Os Cadáveres não Fazem Sombra

Ruthless bounty killer Hunt Powers rides into a town controlled by a very nasty mine-owner, in order to make the man face justice for his past misdeeds. Trailing the bounty hunter is another man who wants to do the same with Powers.

An incredibly languid spaghetti western, Dead Men Don't Make Shadows goes on for about forty minutes before a plot begins to materialize. When it does, there's still elements that make little sense.

Technically, it's well made and atmospheric. Sets, costumes, photography, and direction are all adequate. The story is just too spare and too typical to be satisfying. I wanted to like this more than I ultimately did.

Director of photography Aristide Massaccesi, who also acted in it as well, is better known as the infamous Joe D'Amato, great director of countless seedy sex and gory horror films from the seventies to the nineties.

Set at a small gold mining town , where arrives Lazar (Hunt Powers or Jack Betts), a bounty killer who detains outlaws with a reward on their head . The small desert town called Black City is besieged by a ruthless band of bandits led by the nasty Medina (Benito Pacifico as Dennis Colt) . Along the way , Lazar is followed to the town by a stranger gunfighter (Franco Borelli as Chet Davis) . Soon after , he teams up with the young gunslinger to track down Barrett (Ettore Manni) a former bandit and mine owner. As astute Lazar and an experienced gunslinger join forces to terminate a reign of terror carried out by a brutal band of criminals . At the end of the day, the shrewd bounty hunter clashes with Barrett, but something gets worst , including an unexpected final twist .

This below-average Ravioli Western packs thrills , action , brawls , crossfire and drags at times , balancing in ups and downs and with some scenes being awfully staged . The movie has the typical Spaghetti characters , as the violent facing , greedy antiheroes, bloody and spectacular showdowns, quick zooms , extreme baddies , but being wretchedly directed . Inginocchiati straniero... I cadaveri non fanno ombra!(1970) unite forces two mysterious antiheroes from Spaghetti Western : Sabata and Man-without-name in Eastwood style and with an agenda of his own . And at the end stubborn and cunning Lazar Peacock or Sabata along with saintly roving gunslinger Man With No Name take on Barrett and his underling Medina . Stars the American Hunt Powers or Jak Betts who gives a passable acting as the mysterious bounty hunter named Lazar or Sabata who arrives in a little town delivering to sheriff the detained outlaws and to take the rewards . Jack Betts often plays dashing, debonair, suave and refined gentlemen . A good secondary actor who also had his Italian period , playing a lot of Spaghetti westerns , such as : Giù la testa... hombre , ...e lo chiamarono Spirito Santo , Giù le mani... carogna! , Nevada Kid . Inginocchiati straniero... I cadaveri non fanno ombra! , Django y Sartana are coming , Halleluja for Django , and Django meets Sartana. Being well accompanied by various familiar faces from Spaghetti and Demofilo Fidani films, such as : Dennis Colt , Simonetta Vitelli or Blondell , Demofilo Fidani's daughter and starred several films of her father, Attilio Dottesio , and special appearance by Gordon MItchell who starred a lot of Pasta Western and Peplum ; furthermore , Ettore Manni as the villain mine owner who is ruling the little town with a iron fist.

Here stands out the atmospheric cinematography by the famous and prolific Joe D'Amato or Aristide Massaccesi , shot in Elios Studios, Rome, Lazio. As well as the enjoyable musical score by Coriolano Gori , though it isn't fitting to action . The motion picture was regularly directed by Demofilo Fidani or Miles Deem , considered to be the ¨Ed Wood of Spaghetti Western" and husband of Mila Vitelli Valenza ,a professional costume designer and father of actress Simonetta Vitelli , both of whom worked in various films of Demofilo . Fidani directed all kind of genres in low budget and exploitation pictures . He eventually had more pseudonyms than any working director in the world , similarly to Bruno Mattei . He followed shooting these taboo-breaking films with excursions into porno film , adventure , as ¨Karzan, Jungle Lord" and specially , Spaghetti as ¨Django and Sartana's Showdown in the West" , ¨Giù la Testa¨, "Sartana, the Invincible Gunman" , ¨El Sartana... l'Ombre Ta Mort¨, among others .

This film begins with a notorious bounty hunter by the name of "Lazar Peacock" (Jack Betts) dragging a dead body into a small town. Upon subsequently collecting his money from the town sheriff he then rides back out of town in search of another reward. Not long afterward, an unnamed cowboy (played Franco Borelli) by rides through that same town and continues in the same direction as the famous bounty hunter. Although it is soon revealed that this cowboy deliberately following Lazar, the reason is not disclosed at this time. The scene eventually shifts to a small Mexican village where a greedy landowner by the name of "Mr. Barrett" (Ettore Manni) has opened up a mining operation and--because of his wealth and power--has subjected the local villagers to his tyrannical rule. His cruelty, however, is tested when Lazar rides into town--and is followed by an unnamed cowboy. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film started off rather slowly and continued that pace pretty much all the way through. In addition to the slow pace, the ending left much to be desired as well. Be that as it may, while I don't consider this to be a bad Spaghetti western necessarily, the lack of overall excitement certainly didn't help in that regard, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

Hunter Powers plays smug, deadly bounty hunter Lazaar, who isn't averse to killing his prey and keeping whatever gold they've stolen too, as well as the reward money! He keeps the gold in a coffin in a remote graveyard watched over by an old man he's blackmailing (I think), but little does he know that there's a young upstart following him to the next town…

…and the next town, and then one after that, then another one, and there might be another before the young guy finds a town to settle in. We eventually start to get some sort of plot by the time as Lazaar starts to blackmailing the local (evil) mine owner who is a wanted man, there's some sort of gypsy lady, and the mine owner's also evil henchman dresses like Juan Sheet – mascot for the kitchen roll Plenty! Also, playing a gypsy in this film seems to mean wearing a lot of necklaces and having dirty smudges all over your face.

This one also takes place in the exact same town as the Unholy Four without any changes at all! That's confusing for starters. And Gordon Mitchell does a Kinski and appears in the film for about five minutes!

Apart from that, you get the usual Spaghetti Western plot (Old Gunslinger/Young Gunslinger/Gold/Teaming up/Double Cross/Crooked Businessman/Mexicans/Shooting stuff). It's neither good or bad.

I watched the English translation of this one on YouTube, and yes, it's a better than usual spaghetti western. I've seen hundreds of westerns in my near 80 years on the planet, but this is the first I've seen where the hero attaches what resembles a silencer to his pistol, but is actually a barrel extension to improve the gun's accuracy.

Also of note was the appearance of a "Mexican" heroine, who, although quite beautiful, did not seem to really fit into the picture due to her baby blue eyes.

Other standouts included a "canyon" that looked more like the remains of a played-out gravel pit with the claw marks of an excavator still on its walls, and a pair of manufactured cacti that, when seen up close, exhibited square "trunks" with attached "branches."

I enjoyed the music in this movie, even in the scenes where an Italian electronic organ was heard, even if it didn't quite fit the movie's genre.

Because 'Dead Men Don't Make Shadows' kept me entertained and amused throughout, I rate it a six.