More Dead Than Alive (1968)

[cigar joe]

Now this was an interesting Western from Dir Robert Sparr. It has a very Spaghetti Western sounding title but only until the end does it ring true.

I suspect that the beginning sequence was tacked on to increase the action and the body count because it doesn't really fit at all very well with the tone of the rest of the film and the prison looks a bit hokey, more like a set out of a French Foreign Legion flick, improving on that would have helped. It could have been handled in a similar way to LVC's "Death Rides a Horse" where he leaves his prison without the botched prison rescue attempt.

Clint Walker is Killer Cain a man who had 12 notches on his gun when he went into prison in 1873 he has vowed not to touch a gun and for 18 years he hasn't even when offered one during the prison rescue breakout. He gets let out in 1891 the world has changed he sees telephones, bicycles, and phonographs, he watches a traveling shooting skills show owned by Ruffalo (Vincent Price) who recognizes him and offers him a job as a marksman, he refuses since he doesn't want to touch a gun. He can't find a job when he tells employers who he is so he finally assumes an alias and is employed as a bouncer at a gambling hall until his true identity is discovered. 

During all this he meets an artist, Ann Francis who is from Boston recording the last of the Wild West in sketches and oils and they start an on and off  relationship.

Eventually he gives in and joins Rufallo's show, and he has a conflict at the get go with the shows former star a young sharpshooter played by Paul Hampton. He sort of gets into the mentor/kid relationship with him and things settle down a bit for a while. After a confrontation with his past in the form of an old rival he quits the show and again runs into the Ann Francis character who now has bought a tumbled down ranch, he sets about fixing up the place and decides that with some stock he can make a go of it but he can't get a loan from the bank and he doesn't want to take money from the artist. He decides to return back to the Wild West show for a while to earn some cash. This film had enough interesting twists to keep you guessing throughout and a very Spaghetti Western like ending.

It has this terrible score though, that should have been jettisoned.

Worth renting from Netflix 7/10

[titoli]

I agree to a T with the above.

[drinkanddestroy]

just saw on Netflix. Interesting watch.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064695/

imdb says it was filmed in California but the exteriors definitely look like Almeria to me

[stanton]

Definitely Spain