Deux fois traître

Despite the presence of Klaus Kinski, "Twice a Judas" is a somewhat dull spaghetti western. It does start off well, with the hero waking up in the middle of an expanse of bodies and not knowing who he is or how he got there. For the next half hour or so the movie remains engaging, as the hero tries to figure out who he is and whether he should be cautious about any of the various people he encounters. However, after that first half hour, things soon fall apart. It turns into a pretty dull mystery, with the hero for some reason afraid to ask questions that might have solved his mystery much quicker. There is also very little action, with a lot of dull talk. And Kinski, compared to many of his other movies, seems surprisingly restrained here. Far from the worst spaghetti western I've seen, but there's not much here to make it worth ninety minutes of your time.

Similar to "And God Said to Cain", another Kinski "Spaghetti Western", Twice a Judas" is only marginal in entertainment value. Again Kinski's actual voice is absent, the dubbing is however far better than in "Cain." The other big advantage of "Judas" has over "Cain" is it almost totally takes place in daylight, as opposed to "Cain" which is barely visible for the majority of it's running time. The "Twice a Judas" storyline is scattered although flashbacks try to tie everything together with the ending. I consider "Twice a Judas" to be the better film of these two, but it is strictly for Kinski fans who can live with the fact that it really is not a very good film. MERK.

An amnesic called Luke Barrett (Antonio Sábato) is swindled and regains his consciousness and finds himself laying in the desert dust next to a dead man . In addition , next to him is a rifle with the word 'Dingus' carved on its stock . Luke decides to investigate in order to find out more about himself . Luke wants to get even , even though he can't remember who anyone is . Through conversations with a Saloon girl (Cristina Galbó) and other townsfolk who seem to know a lot about him , Luke begins solving his past life and learning his family was killed by a ruthless renegade . That's how he finds out that he turns out to be ¨Luke Barrett¨ , and along with a rare hired killer (Franco Leo) were contacted by a stranger clad in black clothing to murder Victor Barrett (Klaus Kinski) , a wealthy land baron . But Victor results to be his brother and is holding a vote among the farmers who must decide whether to sell their lands . While Luke attempting to resolve the man who tried to murder him , he will discover he is a paid gunman too . Luke helped by Doctor Russell (José Calvo) will start recovering his memory which will prove to be both a good thing and a bad one .

The film deals with a mysterious stranger who loses his memory after a bullet grazed his head in a shoot'em up in the wild West , and he to be aware , subsequently , to be become an avenger , who vows to take down a killer who massacred his family . This Spaghetti movie gets the usual Western issues , such as greedy antiheroes , violent facing off , quick zooms , and exaggerated baddies . It packs thrills , shoot-outs , violence , and results to be quite entertaining , though drags at times , balancing in ups and downs . There is enough action in the movie , guaranteeing some pursuits , crossfire or stunts every few minutes . It is an acceptable , passable Western with several titles as ¨Due Volte Giuda" , "Twice a Judas", "Shoot Twice" , They Were Called Graveyard", "Peor que Judas" that contains an interesting and violent plot about a young amnesic called Luke who starts piecing together the facts and finds out a terrible truth about his family , and , subsequently seeking vendetta . It's a thrilling western with breathtaking confrontation between the protagonist against the heartless enemies formed by a brutal contender , Klaus Kinski , and his henchmen . The main starring is played by Antonio Sábato as a man who has temporary amnesia . Sábato played various thrillers as ¨Thundersquad¨ , ¨High Voltage¨, ¨Crime busters¨, ¨war of robots¨, ¨New Mafia boss¨ , ¨Black Lemons¨ and Westerns as ¨Beyond the law¨. And the popular Klaus Kinski as a suspicious owner who decides to face his brother for a gunfight , he shows up elegantly dressed and with a brilliant look , gaining a reputation for his ferocious talent and equally ferocious temper ; Kinski plays as a strange land-owner businessman who occasionally joins in on the action with his deadly guns and who also happens to be Luke's brother . Here he plays with lots of gesticulation and excessive gestures . As he is fine , as he ravages the screen with his peculiar face and using suddenly his weapons . This Spaghetti is made during his Italian period when Klaus starred a lot of Westerns , later he collaborated with Werner Herzog with whom played several prestigious films . They later collaborated on five movies : Aguirre (1972), Woyzeck (1979), Nosferatu, (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Cobra Verde (1987). As Kinski starred numerous Spaghetti such as : Pray to Kill and Return Alive , Black Killer , If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death , Bullet King , Shangai Joe , Clint the solitary , The Ruthless Four , Nevada Kid , The return of Clint , and specially famous resulted to be his acting in ¨For a fistful of dollars more¨ .

Evocative and atmospheric cinematography Francisco Marín , shot on location in Spain , Almeria , desert Tabernas , as usual . Adequate and thrilling musical score by Carlos Pes . Twisted and complex screenplay by Juan José Balcázar , being efficiently produced by his brother , Alfonso Balcázar , who financed and directed a lot of Westerns . The motion picture was professionally directed by Nando Cícero who made other westerns as ¨Il Tempo Degli Avvoltoi¨ and ¨Professionals for a Massacre¨ and several Italian Sex comedies as La Dottoressa Del Distretto Militare , W La Foca , L'assistant Sociale Tutto Pepe , La Liceale Il Diavolo E L'Acquasanta , Il Gatto Mammone , among others .

Antonio Sabato wakes on a hillside with a gun in his hand, a bullet groove on the side of his dead and no memory. Next to him lies a corpse, also clutching a gun. Last of all, there's a rifle on the ground with the word "Dingus" scratched into the butt. After being helped by a passing old man, the confused Sabato is directed towards town, where things get even more complicated.

Someone recognises him in the bar, and the next thing you know he's finding out he's been hired to kill a guy - his own brother! Played by Klaus Kinski! I'm not sure which of those revelations in more shocking. Kinski's a right arse here, taking land from the locals by force and building himself up quite a few enemies by doing so - including the local bankers who want to buy the land.

Sabato spends a lot of the film looking confused and wondering who all these people are and who the mysterious girl in the locket is (given to him by yet another mysterious girl). Sabato's mum isn't much help as she's gone insane and talks to her husband like he's not lying in a grave, but maybe that huge rifle over the fireplace will clear the air a bit...

There's a nice new angle to this one as our hero is not interested in any gold - he just wants his memory back. Quite a dark film too - the set up shots of the two inert bodies on the hill gets the following going in grim fashion, as does the landowner riding into town dead on his carriage. The only light hearted part is when Sabato's dog gets stuck into the bad guys during a gunfight. Kinski is his usual 'Crazy Frog with Hair' person.

Also starring Cristine Galbo from the House That Screamed and the forthcoming awesome Living Dead At the Manchester Morgue, and a film from the eighties called Suffer, You Prick!

Kinski, who was never one of my favourites (too much of a diva on set) has been further soured by allegations from his daughter in 2013 that he molested her. We'll never know it that's true or not, but it's certainly going to put a dampner on the next 600 Italian films he appears in.

In the great opening scene of this movie, a wounded man (Anthony Sabato) comes to among a pile of dead bodies and feasting vultures. He is suffering from amnesia, so he goes to the nearby town and ends up being hired by some greedy bankers to kill a man, who turns out to be his brother. He instead decides to join forces with his brother, but since the brother is apparently a local bully, willing to terrorize innocent homesteaders to keep them from selling out to the bank--and, more importantly, since he is played by sinister German actor Klaus Kinski--it's not clear he's necessarily the good guy in the conflict. The man then goes back to his family home to find his father and pregnant bride have been murdered, and that his mother has sunken into dementia. His brother's uncaring attitude to all this begins to make him even more suspicious.

This movie is kind of like the more recent art-house hit "Memento" (except that the character here is suffering from long-term amnesia instead of short-term memory loss). All the people he meets act mysterious at best, and at worst, seem to be trying to take advantage of him for their own purposes. And like with "Memento" the viewers are kept just as much in the dark as the protagonist. This is not nearly as good as "Memento", of course, and the final revelations are pretty seriously fumbled. Still it's not a bad movie. Sabato was one of those handsome but bland European actors (he kind of looks like a young Brando here), but he is better in this movie than in some of his other stuff I've seen. Kinski is always pretty good, but he suffers from being rather inappropriately dubbed into English. Women almost never have decent roles in these movies, but it's always nice to see the lovely Spanish actress Cristina Galbo (who headlined two classic Spanish horror movies, "La Residence" and "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie", and one of the classic Italian gialli "What Have you Done to Solange?") even if it is in a throwaway role like this.

This is available on one of those collections of public domain spaghetti westerns. It doesn't look great (like all public domain collections the presentation of the various films is pretty uneven), but it's still worth seeing