Une corde... un Colt...

This is a violent , beautifully crafted as well as exaggerated Spaghetti and packs taciturn acting on cynical characters with bloodbaths including high body-count , sense of style and elaborate narration . It pits ¨Man with no name¨ against two families that are feuding between them , the Rogers and the Caine . As a gunslinger (Robert Hossein) saves the damsel in distress who is also his former flame (Michelle Mercier) and at the same time she is seeking revenge for death her husband . The gunman join forces with the widow pitting the nasty family who uses twisted means to chase them and it terminates in a deadly feud . The pistolero kills various bandits in a gunfight at the saloon , then he is detained and imprisoned by the sheriff . Later on , there takes place kidnapping , killings , street shootouts at a ghost town and tragic events .

This classic Western titled ¨Une Corde, Un Colt..." or "Cemetery Without Crosses" or "The Rope and the Colt" contains slow and deliberating filming , elaborate shoot-outs , and portentous close-ups of grime-encrustred faces with heinous bloodbaths included . It is a strange , slow-moving and almost utterly visual picture with some surprises and well paced . Robert Hossien stars as a leather-clad gunfighter and wearing black glove , drawn into a dramatic facing off between two revengeful families . Hossein plays a drifter similarly to Clint Eastwood's ¨Man with no name¨ from ¨A fistful of dollars¨ and ¨For a fistful of dollars more¨. Fine support cast formed by Italian/French actors , all of them customary Spaghetti such as Guido Lollobrigida or Lee Burton , Daniele Vargas , Serge Marquand , Benito Stefanelli and Ivano Staccioli . Special mention to Michele Mercier as attractive as well as vengeful widow .

This is a well-made French/Italian production , in spite of , there appears usual Spanish secondary players from Paella/Ravioli Western , mostly uncredited , such as Simón Arriaga , José Canalejas , Álvaro De Luna , Charly Bravo , Cris Huerta , Lorenzo Robledo and Angel Alvarez as a Barman likeness to his role in Django . Unforgettable and terrific original music by André Hossein , in Ennio Morricone style , including a catching leitmotif , one of the best of Spaghetti . Worn-out cinematography by Henry Persin , being necessary a nice remastering because of the colors are faded.

This stylish , violent , laconic Western was very well shot by Robert Hossein and is dedicated to Sergio Leone , who made one of the more important scenes . Hossein did revive his career almost instantly on the strength of this film through the main role and filmmaking . Director Robert Hossein claims that Dario Argento was not involved in writing the screenplay with perhaps not more than two dozen lines of dialog ; Dario Argento is listed in the credits on the Italian and German versions but not on the French version . Robert Hossein said that the dinner scene at the Rogers house was directed by Sergio Leone. Rating : Better than average Spaghetti Western .

Made in 1969 by Robert Hossein who directed this and stars as Manuel – a gunman who has lost his will to fight. Then Michele Mercier as Maria Caine turns up and ask for his help; her husband and his friend has been hung by a gang of ranchers who are a notorious family. She wants justice – but her kind and not the sort dished out by a judge.

He then gets embroiled in a kidnap plot and all bets are off as to how this is going to pan out. Now this is dedicated to Sergio Leone who also makes a cameo appearance. It is screamingly sixties in style – with the music as jarring as it is effective. It is all in English but has that seventies Italian feel for sound recording that makes it sound dubbed. The acting is so straight that it seems forced at times; but that belies the very real undercurrents of what is really going on.

Things are communicated without being said and a look can convey emotions that pages written by a bard would leave unmolested. Some have commented that the pacing could have been better; but you need time to take in what is actually happening under the surface and this is the sort of film where you will spot more on subsequent viewings. It is high time someone made a release of this and much plaudits to Arrow for so doing. This is one for fans of the genre and for those who just love a good old western – not made in the West obviously, but not lacking in any way because of it – seriously recommended.

Une corde, un Colt (AKA: Cemetery Without Crosses) is directed by Robert Hossein, who also stars and co-writes the screenplay with Dario Argento and Claude Desailly. Starring alongside Hossein are Michèle Mercier, Anne-Marie Balin, Daniele Vargas, Guido Lollobrigida and Serge Marquand. Music is by Andre Hossein and cinematography by Henri Persin.

After being forced to watch the lynching of her husband by the ruthless Rogers family, Maria Caine (Mercier) asks her inept brothers-in-law for help in retribution. Getting no joy from the pair, she seeks outside help in the form of fast gun Manuel (Hossein), a loner living in solitude out at a ghost town...

It's dedicated to Sergio Leone, who directs one of the best scenes in the film, contains the Argento factor, so it's not really a shock to proclaim that Leone's influence is all over Hossein's movie.

It's a Pasta Western that operates in the void between the real and the spirit world, deliberately ethereal in tone, even sprinkling dashes of the surreal onto the hearty portion. Dialogue is used sparingly, but not to the detriment of film's quality, and Hossein the director dallies in black and white staging, slow zooms and excellent usage of sound effects.

Much like the dialogue, the violence is pared down, there's no Blunderbuss infused blood laden approach to the evil that men do here, it's all very controlled and in keeping with the tonal flows that Hossein favours. The cliché's of the sub-genre are adhered to throughout, thankfully so, while the finale is suitably melancholic.

Thoughtful, sombre and ripe with blurry ambiguity, Cemetery Without Crosses is comfortably recommended to the Euro Western fan. 8/10

Ever since I saw Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) as a child after burrowing into my brother's VHS collection, I've loved spaghetti westerns. It was only in my teenage years that I realised just how many of these films were made - some excellent, some terrible, and some just outright bizarre - and it's been fun tracking down some of the more obscure titles. While not strictly a 'spaghetti' western due to being French (a 'baguette' western as Alex Cox puts it), Cemetery Without Crosses is a stoic curiosity. Clearly influenced by the work of Leone, the film is an existential, near-silent work that is in equal parts hypnotic and plodding.

Humble farmer Ben Caine (Guido Lollobrigida) is chased and gunned down by members of the Rogers family, who are scooping up all the livestock business from the surrounding areas through fear and violence. Ben is gunned down and hanged in front of his wife Maria (Michele Mercier). With her livelihood destroyed and Ben's brothers Thomas (Guido Lollobrigida) and Eli (Michel Lemoine) opting to flee across the border, Maria turns to old friend Manuel (Robert Hossein), a brooding gunslinger residing in a nearby ghost town, for help. Manuel soon infiltrates the Rogers family and joins them on their ranch, where he sets Maria's revenge in motion.

Though more of a homage to spaghetti westerns, Cemetery Without Crosses certainly looks and feels like it was born and reared in Italy. There are a couple of glimpses of brilliance - a familiar scene of intense stare-downs at the dinner table quickly flips into a moment of outright comedy, and the scene in which a character lights a candle to reveal that they are not alone is truly nerve- shredding. But the plot is wafer-thin, so the camera is often left lingering while the characters do little or nothing at all, and the dialogue is especially sparse, even for a spaghetti western. Hossein, who also directed and co- wrote the film with the credited Dario Argento and Claude Desailly (though in reality Argento had no involvement), simply doesn't possess the magnetic presence of Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson. Exhilarating in bursts but meandering in places, Cemetery Without Crosses is still worth checking out.

From the opening sequence, as a sepia camera lens captures the pursuit of a single rider by a gang on horseback, I just knew that this film was going to demonstrate class. And, although the story itself probably has little to set it apart from many other films within the Euro Western genre, it more than makes up for it with its effective use of camera work and great character portrayal. Yes, this film has class in abundance.

So to the story itself. Having witnessed her husband Ben (a brief but welcome appearance by Benito Stefanelli) executed by the Rogers family, Maria (played by stunning french actress Michèle Mercier) seeks revenge on the killers. Unable to rely on her two oafish brothers-in-law to assist, she seeks help from Ben's best friend (and, as we find out, Maria's former lover) Manuel (Robert Hossein).

Manuel enlists himself as a member of the Rogers gang, enabling him to capture the only daughter. With this prisoner in her custody, Maria has the perfect ransom to deliver a perfect revenge on the Rogers gang. With the scene now set, the bloodshed and twists to the story soon commence.

The character of Manuel is quite unlike any other main western lead that I have seen. Whilst demonstrating an unnerving ability with a gun, there is a definite reluctance to become too embroiled with Maria's plot. His time as a gunfighter by choice has passed - perhaps symbolically shown by him being the sole resident of "Ghost Town". However, his involvement is spurned on by his feelings for her. Hossein, who both played the part of Manuel and directed the movie, plays this solemn and complex character superbly.

Hossein's direction is really eye catching too, with the camera work demonstrating more than a little nod in the direction of a certain Mr Leone (to whom there is a suitable credit in the end title sequence). This is no copycat Leone film however, and firmly stands up on its own merit. Less is definitely more, as the opening scene proves (it must be a good ten minutes before there is any real dialogue. And in reality, when the picture is this effective words are not needed).

In summary, don't be put off by the simplicity of the story, as the way that this film is crafted makes such an issue completely irrelevant. It can stand quite proudly in that top echelon of Euro Westerns, and quite possibly a perfect introduction to the genre to those that have purely seen the Leone movies.