt cantarono la morte e fu... tempo di massacro

When you hear the name of Italian movie director Lucio Fulci, you probably don't immediately think of spaghetti westerns, but Fulci did direct a few before he was associated as a horror director. For the most part, Fulci does a good job with what he was given with "Massacre Time". There is genuine atmosphere, an atmosphere of gloom and doom that will put you at unease. In the moments of action, Fulci creates both excitement and the feeling that maybe the protagonists might not succeed. He also gets Nino Castelnuovo to give a GREAT performance as the sadistic Junior, enough that you'll wish that there was more of this character in the movie.

The movie definitely has enough to satisfy fans of spaghetti westerns, though it's not without problems. There are a couple of major script problems, for one thing. It is NEVER explained how the character of Scott managed to take over the town, nor is his connection with the character of Tom explained. The biggest problem is that the first hour of the movie goes by VERY slowly. The movie takes an hour to do what would normally take about a half hour by a more efficient screenplay. So while this is a movie worth seeing, it's best saved for when you are in a patient mood.

It deals with a prospector: Franco Nero who is called back to his hometown when his brother has problems. Tom arrives in Laramie town to learn it is under the control of a poweful owner named Scott , John McDouglas , and his nasty son, Nino Castelnuovo. As townsfolk run with fear when they mistreat and murder anyone who protests their activities. Later on , Tom finds his drunk brother , George Hilton, but things go wrong . They carry their hate in their holsters and a name on every bullet . Both of them take on the sadistic and psychotic Scott Jr , there is nothing between them but hate for each other. When they meet , it is time of massacre .

A thrilling Ravioli Western that displays a story of violence and confrontation, plenty of fights , killing , shootouts , ordinary zooms and impressive finale .Acceptable action scenes with rousing gun-play , and excessive sadism including brutal lashing and crude killings . It stars a big name star cast as Franco Nero as a gunslinger who at the request of an old family friend returns at home and attempts the dangerous Laramie town can rest in order , peace and harmony again ; Nero interpreted a lot of popular and successful westerns , as his first Spaghetti : Tramplers, following Django , Adios Texas, Man pride vengeance , Compañeros , Mercenary , Keoma , Cipolla colt, and in preproduction : Keoma rises and Django lives . Furthermore, the Spaghetti thespian George Hilton who gives one of the best interpretations as a drunkyard in a similar role to Robert Mitchum's Rio Bravo . Hilton was born on July 16, 1934 in Montevideo , he performed various westerns as My gun can play, Sartana is coming get your coffin ready, Desperadoes, They called him the player with the dead, They call me Hallalujah, The ruthless four, I due figlie di Ringo, Un poker di pistole. Although Hilton also played some successful giallos as Scorpion tale, 7 minutes pour mourir and Strano vizio della signora Ward . Special mention for the greedy and ruthless Nino Castelnuovo who plays a really baddie psycho and murder-crazed . Support cast is frankly good with regular Spaghetti secondaries as Giuseppe Addobbati or John Douglas , John Bartha , Sal Borgese and Tom Felleghi.

It contains an attractive and catching musical score by Lallo Gori adding two sensitive songs at the beginning and the ending . In addition , atmospheric and adequate cinematography by Riccardo Palottini . The motion picture titled Temps du massacre or The Brute and the Beast , or Concert for a colt , or Le colt cantaron la muerte was competently written and directed by Lucio Fulci . This was first of 5 Westerns that Fulci made , the other 4 were Four of the apocalypse , Sella d'argento, White fang and the return of White fang . Lucio is particularly known for his gory and bloody movies as City of the living dead,NY ripper , The house by the cemetery , Murder rock , The beyond , Un gatto nel cervello, and several others .

Lucio Fulci would direct only three Westerns in his career and this is one of them. Tempo Di Massacro/Massacre Time(1966) came out three years before his first prosperous period in the early 70's. Although the Fulci touch is not fully developed, there are still scenes which contains mannerisms that would later become his trademark. It is about friendship and the lack of woman in a family structure. This film is also about the greedy and sadistic nature of the rich.

Massacre Time exhibits the fact that Lucio Fulci was not a hack as many people believe. It also shows that he was a talented film-maker who was capable of making great feature films. One reason to watch Massacre Time(1966) is the appearence of Franco Nero as this was done before he worked with Sergio Corbucci to do Django(1966). The story starts out slow, but ends in a awesome gun battle that foreshadows the famous shootouts of the Hong Kong Action films of the 80's and early 90's. The best way to view this film is via widescreen and hopefully in the Italian language as dubbing would gives this film little justice.

The idea of a Lucio Fulci western is compelling to say the least. Known for making some of the most gory, brutal and sadistic horror movies during the eighties, Fulci's first western "Tempo Di Massacro" is an early sign of his coming transition to the splatter genre. It lacks the gore but it certainly does not lack on the brutal and sadistic trademarks which have made Fulci famous around horror circles. Alright so there were some things that were basically copied from other Italian westerns it was still a fun movie to watch and it's not like that's a big revelation considering the whole commercialized nature of the genre.

The movie begins with a shot of a man being chased by a hunting party. The kind that usually hunts animals for sport only this time they're hunting people. Needless to say what happened when they caught him. Did I mention that this movie was sadistic and this is not the only proof there's more further along? Anyways "Tempo Di Massacro" stars Franco Nero as Tom Corbett a prospector whom after receiving a mysterious letter about his family, returns home. But things have changed a lot since he's been gone and Corbett realizes this as soon as he arrives. His family's ranch has been taken over by a rich landowner and his demented son (the guy that was leading the hunting party earlier). One might say that story is a slow mover, I disagree. I found it's pace to be very precise setting up the outline for the final confrontation. The story is coherent enough so that it makes sense. There are a few twists here and there so as not to get too boring when waiting for the showdown.

In a movie that supposedly starred Franco Nero, his character Tom wasn't all that impressive, gone was that cynical attitude with which he portrayed the titular character in "Django" and his clothing, well it's obvious where they were taken from (small hint: an Italian western movie with Clint Eastwood). Instead more focus was put on Tom's brother Jeff played by George Hilton, a drunkard with a bit of a temper and the sadistic son of the landowner played by Nino Castelnuovo. Both these men were the highlights of the movie. Respectively performances are well done considering that this is a spaghetti western. The score by Lallo Gorri is good, very catchy song in the beginning.

Now what really makes "Tempo Di Massacro" fun is it's finale. There Fulci demonstrates that he is more than capable of directing action. With commendable choreography, masterful synchronization between the shooting and victims's death. It's a hard task to create a long entertaining action scene, most of the times everything wears out after a couple of minutes not here though. Variety is the key to success in such sequences and Fulci packs the scene with outdoor, indoor shootouts making it an entertainingly diverse gunfight. The film ends with a symbolic white dove flying away, possible this is from where John Woo got his dove gimmick from.

Anyways "Tempo Di Massacro" is one of the better Italian westerns out there. It's a good movie on all accounts, worth the look from fans of the genre or even horror fans intrigued with Lucio Fulci's pre-horror work.

I have to say I think this one is generally over-rated. I didn't mind watching it, but had read how it was really terrifying, etc. It was very straight-ahead in a way typical of the genre. It was very interesting to see a young Franco Nero starting out with Westerns. It's a very serious portrayal, with none of the humor that we know him for later. It doesn't fail, but it doesn't inspire either. Not bad for 1966, but compared to the stuff that came a bit later, it's B league in my book. Still, I would recommend it to aficionados of spaghetti westerns, simply for the sake of completeness.

IMDb, what is wrong with that review? Ever heard brevity is the essence of wit? That doesn't need to be 1/3 longer. Was that policy even thought through or did some programmer just decide to do it that way? There. You've got your 12 lines now.