Le Bâtard

Like so many of the Hollywood female legends of bygone days Rita Hayworth was having trouble finding work. But it was more than changing taste and newer and younger stars coming along. Hayworth was showing signs of the dementia that sadly plagued her last exile years from the silver screen.

The Bastard was one of many bad films she made toward the end of her career. She plays the mother of a pair of criminal sons Giuliano Gemma and Klaus Kinski. One's just bad, but Kinski is plain psychotic. Kinski thinks Gemma betrayed him, Kinski has him worked over and then rapes and runs off with Gemma's girlfriend.

All this while poor drunken Rita weeps and just says she wants one big happy family again.

We learn here that Joan Crawford turned this one down. Smart career move.

Is this film a guilty pleasure? A departure from 60's predictable Hollywood style, there was something strange and hard to place about this film until its Italian roots became apparent. Life on the run is so good for badboy Jason in the earlier part of the film that you know something is going to go terribly wrong. The devastating diva female characters are stunning - a Madonna, whore, and mother (alcoholic middle-aged ex-model) triangle of 60's tigresses between which the attractive but somewhat one-dimensional male lead is trapped. Jason is a mere male, and the opportunity of new love from an angelic saviour is passed in for his compulsory trajectory of revenge. Martha, the mother, is drunk half the time and steal the scenes with her unpredictable manic mood swings around her twisted pride in her criminal sons. The fast cars, luxury homes, nightclub scene of go-go-dancing, the country and western idylls and American dream scenery provide a colourful backdrop and make a trip back to 1968 all the sweeter.

Who's the bastard? It's hard to tell in this film because they all are. Maybe it's Guiliano Gemma, a machine-gun totting jewel thief who is a crack shot who guns down fellow bad guys without a second thought. Or maybe it's Klaus Kinski, Guiliano jealous brother who wants those jewels for himself. Or maybe it's their whiskey chugging mother (Hayworth), who is totally out of it when it comes to her two sons trying to kill each other.

Even though it's set in modern America, there's a whole Spaghetti Western feel about the plot as Guiliano is betrayed and crippled by his brother (who instructs doctor Umberto Raho to surgically sever tendons in his arm so he can't shoot anymore), and Guiliano is taken in by a pretty ranch owner (Auger) who nurses him back to health. There's a growing romance between the two but Guiliano just can't let go of the past, getting ready for revenge by using a harp as target practice. Which is a strange choice when you think about it. "Hey Claudine, you got any bottles I can shoot?" "No, just use on of the spare harps I've got."

In tone, this one isn't too far removed from the mid-seventies Eurocrime films, with the gun violence, car chases and sexy, deadly ladies, and Duccio Tessari sure has a certain visual style that keeps things alive. There's a complete 'Eh?' moment very late in the film that comes out of nowhere, but that just adds to the general mean tone of the film.

Man, the good Eurocrime films far outweigh the bad ones. This is another one I recommend.

This is a pretty obscure and hard to get movie, that stars an interesting cast and is in the end really well worth watching.

It's not a particularly well made movie. It obviously really suffers from its low budget. It's an European co-production, that's still entirely English spoken but it remains one with a European and particular an Italian style to it. No wonder, since the director Duccio Tessari is an Italian. It has a cheap look and feel to it but it still adds a certain charm to the movie as well.

It's a movie that is also being a typical late '60's/'70's crime movie, filled with money, pretty girls, fast cars, gun fights, backstabbing characters and a story of a man seeking revenge. A movie in the vain of Steve McQueen's "The Getaway", to name an example. Not saying that this movie is still as good though of course but if you like this sort of movies made during that particular time period, chances are you'll like "I bastardi" as well.

Another reason why this movie will appeal to certain people is its cast. It stars Klaus Kinski for instance, who is being deliciously villainous and is really playing a great role. Much better than main lead Giuliano Gemma, who I believe also got dubbed, though it's hard to tell since the sound quality of this movie isn't all that great and Italian productions at the time always got shot without sound and the actors would later do all of their lines in a studio. But the movie also stars big '40's star Rita Hayworth. I had never seen her as an 'elderly' woman. Sort of bad she had to end her wonderful career with these obscure sort of movies, even though this movie most definitely is not a bad one.

It's sort of too bad that the movie is lacking in true excitement and enough action. It would had make the movie such a better one to watch and with a bigger budget they would also mostly most certainly come up with a far better and more spectacular ending as well. Really, the ending instead now is really random and cheap and even made me laugh at how silly it was. A bit of a cop out.

Not a great movie by any means but the fans of the genre will definitely get some joy out of it.

6/10

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In Gangsters under the Sofa: Giuliano GEMMA and Klaus KINSKI as Rita HAYWORTH's sons

Anyone who has a family like that shouldn't be surprised if life doesn't go quite as smoothly...

Cult director Duccio TESSARI once again lets his cynicism run wild and gives the interested audience an enjoyable crime thriller. But beware! Things are absolutely not nice and friendly here! Malice and copious amounts of alcohol give each other the power to callousness. And then the cast! Casting GEMMA and KINSKI as half-brothers is a great thing! And then the slightly aging stunner Rita HAYWORTH (I just say: GILDA, the goddess is dancing!!!) shines as the mother from the deepest pit of hell you can only imagine. As a teenager in the eighties, HAYWORTH has of course become a very sad symbol for me. Similar to Rock HUDSON, who became a public figure of suffering for AIDS, this applies to Rita HAYWORTH in relation to ALZHEIMER. To this day, I still remember with horror paparazzi photos of the already confused Hollywood star. At that time, the public was not yet aware of the extent and horror of this age-related disease. When I see Rita HAYWORTH today, I always have this terrible tragedy in the back of my mind.

About the other divas in the film: Margaret LEE and BOND girl Claudine AUGER are two of the most desirable beauties of ItaloCinema, and then in a double pack. It's crazy! It was shot in New Mexico and grossed ITL 702 million at the Italian box office. In West Germany, 858,000 visitors wanted to see this very special family constellation.

Of course, the ending of the film is not revealed here. It's very special! I read somewhere that there is supposed to be another version in which HAYWORTH and AUGER give the ending a very special charm.