Django não Espera, Mata

Directod Eduardo Mulargio (as Edward G. Muller!) churned out a bunch of cheapie spaghetti westerns in the genre's heyday in the late 60's to early 70's. Don't Wait Django, Shoot is one of them, with Ivan Rassimov (as Sean Todd - the blue-eyed character actor mostly known for his roles as villain and psychopathic killer in gialli) in the role of Django Foster (he's got a surname too this go around!) trying to avenge the death of his father by a bunch of Mexican cut-throat extras with greasy faces. The production values are as low as you'd expect from a Django clone probably made in a week to turn in a quick buck, there's lots of non-acting going on, the dialogue is very poor and the script seems to have been conceived in one day and written in another. Entire scenes seem to exist for no other reason than to communicate a single line and the gunfighting is dime a dozen. The movie looks like it was shot 15 minutes from Rome instead of Arizona, Sonora or wherever it's suppose to take place. There are dozens more well made, more interesting, more entertaining spaghetti westerns out there and I'm not even talking about the A-list pictures of Leone, Corbucci or Sollima. This is a third-tier quickie at best and just not a good movie.

Here is another film which gives the name Django to the title character as an after-thought, in order to cash in on the popularity of that spaghetti western series. In this one, a gang of bandits kill a man who turns out to be Django's father which of course turns out to be pretty bad news for those criminals in the long run. And there's some missing money, or something.

This one stars Ivan Rassimov in the title role, yet he was completely unrecognisable here to me, so much so I thought there must have been a mistake in the credits here. Needless to say it turns out it was Rassimov but I guess he didn't make too much of an impression here, which is surprising given how memorable he was in some later 70's giallo flicks. I guess the western genre just wasn't too suited to him really. Much better was his sister Rada, who would also go on to appear in a prominent giallo, namely Dario Argento's Cat o' Nine Tails (1971). The reason I think I am rambling on about other movies is that this flick was so incredibly forgettable. Like many standard Italian westerns it contains nothing new or very interesting and instead just gives us more of the same. This isn't always a bad thing of course but when it's delivered in such an under par manner it gets old pretty quick. This one is strictly for die-hard fans of this sub-genre.

Django (Ivan Rassimov) returns to the family home to find his father has been robbed and murdered by bandits. Ignoring the advice and pleas of his sister Mary (played by Rassimov's real life sister Rada), Django sets off to town for revenge. But this is merely the beginning of things...

There's enough enjoyment here for the very hardcore Spaghetti Western fan, but expectations levels really should be set at low. There's plenty of the standard Spag shootings, stand-offs and posturings, moody atmosphere and the music is pretty ace (Felice Di Stefano), but the structure of the pic is off.

Directed by Edoardo Mulargia and written by Vincenzo Musolino, the creators take a gamble by having the revenge aspect played out very early in the piece, the plot then thrusts a multitude of characters involved - in one way or another - in the search for the missing money taken when Django's pa was killed. The whole piece feels like a string of sequences stacked up against each other without a flowing sense of rhyme or reason. It doesn't help that this incarnation of Django is bland and it is in fact his side-kick Barrica (played by Ignazio Spalla) that engages more on the fun and entertainment front. The low budget shows on occasions (watch out for that deja vu feeling), whilst logic jumps and daftness are never far away.

Needlessly complex in telling and structure, pic is marginally saved by the action and some colourful characters, but really it is for those die-hard Spag fans only. 5/10

"Don't Wait, Django...Shoot!" is a great looking movie. It has has some great colors. It almost looks like a Hammer movie. Unfortunately, the look of the movie is undermined by a weak script. There was a bunch of time where I wasn't even sure what was going on. "Don't Wait, Django...Shoot!" does scratch the spaghetti western itch but it's not very good.

DON'T WAIT, DJANGO...SHOOT! is a lame attempt to jump onto the Django bandwagon, and it's obvious from the outset that the main character's name has merely been changed to Django in post production in order to cash in on the success of the Franco Nero movie. It's nothing like a Django film at all, the titular character doesn't even wear the trademark clothing, and is instead a standard vengeance-seeking gunslinger.

The film opens as an elderly man is gunned down by a gang of Mexican cut-throats, leaving his grown up son and daughter seeking revenge for the crime. This revenge takes an inordinately long time to play out, with the running time interspersed with routine intrigue and some very unexciting shoot-outs.

One of the most interesting things about the production, for me, is the presence of Ivan Rassimov in the leading role. Rassimov is well known for his appearances in '70s movies like DEEP RIVER SAVAGES and it's fun to watching him play against his real-life sister, Rada, but he doesn't make much of an impression in this one. Pedro Sanchez has a supporting role and plays the usual larger-than-life character. The truth is that nobody's on fire here, particularly director Edoardo Mulargia who churned out at least a dozen of these cut-price spaghetti westerns.