Le Grand Duel

Sheriff Lee Van Cleef aids a fugitive convicted of murder in his escape from a group of vicious bounty hunters and involves himself in a murder mystery involving the fugitive and a powerful family of three ruthless brothers.

The Grand Duel is watchable but not particularly exciting or memorable, with the plot taking way too much time to develop with Van Cleef's motivations remaining murky a bit longer than they should.

Horst Frank is good as the eldest brother with delusions of grandeur. His effeminate psycho brother is a lot of fun to watch too.

The title event where Van Cleef takes on multiple gunmen is the best thing about the movie.

THE GRAND DUEL is a typical entry in the spagwest genre. With a script by Ernesto Gastaldi, Italy's hardest-working scriptwriter of the period, and direction from Giancarlo Santi, who worked as assistant director on THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, it has brilliant credentials behind it as well as a cast of some of the genre's heaviest hitters. It could have quite easily been a classic and parts of it are – the haunting music and theme that plays repeatedly throughout the movie manages to out-do Morricone and is possibly my favourite spaghetti western score; Tarantino must have liked it too, because he used it in KILL BILL. However, THE GRAND DUEL loses something because of its focus on outrageous comedy and the kind of bumbling antics that Bud Spencer became associated with. If it had stayed deadly serious throughout, I imagine that this would be a much revered film today.

Instead it's merely a quite good western, sometimes very good, sometimes awful. The stunt team is certainly spot on, although I could have done without the see-saw bit at the beginning where a guy is propelled into the air like something out of a cartoon. The action scenes are well handled and the final duel even manages to approach the ending of THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY in terms of quality, with superb accompanying music and decent camera-work. Essentially, though, what makes this more than watchable is the leading presence of Lee Van Cleef, appearing exactly the same as he did in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE and giving another stern performance with his acting for the most part in his eyes – hands down Van Cleef is my favourite spagwest actor and he hasn't disappointed me yet.

Van Cleef is given some good support, especially from the likes of regular German bad guy Horst Frank and newcomer Peter O'Brien, who only acted in this one film before disappearing off the face of the earth (he looks uncannily like Ray Lovelock in THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE). The big and bloated Jess Hahn is also around for comic relief, although he's so badly dubbed that I dreaded him popping up on screen, while Klaus Grunberg has a ball as a homosexual villain and Marc Mazza's bald head steals much of the film. Also present is Dominique Darel, a very attractive leading lady who died at the tender age of 28, six years after this film was released. Italian cinema lost a true beauty with her passing.

The best English version on DVD is the Wild East release. The Italian print has been released on Japanese DVD by Imagica. Contentwise, these versions appear identical. Both run 90 minutes, give or take a few seconds, attributable to print damage and abrupt reel changes. The 'bloody hand print' shot present in the US trailer is missing from both versions. Presumably, the director or producers felt it was too hokey. Given the bloody gunfights, it's unlikely the shot was cut for being too gory. The film was shot in English - albeit without direct sound - making this the preferred audio choice. While Lee Van Cleef and Jess Hahn dubbed themselves, the rest of the cast have the usual 'spaghetti' dubbing, with some English accents thrown in. The Wild East DVD is taken from a faded, battered print, with plenty of dirt and scratches. Curiously, the credits are in Italian, apart from the awkwardly inserted title card. The Imagica DVD has superior picture quality, despite some heavy print damage early on. The image is sharper, the colours stronger. Question: what's the shoe-banging scene all about?

This is a western vengeance with a young named Philip Wermeer (Peter O'Brian) wrongly accused of killing a patriarch and going after those whom murdered his father . He lives for one purpose to avenge his death but is also pursued by cutthroat bounty hunters and the sheriff of Jefferson named Clayton (Lee Van Cleef) . Philip is besieged and shot dead but he emerged firing his gun and made his escape . But Clayton helps him and during a series of fire-fights , Clayton contrives to help Wermeer getaway from attacks of enemies . Together form an alliance to vanquish the three Saxons brothers (Horst Frank , Klaus Grunberg). Both of whom , Wermeer and Clayton , making a dynamic duo , combining raw untamed youth and the experience only a veteran sheriff can offer . Together, the two make their way to Jefferson , where they can confront outlaws . Weermer is caught and convicted of murdering and sentenced to be hanged . At the end is revealed the amazing truth about who killed The Patriarch .

It's one of the numerous European Western (this time co-produced by Italy, France , Monaco, Germany) posterior to Sergio Leone ¨boom¨ and follows the Spaghetti Western models . Thus , there are violent confronting , harsh and brutal villains , rapid zooms , spectacular and bloody shootouts, and musical score with Ennio Morricone influence . Features appearance by stalwart Spaghetti , Lee Van Cleef , he plays his usual role , even wearing similar black clothes of former characters as Colonel Mortimer , Sentenza and Sabata . It appears known secondary actors from European films as Jess Hahn (Topkapi) and the usually baddie Horst Frank (Vengeance of Fu Manchu) . Special mention to Klaus Grunberg who plays a cruel gay killer . Atmospheric and enjoyable music by Luis Enrique Bacalov , subsequently Oscar winner for ¨The Postino and Pablo Neruda ¨. The direction by Giancarlo Santi is uninspired and predictable although gets a surprising ending . Santi was usually direction assistant to Sergio Leone . The flick will appeal to Lee Van Cleef fans and Spaghetti western buffs .

It could be said that The Grand Dual is merely a vehicle for its lead star, and whoever said it wouldn't necessarily be wrong; but while this film doesn't feature a lot of originality, it's also true that Italian cinema was based on repeating itself, and the film definitely succeeds in providing an enjoyable slice of western action. The script was penned by Giallo supremo Ernesto Gastaldi (The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh, The Case of the Bloody Iris), and that's not surprising as there are shades of Giallo throughout, and the film works both as both as a violent action flick and an intriguing mystery film. The plot focuses on Sheriff Clayton as he becomes involved in the murder of a man so-called 'The Patriarch' through his association with the sly Philipp Wermeer. The film follows the pair as they make their way through bandits and bounty hunters and eventually end up in Saxon town, where the sons of the Patriarch live. They've fingered Wermeer as the murderer of their father, and naturally want him hanged; but there's a twist to the identity of the murderer.

Lee Van Cleef made his name with Sergio Leone and the masterpiece westerns 'For a Few Dollars More' and, of course, 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'. This film is nowhere near the quality of those two, but Van Cleef does well in his 'man in black role', which is a variation on the common western 'loner' theme, which was made famous by the likes of Clint Eastwood and Django. Van Cleef's presence is felt throughout, and he continually makes every scene his own. As you might expect, the rest of the cast don't live up to the central star; but even so, The Grand Dual features a good ensemble cast, and Peter O'Brien does especially well in his central role. The film features a lot of shootouts and chases on horseback, which are always good to see; but at times, The Grand Dual puts too much focus on entertainment value and this can mean that the plot suffers. Even so, the story plays out well; and the final twist is a real standout, as even though it's pretty obvious throughout - Gastaldi manages to throw in a twist just before it, which makes the final twist come as a surprise. Overall, this film isn't one of the great Spaghetti westerns - but it's a good one and comes recommended.