Minnesota Clay

A pre-Django Spaghetti Western from Sergio Corbucci, starring b-movie master Cameron Mitchell as a gunslinger going slowly blind, and out to revenge his wrongful imprisonment before his condition overtakes him! Cam's been in prison for eighteen years but decides to break out one day and return to his home town, where his daughter lives (she don't know he's her dad though). The town is ruled by Fox, a nasty fella who put Cam in jail in the first place and is looking for a way to rid the town of the Mexican bandit gang (led by Fernando Sancho. Fernando basically plays the same character in every film I've seen him in - the chicken leg eating, cackling, Mexican bandit leader...and that's not a complaint).

Cam thinks about hooking up with Sancho to get rid of Fox but there's a Latin spanner in the works by the name of Estella and she's playing everybody for a fool. She frames Cam for stealing gold and basically leads everyone into a massive shoot out. Cam is going blind but he's also the greatest shot the town has ever seen, which makes him a bit of challenge.

Perfect pacing in this film I felt, and not only a great performance from Cameron (who is prone to over acting or not acting at all), but also a complete turnaround from Georges Rivieres as the bad guy Fox. The last film I watched him in (Castle of Blood) he played a wide-eyed, innocent romantic type...in this he's a man without a soul.

Cameron steals the show as the world weary gunslinger out to save his daughter before his blindness is complete. He basically has to fight his last battle using sound alone, which makes it very interesting. He sure ends up in some state by the end of the film! A quick note on Cameron Mitchell. He was the king of the b-movie, from low budget acid westerns like Ride In the Whirlwind (with Jack Nicholson), horrors like Nightmare In Wax, terrible weirdo films like Medusa, Hollywood bigshot films like the Klansman (with Lee Marvin!), mystery films like Haunts, playing a psychic so terrible the people who hired him shoot him in the South African slasher film The Demon, going up against Satan himself in The Nightmare Never Ends, being a cult leader talking crap in kung fu film Low Blow, or a park owner in Memorial Valley Massacre, one things for sure: He always looked middle aged, for some reason.

"Minnesota Clay" (1964) was one of the earliest Spaghetti Westerns directed by Sergio Corbucci; in two years time he would make the iconic and notorious "Django" and in 1968, he made the best non-Sergio Leone Spaghetti: "The Great Silence". But this is early days for the director, before cynicism and boredom seeped into his love of making Westerns. Shot around the same time as Leone's groundbreaking "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964), but released later, it shares the two gangs warring over a town theme, as well as the bandits being separated by race: the white, American Fox (Georges Riviere) and the Mexican Ortiz (Fernando Sancho); but this is the only similarity (which had been copied from Akira Kurosawa's samurai film "Yojimbo" [1961], which in turn had been inspired by the pulp writings of the brilliant Dashiell Hammett and his novel "The Glass Key" [1931]) and while nowhere near the greatness of Leone's Western, this is still a remarkably good movie.

The plot (by Adriano Bolzoni and Corbucci) though, is clichéd ridden: Minnesota Clay (Cameron Mitchell) escapes from prison after being framed by the devious Fox; returning to his hometown, Clay discovers that it is overrun by two gangs: Fox's and Ortiz's and then proceeds to clear the place up, even though his eyesight is failing terribly.

However, despite these script constraints, Corbucci directs some brilliant action, in particularly the climatic gunfight in the dark. He seems to be having fun with scenes like this, and it's not hard to see why. Riviere and Sancho honourably excused, the acting is mostly very poor. Mitchell is variable throughout, although his performance during the finale is very good. The music by Piero Piccioni is however, excellent and the photography by Jose Fernandz Aguayo is also pretty good. It may be finally floored, but this is still a worthy addition to the Spaghetti Western genre.

As a huge lover of Italian Westerns, Sergio Corbucci is one of my favorite directors ever. Corbucci's most famous and influential film is doubtlessly the blood-soaked cult-flick "Django" of 1966, his most brilliant achievement is the dark 1968 masterpiece "Il Grande Silenzio" ("The Great Silence"). But Corbucci enriched the Spaghetti-Western genre by even more masterpieces than the aforementioned two films, such as the Mexican revolutionary Westerns "Il Mercenario" (aka. "The Mercenary", 1968) and "Vamos A Matar, Compañeros" (1970). And even his lesser known films, such as "I Crudeli" ("Hellbenders", 1967) or "Navajo Joe" (1966) stand out as gritty and great Spaghetti Westerns, which makes Corbucci the undisputed number 2 in the genre, right after Sergio Leone. This being said, Corbucci's early Western "Minesota Clay" of 1965 does not live up to his later films in the Genre. While this is by no means a bad film, it is nowhere near as cynical, gritty and memorable as Corbucci's later Westerns were, as it bears more resemblance to the traditional American 'Good Guys Vs. Bad Guys' Westerns than the masterpieces of Corbucci's later career.

The eponymous hero, Minnesota Clay (played by the great Cameron Mitchell) is not really a typical anti-hero, as he is looking partly for revenge, but mainly for justice and for an opportunity to redeem his name. The two rivaling gangs (Mexican vs. American) that control the little town where this is set resemble the premise of "Django" as well as Leone's milestone "Fistful Of Dollars" (both of which were based on Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece "Yojimbo"). Yet, "Minnesota Clay" can not nearly make as much of it as "Fistful..." and "Django". Since the aforementioned films are masterpieces, this is not to say that this film is bad, however. "Minesota Clay" is an entertaining film, without doubt. The film's main fault is probably the lack of a real anti-hero with hardly any morals. If the film had just been a little more 'evil', it could have been way better. Even though a tough guy, Minesota Clay is basically an honest man who is looking for justice, and not nowhere near as immoral as anti-heroes like The Man With No Name or Django. Yet, Cameron Mitchell gives the character a certain greatness. I've been a fan of Mitchell since I first saw Mario Bava's Giallo-milestone "Sei Donne Per L'Assassino" (aka. "Blood And Black Lace", 1964) years ago, and he once again delivers a great performance here. The sexy Ethel Rojo and Diana Martin make a nice-looking female cast and the supporting cast includes Spaghetti Western regulars Antonio Casas ("The Good, The Bad And The Ugly"), Fernando Sancho ("The Big Gundown") and Gino Pernice ("Django"). As mentioned above, this film often resembles a traditional American Western - only with a bit more violence and Spaghetti-style. The locations and photography are great and the score by Piero Piccioni is also quite nice. Overall, I would have probably rated this a 7/10 as such, but I have to detract one star as it is way inferior compared to Corbucci's later films. This is an entertaining film that my fellow Spaghetti-Western-freaks should enjoy, yet I recommend everybody to see some of Corbucci's other films before. Especially "The Great Silence" and "Django" are essential. My opinion on "Minesota Clay": 6.5/10

Now Minnesota Clay is one fast guy with a gun. Possibly the fastest in the world. Unfortunately he is also slowly losing his eyesight, with his vision now so impaired that one more punch could cause complete loss of sight.

The movie begins with Clay (Cameron Mitchell) escaping from imprisonment, and intent on getting revenge on the man who set him up. The man in question is Fox (George Riviere), who has appointed himself as the Sheriff of Clay's hometown and abuses this power, with the townsfolk living in terror of his gang. They had initially paid Fox to protect them from bandit Ortiz (played by the ever excellent Fernando Sancho), who himself terrorises the town. In the middle of these two waring parties is Clay's daughter, Nancy, who believes her father is dead, and thinks Clay is merely a local hero. They are reunited, but caught in the crossfire between the two gangs, co-ordinated mischievously by Estella (Ethel Rojo) who is as devious as she is beautiful (and my is she beautiful!).

Minnesota Clay is one of the earliest Spaghetti Westerns, directed by a pre-Django Sergio Corbucci. Whilst it is not as captivating or as dark as the films he directed during the Spaghetti boom of 1966-1970, it is still a very enjoyable movie, with the usual sprinkling of injustice that we have come to expect within his films.

Mitchell, Sancho and Riviere are captivating throughout, and Rojo could win the heart of any man with her portrayal of Estella (no wonder her character is so able to use those around her so ably). My only complaint would be the vocal overdub on the English soundtrack for the characters of Nancy (drippy) and Andy (who comes over as a Frank Spencer type character - apologies to any non-English readers that may not understand this comparison!). Once you get used to these minor grumbles about the overdub (which, honestly, does not take too long), you can really start to enjoy Minnesota Clay for the highly watchable film that it is.

Sergio Corbucci's "Minnesota Clay" puts a spin on the spaghetti western genre. Here the protagonist (Cameron Mitchell) is losing his sight as he escapes jail and seeks revenge on the man who wronged him. There's a lot of the stuff that we expect to see in spaghetti westerns. To be certain, Corbucci went on to direct "Django", which inspired Quentin Tarantino's 2012 homage. But the important point is that the European* westerns - depicting a gritty, dismal Old West - were a rejection of the John Wayne mold (which made the Old West look immaculate and wholesome). I suspect that "Minnesota Clay" was a fun movie to make.

*It wasn't just western Europe that made westerns. The Eastern Bloc also made them. An example was "The Sons of Great Bear" from East Germany.