Il grande duello (1972)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Giancarlo Santi

Writer:

Ernesto Gastaldi (writer)

Release Date:

29 December 1972 (West Germany)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

A one man Judge, Jury and Executioner who turns the Wild West into a Blood Bath!

Plot:

A grizzled ex-sheriff helps a man framed for murder to confront the powerful trio of brothers who want him dead.

Plot Keywords:

Sheriff | Bullet Catching | Spaghetti Western

Cast

Lee Van Cleef	...	Sheriff Clayton
Alberto Dentice	...	Philipp Wermeer (as Peter O'Brien)
Jess Hahn	...	Bighorse the Stage Driver
Horst Frank	...	David Saxon / Patriarch Samuel Saxon
Klaus Grünberg	...	Adam Saxon (as Klaus Grunberg)
Antonio Casale	...	Hole the Bounty Hunter (as Antony Vernon)
Marc Mazza	...	Sheriff Eli Saxon
Dominique Darel	...	Elisabeth, Adam's Bride to Be
Alessandra Cardini	...	Anita, One of Madame Oro's Girls (as Sandra Cardini)
Gastone Pescucci	...	Borghese - the Caretaker
Elvira Cortese	...	Madame Oro, Stage Passenger
Anna-Maria Gherardi	...	Saxon's Girl (as Anna Maria Gherardi)
Hans Terofal	...	Jo Barrel
Salvatore Baccaro	...	Saloon Servant
Remo Capitani	...	Bounty Hunter (as Ray O'Connor)

Also Known As:

Drei Vaterunser für vier Halunken (West Germany)
Grand Duel (USA)
Hell's Fighters (UK)
Le grand Duel (France)
Storm Rider (USA) (video title)
The Big Showdown
The Grand Duel

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

Italy | France | West Germany

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 (1988) (cut) | West Germany:16 (nf) | UK:15 (re-rating) (2008) (cut) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1973) | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Elios Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Corona Filmproduktion

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The film takes place during the old west sometime after 1870. However it features a German MG42 machine gun. The MG42 was put into service by the German army in 1942 during WWII.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Madame Oro, Stage Passenger: Hey Driver, can't you put the fear of God into those mules of yours?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

Lee Van Cleef, Man In Black

I read the other comments previous to mine, and won't add to what's already been said, except to say that I really thought there were some remarkable features here.

For example, there's the device of panning a shot from point A to point B. I'm sure there's a technical term for this kind of shot, but I'm no professional, and don't know what it is. But what seemed to me unusual was the very smooth, automatic auto-timing of the transition. Say looking at Clayton for a few long seconds; then as if someone flips a switch, the camera looks from Clayton to Wermeer, traveling at a fixed rate of speed; and upon arriving at Wermeer, the camera proceeds to look at Wermeer for several long seconds.

There were some strange anachronisms. The hair styles seemed very much out of 1970s era. Some of the strangest "western" headgear I've ever seen were in evidence. These chapeaux looked more like something from the Mardi Gras of New Orleans or the Carnivale of Milano than any Western story. Likewise, the almost Gucci-esquire look of the attire of Adam Saxon.

Some very "spaghetti western" style over-the-top grittiness. So in the opening scene, the tall, tall, tall rock. Then we have Lee Van Cleef playing Clayton in a black, black Western outfit in stark contrast to the white outfits of the Saxons. Then we have this strange contraption involving a gun booby-trap set up to blow up their carriage on opening the door near Silver Bell. I loved the game of checkers played with full shot glasses that the players drank whenever they "jumped" someone. Then the room Clayton stays in, full of bullet holes in the walls. When he asks the proprietress if he could have another room, she says there are three kinds of rooms there: "rooms with women in them; rooms for card-games; and this one is for shooting bullets in." Nuff said, right? I loved the final scene ... sort of a Spaghetti Western version of the Shootout at the OK Corral. The love of the grotesque - such as Adam Saxon's pock-marked face - he is sardonically called "Pocksy" at one point. The typical spaghetti western tongue-in-cheek humor is present in such bits, and throughout the movie.

All in all, if you like spaghetti westerns, please do yourself a favor, get this one on DVD, and enjoy! Charles Delacroix