La frontière de la haine

Ossorio's well-crafted and exciting spaghetti-paella western is set in the colorful Canadian wilderness amidst a violent beef between Native trappers and Canadian mountain cops. Eurocult cinema veteran George Martin stars as a tough trapper on a revenge mission after the authorities murder his brother. Beautiful landscapes, great cast, lots of shootouts, fun fight scenes (including a knife fight between two gorgeous women in a cabin), thrilling horseback pursuits, and an impressively staged final battle between trappers and police with tons of extras and cool stunts. No sleaze or brutal violence, though the body count is quite high, but still highly entertaining and worthy of repeat watches. Earlier this year, MVD released this on blu in the US with an excellent looking transfer. This definitely makes me want to check out Ossorio's other western, Tomb of the Pistolero (1964).

The Hudsons Bay Company, an English corporation, is tightening its monopoly on the lucrative fur-trading business in western Canada in the late 1800s by driving independent French-Canadian trappers out of business. The French-Canadians counter with an uprising led by Leo Limoux, played by Franco Fantasia. Trapper Victor DeFrois (George Martin) resists joining the rebels until his brother is executed for robbery and murder on charges fabricated by the ruthless Hudson's Bay trading-post manager, Sullivan. When that happens, Victor throws in with the resistance. At Limoux's direction, the young trapper kidnaps Sullivan's daughter Anne and holds her at a remote cabin for ransom. Predictably they fall for each other ...

Hudson River Massacre is another spaghetti western featuring Canadian Mounties ( the other being Kitosch, the Man Who Came from the North) and it is more of an adventure/swashbuckler than a western - there's some energetic fistfights (there's an exciting one in the rapids), gun battles, great forest scenery and a top drawer villain. The narrative is strong, gliding forward like knife through butter- 80 minutes running time is utilised efficiently with enough action, drama and romance to keep you glued to the screen. The scene where outnumbered rebels clash with a troop of Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the shadow of snow-capped Spanish peaks standing in for the Canadian Rockies is quite large scale, well-staged and fairly gritty with knife piercing the throat, sabres slicing across faces, etc. Surprisingly, the Mounties are Sullivan's malleable dupes instead of the brave, do-gooders as usually portrayed (definitely miles away from Sergeant Preston of the Yukon!) George Martin makes a good hero, is quite athletic, Giulia Rubini as his captive is beautiful and suitably snooty before her heart thaws but it's the alluring Pamela Tudor as Rebel leader's girlfriend who steals the scene. She's a feisty action heroine who hardly flutters her cute little eyelids. She has a tussle with Diana Lorys, who plays a a French-Canadian saloon girl whose unrequited devotion to Victor causes her to turn turncoat, and pays for her treachery.

Tortilla Western starred by genre usual , Jorge Martin , being decently directed by horror expert , Amando De Ossorio , and dealing with taking on between British people and native Canadians . Canada , late XIX century , Victor DeFrois (Jorge , or George Martin) , a young frontiersman decides to go to Canadian fort to find out the strange detention his brother . There , to be aware his sibling is condemned to death and executed by a firing squad . Then Victor takes the justice on his own hands and he wishes to fight the abusive conditions of the pelts trade that imposes the Hudson's Bay Company run by James Sullivan . Later on , Victor seeks vendetta and joins up with a rabble of Canadian rebels led Leo Limoux (Franco Fantasia) . Leo is wanted by authorities and has a poster saying : Leo Limoux , Wanted : dead or alive ; reward : 1000 dollars . Leo orders to kidnap James Sullivan (Santiago Rivero) , chief of Hudson's Bay Company . When the bunch goes home , they meet a girl , she results to be the powerful boss's daughter , Ann Sullivan (Giulia Rubini) and she , then , is abducted . Ann is carried to an isolated cabin where she is surveyed by Victor and both of whom fall in love . After that , Victor saves the damsel in distress when is besieged by two mean prospectors . As the couple being chased by Sullivan and Canadian Mounted Police commanded by a tough captain (Mirko Ellis) . But Victor has a few tricks up his sleeve .

This is an entertaining story in Paella Western sub-genre style , thus the picture includes the Canadian theme similarly to ¨Unconquered¨ by Cecil B De Mille , ¨The Canadians¨ by Burt Kennedy and ¨The trap¨ by Sidney Hayers . As the movie follows more the American models than Spaghetti Western wake . Other Spanish films about Canadian Mounted Police are ¨Mestizo¨ by Julio Buchs and ¨La Carga De La Policía Montada¨ (1964) by Ramon Torrado . This exciting picture contains noisy action , chases , cat-fights , a breathtaking struggle by the river , spectacular landscapes and many other things . Acceptable and passable tortilla Western in which the starring , Jorge Martin , resolves a conflict between trappers and Canadian Mounted Police , and falls in love for wealthy owner's daughter , Giulia Rubini , and a Saloon girl , Diana Lorys . Well crafted and passable Western realized in traditional style with ordinary screenplay written by the same director , Amando De Ossorio . As it results to be a family film , with no much violence , though there are many deaths . This is a Spanish production with action , usual Western characters , go riding , crossfire and lots of shots . It's a middle-budget film with professional actors , technicians , production values and pleasing results . There is action in the movie , intrigue , twists , riding pursuits , and guaranteeing some shoot'em ups or stunts . The movie packs an impressive final charge of the Mounted Police regiment against trappers , though regularly paced , including hundreds of extras . It's an exciting western with thrilling pursuits between the starring Jorge Martin along with his girlfriend and enemies . Nice acting by Jorge , ¨George¨ , Martin as a rebel frontiersman who seeks vengeance . The film is well starred by Spaghetti star as the Spanish George Martin who worked much for Alfonso Balcazar's factory such as ¨Clint the strange¨, ¨The return the Clint¨, ¨Oeste Nevada Joe¨, Thompson 1880¨ , ¨Taste of killing¨, ¨A pistol for Ringo and ¨The return of Ringo¨ . In the picture appears numerous familiar faces from Chorizo/Spaghetti Western such as Rafael Hernández , Raf Baldassarre ,Mirko Ellis , Santiago Rivero , Pamela Tudor , Franco Fantasia , Diana Lorys, Luis Marín , Jose Sancho and Simon Arriaga . Gorgeous cinematography by Fulvio Testi , showing spectacularly snowy mountains , white as well as iced outdoors , all of them marvelously photographed . Being filmed on location in Navacerrada mountains , La Pedriza , Manzanares Del Real , Madrid surroundings , locations along with Almeria were shot lots of Spaghetti/Chorizo Western during the sixties and seventies . Enjoyable and evocative musical score by Carlo Savina , including catching song at the beginning by Daniel White , Jesus Franco's usual . Rating : 6/10 , decent Chorizo Western .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Amando De Ossorio . Amando began in films as a writer and assistant director and continued his career by making short films and industrial documentaries . He was one of the main directors of the Spanish horror boom in the 70s , specially for his quartet of films about the living dead Templars which started with his first great success and immensely popular ¨Tombs of the Blind dead¨ which to be continued by a trilogy : ¨Return of evil dead¨ , ¨Ship of Zombies¨ or ¨Blind dead 2¨ and ¨Blind dead 3¨ or ¨sThe night of the sea gulls¨ . Amando owns his own studio and created and/or designed many of the simple special effects sequences you see in any of his many imaginative undertakings . He displayed a varied career and specialized on all kinds of genres such as Western in "Rebels in Canada" and "Grave of the Gunfighter" ; Historical as he wrote ¨Los Cantabros¨ ; Monster movie as ¨Serpent of sea¨ and , of course , Terror as ¨Malenka¨ , The possessed¨ and ¨night of witches¨ . Ossorio also studied painting and photography , moreover, he also made his living as a painter of creepy images of the Knights Templar in his later years.