7 Winchester pour un massacre

Ticks all the right boxes with some whacky characters and several exciting action sequences. The musical score is half decent to. The story concerns a Confederate Major, who is caring on his own private campaign and after the official surrender. Sort of plays like an inferior 'Hellbenders' by the great Sergio Corbucci. The lower score of six, is just a comparison to the many other, better examples of this particular genre but the fans will still enjoy.

Enzo G. Castellari was a director who seemed to contribute films in a variety of genres, from sci-fi to giallo. I get the feeling that his best ones are his spaghetti westerns though. In Payment in Blood he delivers a pretty solid entry. Its story features a renegade Confederate colonel who refuses to accept the South's defeat in the American Civil War and so continues the fight with a band of outlaws. A stranger saves one of his gang from execution and is taken into their fold when he reveals that he knows the whereabouts of a casket of buried money.

It would only be fair to say that the plot-line has quite a few similarities with Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy. Its hero, however, looks a little different from the shady leads from other spaghettis. He looks more like a character from an American traditional western, although he still has the same amorality and essentially acts in a similar way. The villains are decent enough and there is a fair amount of violent action to keep us entertained. Things are wrapped up with an interesting enough climax in an Indian burial ground, located in a cave. Overall, this is an entertaining, if unremarkable, western and should definitely find approval with fans of the Italian strand.

The title "Payment in Blood" appears to be a marketing title as another title of the movie was "Renegade Riders" as seen in the opening credits in the 1993 VHS released by MNTEX Entertainment. The transfer was low quality as the beginning credits were cut off since it was in "pan and scan" mode and not the "letterbox" mode usually used in the beginning to capture the full screen credits with the saloon style border.

The movie has all the classic Spaghetti-Western style and sound effects and out-of-sync voice dubbing that people love. It would be nice to see a new DVD transfer from the original film stock but there are no DVDs available although there are wide screen versions on the internet floating around.

Macarroni Western starred by two ordinary Spaghetti actors as Guy Madison and Edd Byrnes ; both of whom played several Italian oaters . Simple but effective Western that has all the classic ingredients of a good Spaghetti . It deals with a gunman named Stuart (Edd Byrnes) joins up with a gang of Confederate guerrillas commanded by Col. Thomas Blake (Guy Madison) to find a cache of missing Confederate gold . Set during post Civil War a misfit group carries out a risked travel beyond enemy lines , as Stuart teams up a motley bunch , including a veteran captain and other various colleagues (Ryk Boyd and Ennio Girolami , among others) to help them out by promising a massive reward if it succeeds . As the meanest rebel ever born lives only to make 'em die . They must pull off the dangerous objective , as Stuart and the ambitious drifters join forces to take a lot of money from confederacy that has been buried into an Indian cemetery similarly to ¨The good , the bad and the ugly¨ . The dangerous assignment is set against stark environment , Union soldiers attacks and hazardous trails . As the battle for victory has ended but the war for vengeance goes on.

This enjoyable Ravioli Western packs thrills, action , brawls , crossfire and drags at times , balancing in ups and downs . There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing shootouts , fights or stunts every few minutes . This is an agreeable Western all'Italiana dealing with a continuous confrontation among protagonists and both of them against several opponents . The movie has the typical European Western characters , as the bloody facing off , greedy antiheroes, dusty and spectacular showdowns , extreme baddies ; and being rightly directed . This Italian Western was filmed in 1967 , a notorious year in the development of European western that almost doubled since former year with movies mostly filmed in Spain and Italy . Director Enzo G Castell makes a nice camera work with some zooms and clever choreography on the showdown , fighting , spectacular shootouts and entertaining scenes . The film blends violence , high body-count and it's fast moving and quite entertaining ; there is a very odd implementation of shots in the camera work during some particular scenes as the film approaches its climax , as in the ending gunfights and the customary showdown conclusion . Guy Madison's performance in the movie is a bit wooden for the role of such an interesting character, a rebel confederate Colonel similarly to Quantrill or Anderson , but the fantastic performance by Edd Byrnes as a likable gunslinger saves the show . Edd is very fine , he ravages the screen , he jumps , bounds and leaps , hit and run . Byrnes as a brave and two-fisted gunfighter is terrific , subsequently the would play similar roles in other Spaghettis as "Professionals for a Massacre" by Nando Cicero and ¨Any can gun play¨ by Enzo G Castell . Ennio Girolami , Marino Girolami's son , plays as a cruelly baddie role ,he is pretty good , subsequently he would play similar characters in various oaters and Spaghettis , many of them directed by his brother Enzo G Castellari . The musician Francesco De Massi composes a nice soundtrack , well conducted , this turns out to be one of the most memorable parts of the movie , adding catching songs at the initiation and final .

The film was well produced/written by Marino Girolami who used pseudonyms as Fred Wilson or Dario Silvestri , he is father of Enzo G. Castellari and Ennio Girolami and brother of Romolo Guerrieri . Marino wrote and directed several Western such as "Badmen of the West" ,"Two Ringos from Texas", "God Was in the West, Too, at One Time" , "God Was in the West, Too, at One Time" . The motion picture was professionally directed by Enzo G Castell . Enzo usually makes experimental editing techniques such as unbroken transitions from one scene to another and a cameo appearance in his films . Castellari often works with Guido and Maurizio De Angelis and uses to do slow motion shootouts and choreographic death scenes . Enzo is a good a craftsman working in all kind of genres , as he made Western especially . His first one was ¨Some dollars for Django¨ co-directed by Leon Klimovsky , but actually, for the most part of its filming by the disagreements arising with Klimovsky was realized by Enzo G. Castellari, which this film was his directorial debut in a sub-genre that became one of its greatest representatives ; in fact if you compare the beginning of "7 Winchester for a massacre" which would direct the next year and the end this one seem to be similar direction . After that , he went on directing ¨ Johnny Hamlet¨ , ¨Kill them everybody and came back alone¨, ¨Tedeum¨ , ¨Cipolla colt¨ and the masterpiece : ¨Keoma¨ and finally its inferior sequel ¨Jonathan of the Bears¨ also with Franco Nero . Some of them are serious , others are goofy and plenty of slapstick and slapdash . This ¨Seven Winchester for a massacre¨ is a bewildering story , enjoyable in lots of parts and it will appeal to Spaghetti Western fans . It's a passable film , and better than a lot of the ulterior spaghetti western to come .

Crazed Confederate raider Guy Madison can't stop raiding, even after the Civil War is over and done with. Ex-Confederate Edd "Kookie" Byrnes knows where a fortune in confederate treasure is buried and needs the bloodthirsty Madison and his band of cutthroats to get there, leading to an uneasy alliance and a harrowing trip across the frontier.

Another of director Enzo G. Castellari's patented brand of light-hearted adventure films, Payment In Blood is a decent enough, if not very original movie. It does have it's share of good action scenes, locations, and performances by it's lead actors, benefiting greatly from Byrnes charisma and Madison's machismo. The climax at the Indian burial ground is pretty neat too.

Castellari is actually pretty good at setting up and directing action sequences. He made his fair share of good movies, but I feel he really could have knocked it out of the park (and still can) if given the right script.