Les colts au soleil

reviewers on this page complain that this is just another ordinary western - that's the same as saying that the Taj Mahal is just another house - which it is - but what a house!

OK, this is not the Taj Mahal of anything but it is a western in which somebody took the time to find the right angles to shoot from and the right beautiful music to accompany everything with. This time and care put in, changes this film from being a trivial western into being a nicely mysterious experience with imagery that stick to the mind.

The mystery - it is true - is not so much in the dialogue as in the silence between the spoken words. The action is not as important as the scenery in which it takes place.

In the end you are left with a feeling of surprising satisfaction for something that on the surface seems trivial indeed.

Despite the fact that Stephen Boyd starred in a couple of the most famous films ever made, he really was a singularly mediocre actor and that is pretty clearly illustrated in this hotch-potch of a western. Here he ("Rimes") finds himself assisting the forgetful "Noon" (Richard Crenna) to track down who he is, where he is from and just how, exactly, he found himself in this amnesiac state. During moments of lucidity, "Noon" recalls a cache of gold - so the two, along with the feisty "Fan" (Rosanna Schiaffino) set off to find it before nasty "Judge Niland" (Farley Granger) and his slightly do-lally pal "Peg" (Patty Shepard) do them all in. Peter Collinson has done an OK job with this. These multi-national efforts were never as good on screen as they might have looked on paper. Crenna is efficient, though not spectacular and there is some nice cinematography to accompany a jaunty score from Luis Bacalov. Nothing new here and not a film I could say I shall ever watch again.

I would never put paella westerns and Louis L'amour in the same sentence, let alone in a film, as L'amour books are traditional as it gets, but it works here. From the tense intro till the end, the film lives up to the excellence of the book, capturing the mystery, the characters quite well. The landscape lends itself to the suspense - and the action is gritty and exciting, especially at the end ( the ranch in the cave is well-imagined.)

Though there's action, it never overrides the narrative, and the focus is on Richard Crenna, looking cool, all dressed in black looking like Johnny Cash, who has lost his memory after an attempt on his life. From there, with the help of the underrated Stephen Boyd, he tries to learn who he is, and for his efforts he gets a passel load of bullets heading his way.

Great cast - Farley Granger, Rosanna Schiaffino and the hottie villainess Patty Shepherd. - great action. A bit confusing at times, but amnesiac films - like Bourne identity - tend to have this streak, and you have to sit it out and be patient and you'll soon get the answers. Maybe the dialogue could've been sharper, more clearer, however, it is a solid western that should get more attention.

Have you ever awakened from a vivid dream that quickly fades? That is exactly how I would describe my viewing experience with " The Man Called Noon." The story of a gunslinger with amnesia is extremely vague. You know it all is leading somewhere, but you have too little information to care about the characters. What you do get is a showcase for stunt falls, some truly excellent photography and memorable locations. What you don't get is enough character development to comprehend the motive behind all the gunslinging chaos. Rosanna Schaffino's magnificent brown eyes are more interesting than most of the characters. Richard Crenna is no Clint Eastwood, and since the "Dollar Westerns" preceeded Noon, it is easy to see why "The Man Called Noon" is so obscure. I would describe this as difficult to sit through, difficult to understand, but worth seeing once for the unbelievably stunning photography. MERK.

I have seen a fair few spaghetti westerns and while the ones in the upper bracket are great, a lot are mediocre and indistinguishable from one another. So, it was kind of nice to find that this one was a little more original. Okay, it has another stranger with supreme weapon skills at its centre but in this case he is mysterious mainly because he has forgotten who he is after falling out a high window during an assassination attempt, so the story is partly about him discovering his identity - is he a cold blooded killer? It's a very different idea for a western and it works pretty well. Aside from this, it is photographed to an above average standard and there are a few interesting characters. It does maybe dovetail into less interesting and typical material in the last third but on the whole, this was a pleasingly distinctive Italian western.