Desafiando o Oeste

¨A Hole Between the Eyes" is an Italian Western stars the Yugoslavia-born Dragomir Bojanic-Gidra , nicknamed under pseudonym as Anthony Ghidra who interpreted a lot of Westerns , along with Claudio Undari , and it was uneven but professionally directed by Giuseppe Vari . This turns out to be an acceptable Western and entertaining enough . It's a so-so Western All'Italiana including high body-count , zooms , eccentric situations , twists and turns . Dealing with a stranger gunfighter and a Mexican bandit seek out a trio of playing cards that will lead them to hidden treasure through various clues and red herrings . Fun but average Western about two contenders who confront to steal three cards ; both of whom carry out strong confrontations to rob a treasure . Passable Spaghetti Western concerning about a greedy mouse-and cat game to take valuable cards in which there are inscriptions to locate the hidden treasure of General Santa Ana who previously defeated the Texans in ¨El Alamo¨ but he was subsequently vanquished by Sam Houston in battle of ¨San Jacinto¨ . As a few people are on the search of three cards with words that show where a Mexican treasure is buried . The mysterious drifter Billy Blood (Anthony Ghidra) is captured by General Munguya (as Robert Hundar) but he breaks out and uses a machine gun , doing a massacre against the cohorts . Both contenders , Billy Blood and Munguya , are frequently fist fighting , disputing and shooting each other to keep the treasure for themselves . Meantime , Billy Blood helps some Mexican damsels in distresses against the Munguya's hoodlums . Along the way our two not so upright Pistoleros steal some robbers , but , needless to say , at the end takes place the ordinary final dispute at a monastery .

It is a moving western with breathtaking showdown between the stoic starring Anthony Ghidra and his enemy Robert Hundar . Regular Spaghetti Western about a simple and plain plot , as two avaricious outlaws compete with each other over a treasure . As duo protagonists take on themselves , crossfire , fist-fight , to attempt to find the Mexican Army treasure . This movie is a bawdy , plenty of action Western , about ambition and greed , a dark and sinister subject one might expect from a typical Spaghetti , being more a story of ambitious people than about avenger gunslingers seeking revenge . The story is one of those in which everyone double crosses one another in the search for gold , as a great number of betrayals while hunting the fabulous treasure . It is typical , so-so film , but acceptable . There is a twist at the end , but I saw it coming about 10 minutes into the movie.

Stars the serious Anthony Ghidra , he is fine , he ravages the screen , he jumps, shoots in the forehead , bounds and leaps , hits and runs ; besides receiving violent punches , kicks , lashes . It is a serviceable as well as misogynist Spaghetti which doesn't take itself too seriously . This regular spaghetti packs thrills , brawls , shoot'em up , go riding throughout the inappropriate landscapes posing as Far West and results to be quite violent . There are pursuits , attacks , crossfire , fights , heinous cutthroats , and many others things . The acting seems about average for a Eurowestern . It stars a tough and quite gunslinger played in stoicism style by Dragomir Bojanic-Gidra , who was born in Servia Yugoslavia , he emigrated to Italy and developed a brief career , mostly Pasta Western as "May God Forgive You... But I Won't" , "Ballata Per Un Pistolero" or ¨Pistoleros¨, "And Then a Time for Killing" or ¨Tequila Joe¨, and "Django the Last Killer" . His nemesis results to be Robert Hundar who steals the show by doing the best acting out of the entire cast , as a villainous killer who relentlessly kills men and women , as well as torturing contenders by means of brutal tortures and even drowning cruelly a girl . At the beginning his career , Robert Hundar acted as an extra but Italian westerns soon followed in minor roles . He once reportedly missed out on a role in a Franco Nero western because his height made Franco Nero look too short , he soon moved into other film genres playing good guys , bad guys , and good-bad guys . As he performed several Ravioli Westerns , such as : ¨Cut-throats nine¨, ¨Antes Llega La Muerte¨ , ¨Con Lui Cavalca La Morte¨ , ¨Un Hombre , Un colt¨ , ¨Dakota Joe¨, ¨Ramon El Mexicano¨ , ¨Brandy¨ , among others.

Atmospheric cinematography by Amerigo Gengarelli in Technicolor , Techniscope , though a perfect remastering being necessary , and shot in Lazio (Rome) , no Almeria . Emotive as well as sad musical score by Roberto Pregadio , this soundtrack is one of the best parts of the film , plenty of catching and attractive sounds , mostly playing by guitar . The orchestra , trumpets, and guitar music set the proper tone for a western . The yarn was middlingly directed by Giuseppe Vari , nicknamed under pseudonym Joseph Warren . Vari was a good professional , a nice craftsman who directed various films of all kinds of genres , such as : Sci-Fi : Urban Warriors ; Warlike : Revenge of the bloody beach ; Nunexploitation : Sor Emmanuel ; Peplum : Revenge of the Barbarians , Rome versus Rome , Conquest of the Normans , and specially Spaghetti such as : 1971 Il Tredicesimo è Sempre Giuda , 1969 Un Posto all'inferno , 1968 Un Buco in Fronte , 1967 Con Lui Cavalca la Morte , 1967 Un poker Di Pistole and 1966 Deguello . Rating : 5.5/10 . Acceptable and passable .

"A Hole Between The Eyes" is a spaghetti western that does get a few things right. Needless to say, the title is great and memorable. But the movie also has a effective and sombre musical score by Roberto Pregadio, well chosen locations that look bleak and add a great deal of atmosphere, and the direction sometimes has a minimalist feeling that's striking. Unfortunately, there's not much else that's positive to point out. Anthony Ghidra is totally missing anything resembling charisma; he comes across as an anonymous hired hand instead of a hero. Robert Hundar, who plays the villain, tries, but in the end his bad guy doesn't stand out from most other spaghetti western bad guys. The main problem of the movie is how boring most of it feels. There isn't that much action, and the movie moves at a very slow pace. In the end, the movie is only for spaghetti western scholars who need to see every spaghetti western made in order to be an expert on the subject.

It's been some town since Texas was torn away from Mexico, and there are large swaths of it still under the control of bandits, or military men as they style themselves. Dragomir Bojanic-Gidra moseys into town, puts some women who have been captured for immoral purposes under his protection, and proceeds to get involved with one of the bandits, Robert Hunder, who has most of the clues to a fabulous treasure. There are three playing cards with clues on them, and the has two of them. Bojanic-Gidra has the third.

There are many things about this spaghetti western that are good. There's a fine musical theme by Roberto Pregadio. There's some handsome photography by Amerigo Pregadio. And Bojanic-Gidra looks like a skinny Kirk Douglas. Unfortunately, the writing is not good. Of course one expects many reversals and brutalities in a spaghetti western. This one, however, is very padded, and the details.

Uncreative plot and dialogue, all over bad acting with exceptions, unreal action scenes, bad editing, and the sound in particular, with both the dubbing and the music bsically cut to pieces as well as overloads of compressing. Photography is probably the best part, though the indoor scenes are spoiled by bad lighting. What ever you need to make a useless spaghetti action movie.