A Fistful of Dollars

By 1964, the spaghetti western genre -- westerns typically made in Italy and Spain with Italian backing -- was alive and well, but not quite what people think of now. The genre was still in its infancy, light, even family-oriented westerns that were cheap knockoffs of American westerns. That changed in 1964, one movie kicking in the door and changing the genre and westerns as a whole in a huge way. The movie? 1964's A Fistful of Dollars.

In the small, south of the border town of San Miguel, a nameless gunfighter (Clint Eastwood) rides into town and promptly catches the attention of three gunfighters. He callously shoots them down in the street and heads to the saloon. There he meets the saloon owner, Silvanito (Jose Calvo), who fills him in on the town and its background. Things are run by two warring families, the Rojos, three brothers led by the maniacal, Ramon (Gian Maria Volonte), and the Baxters, led by the town sheriff, John (Wolfgang Lukschy). The two families are always going at it, and the mysterious gunfighter sits directly in the middle. Seeing a chance to make some serious money, the gunman pits the two families against each other, his job made that much easier when a troop of Mexican cavalry rides into San Miguel transporting a gold shipment headed for the U.S.

Wow, what a movie from director Sergio Leone as he kicks off his Dollars trilogy. A director with a handful of films to his name -- some credited, some not -- Leone put his name on the map with this western. This is unlike just about any western that came before it. Leave it to an Italian director working in Spain with an international cast and crew to rewrite the most American of genres. Tweaking Akira Kurosaw's Yojimbo, this is dark, dirty, brutally sadistic and cynical from the characters to the story and everything in between. There aren't so much good guys and bad guys, just less bad guys. No one is safe. The violence is aggressive, stylish and in your face. 'Fistful' helped propel the western into a new age, Leone's For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly hitting theaters in the two years following. It all started here, and it starts in a big way.

A recognizable face from TV's Rawhide, Clint Eastwood was far from a star in 1964. He was a definite TV star and had some supporting parts in films, but in 1964, he signed on to star in this Euro-western with a director he knew little about. What a wise decision it was, Eastwood propelling to international stardom thanks in great part to the Leone westerns. This is the definition of a western anti-hero. He isn't typically interested in what's right or living up to his word. He's looking to survive, make some money and move on. He earned the nickname the Man with No Name -- he's called Joe here, Manco and Blondie in the other Dollars movies -- for these movies, a gunfighter and drifter who moves from job to job. For the most part, he's a man of few words, typically letting his six-shooter do his talking. He squints and stares, sometimes revealing that "I'm up to something" smirk.

Much of the character is in the visual. Eastwood's Man with No Name wears a hat pulled down tight on his head, a long poncho over his frame, a calfskin vest and denim shirt, tight blue jeans, and plain boots with his gunbelt worn low on his hip. His face is covered in a short beard, almost a five-o'clock shadow. Talk about doing a 180 from the typical white hat-wearing western hero. That's a big part of the spaghettis appeal, credit going to Leone in general. The west was hot, dirty and sweaty, and it reflects in the look of the movie. The Almeria locations, the wardrobes, the town sets, all these little things add up to the success of the movie. Oh, and there's that composer, Ennio Morricone, turning in a memorable score that he would top with the next two movies. A good score, but he would set the bar high with each passing movie. Listen to an extended sample HERE. It's all those little things that add up from the look to the style to soundtrack to the stylish opening credits, and they all add up here nicely.

Working again with Leone a year later as the villain in For a Few Dollars More, Volonte became one of the all-time great western villains as the psychotic, pot-smoking Indio. It took that crazy performance to keep this performance in the background. Volonte delivers a gem of a part as Ramon Rojo, the fiery leader of the Rojo family. He's a brutal, calculating killer who's a dead-shot with a rifle. In Eastwood's Joe, he sees an expert gunman who can cause problems. Snake-like, sinister and creepy, a great lead performance. His brothers include Sieghardt Rupp and Antonio Prieto Puerto, his gang including spaghetti regulars Benito Stefanelli, Aldo Sambrell and Mario Brega. Along with Lukschy as the Baxter patriarch, look for Margarita Lozano as his wife and Bruno Carotenuto as their oldest son, Antonio.

In a lot of ways, 'Fistful' feels like a dry run for what's to come. The cynicism, the style, the characters, the shootouts, Leone would improve on it all over the next two movies. The gunfights are quick and harsh, and the finale as Joe stands down Ramon, his brothers and their gang shows that style that would become iconic in 'FAFDM' and 'GBU.' The close-ups, sometimes extreme close-ups of faces and eyes, the violent fanning of the gun for rapid fire effect. It's all there. Is it a great movie? No, but it's really good. A modern comparison is easy, Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. Batman Begins is a really good movie, but the next two movies are simply better. That said, the first one had to lay out the groundwork for what was to come. An excellent movie, a huge turning point for where westerns would go in the mid to late 1960s.

A Fistful of Dollars (1964): ***/****

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

I don't remember which movie I saw first, A Fistful of Dollars or For a Few Dollars More, but I do remember this. I liked Gian Maria Volonte from the first movie I saw him in, a great villain in the first two flicks of Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy. There's a problem of course, a lot of his movies simply aren't available to watch. Thankfully after sitting on my Netflix Unavailable queue for about three years, 1970's Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion became available. Thanks, Criterion Collection!

Visiting his mistress, Augusta (Florinda Bolkan) at her apartment, a middle-aged, well-dressed man (Volonte) has sex with her and promptly murders her, slicing her throat with a thin razor blade. He takes his time leaving the apartment, showering, gathering his things and doing one last thing. He calls the police, reporting a murder and even providing the address. He leaves the apartment and drives to work....where he's the Chief of the Homicide Division. His detectives and officers are busy dealing with the recently reported murder of his mistress, the Chief going about it like nothing's wrong. He's been promoted as well, moving up to Chief of the Political Division, leaving Homicide with the best reputation it has had in years. How good is the reputation though? Can his own force find out he's the murderer?

From director and screenwriter Elio Petri (writing with Ugo Pirro), 'Investigation' is an Italian film that earned Oscars, numerous international awards and according to Wikipedia (and when are they ever wrong?) is widely regarded as one of the great international films of the entire 1970s. For years, it simply wasn't available to watch in the United States, only getting its release in the U.S. recently courtesy of a Criterion Collection DVD release. I don't feel comfortable enough with an entire decade to call it one of the best, but it's easy to see the appeal. The story, the message (sometimes a little heavy-handed), the style, and the location shooting in Italy go a long way. It certainly has a lot going for it, starting with....

None other than Gian Maria Volonte. I went into this movie with a preconceived notion of what this movie was going to be like, the Netflix sleeve backing me up. I assumed Volonte's main character was trying to cover up the fact that he murdered his mistress. Yeah, about that.....nope. He wants to be caught. He wants to test the system, hence the title. The premise is that certain people just couldn't commit crimes, just wouldn't do it, especially one as heinous as murder. He's a police chief, of the Homicide Division at that, so he couldn't be a prime suspect in the investigation, could he? That's what Volonte's Chief intends to do. This is an epic cat and mouse game he's playing here. Having murdered the mistress, he casually walks around the apartment leaving clues that he was there. He leaves his fingerprints on a variety of things, steals jewelry but leaves a large pile of cash, is even spotted by a tenant in the apartment building.

So everything is seemingly working against him, right? That's the beauty of this part, the ever-developing case against him. The Chief goes into his plan fully intending to test the system, to see if he can get away with it, if his Division will put the pieces together and actually figure out it's him. He's an idealist if possibly insane and unhinged for actually murdering someone to try and prove a point. Is it ego? Is it pride? What drives him? I would have loved with a little more explanation as to his reasoning. What we do see is a man who is both convinced he's right and also a man who is sure he's made the wrong decision, trying to trip the police up at different points instead of spelling it out. He's impeccably smooth, always wearing a perfectly tailored tie, his hair slicked back into position, a man oozing with confidence and ego just daring to be taken down a notch or two. It's a great part that straddles that fine line between villain and master of evil villain. As mentioned, I would have loved a little more explanation, but the gist of his reasoning is there.

This is Volonte's movie, plan and simple. The rest of the cast is a means of testing him and pushing him, seeing how far he can push back at times with his fellow detectives, his superiors, the people working the nuts and bolts aspect of the police force. Let's start with Bolkan as the mistress, Augusta, just plain old crazy and a bit of a tramp...to put it lightly. It is her who first puts the thought of murder in the Chief's head, seeing how exactly he would murder someone and get away with it. Creepy performance, but a good one. Arturo Dominici is Mangani, the Chief's replacement in the Homicide Division, while Orazio Orlando is very good as Biglia, a younger officer but a smart one, someone who starts to see that the Chief should be a prime suspect. Gianni Santuccio is appropriately sleazy police commissioner, Volonte's Chief point-blank admitting the victim was his mistress. Also look for Sergio Tramonti as Antonio Pace, a revolutionary, an anarchist looking to cause some problems.  

The 1960s and 1970s were quite the turbulent, violent time in Italy, corruption wreaking havoc in the government and police force. The message here isn't subtle....basically don't trust anyone in a power position. ANYONE. It can be a little heavy-handed in its execution, but the story and premise are more than interesting enough to overcome that relative weakness. The ending is pretty good too, seemingly a twist throwing everything for a loop before revealing an open-ended finale that really isn't so open-ended when you think about it. A good movie with a great performance from Volonte that will hopefully pick up some more buzz in 2013 courtesy of a great-looking DVD from the Criterion Collection. Also worth mentioning, a playful musical score that builds up that tension from who else? Ennio Morricone of course.

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970): ***/****

Le Cercle Rouge

Before I started this blog a little over a year and a half ago, I had watched a handful of movies that I didn't feel like reviewing.  Sure, it was only a week or two since I'd seen them, but as much as possible I wanted to review a flick with the flick fresh in my mind.  One movie I really wanted to review was a Netflix rental that has quickly climbed to a non-existent list of my favorite movies (okay, I have a definitive Top 5), 1970's Le Cercle Rouge or for us non-French speaking moviegoers, The Red Circle. With some leftover b-day money, I bought the pricey Criterion Collection DVD, and 18 months later after initial viewing, here's the review.

Over a three-year span, French director Jean-PierreMelville had one of the best strings of movies ever for a director starting with Le Samourai in 1967, continuing with Army of Shadows in 1969 and wrapping up with 1970's Cercle Rouge. I've yet to see a Melville film I didn't enjoy, but 'LCR' was my favorite.  It's a slower-paced heist movie that features the director's typically cool gangsters in a world where everyone looks out for themselves and anyone would turn you in if it would benefit them even a little bit.  But more than that, it is a surprisingly deep look at the criminal underworld, and the way complete strangers bond and work together in strenuous situations...in this case a jewelry heist.

In Paris, three men are about to work together for the first time on a perfectly planned jewelry heist that will net them almost $20 million francs.  There's Corey (Alain Delon), a recently released prisoner who has nothing left for him back home and vows to never return to prison. Supremely cool, calm and collected, nothing seemingly can get to him.  Second is Vogel (Gian Maria Volonte), an escaped fugitive who accidentally meets Corey, the two forming a quick friendship when they realize how similar they are.  Last there's Jansen (Yves Montand), a former cop and expert marksman struggling with a drinking problem, a man just looking for redemption and a second chance. But while these three conspire together to pull the jewelry heist, a police inspector (Andres Bourvil) investigates anything and everything he can about Vogel, wanting to catch the man who slipped through his grasp.

For fans of Melville, this is a prime example of when a director figures everything out in the moviemaking process, knowing exactly what he wants in a finished product.  He puts it together here.  His characters are loners, men of principle who even in the underworld hold honor and respect to a high degree.  The gangsters wear suits, trench coats and hats, smoke cigarettes and drink hard liquor.  There is always a cool, light jazz soundtrack playing over their actions.  They populate late night clubs and lonely, dusty apartments.  And no matter what, these guys are cool to the utmost.  It is a highly stylized, very suave and most likely idealized view of the criminal underworld, but you know what? It doesn't matter.  Melville drops you into this gangster's world, and you just go along for the ride.

We go into this world with the three men who've never worked together, and know very little about each other.  But with little to no background on Corey (what was he in prison for?) or Vogel (why was he arrested?), Melville makes these characters who would be very easy to dislike the ones you side with.  This is a performance that ranks with Le Samourai as Delon's best.  His Corey is so quietly understated you wonder if Delon is even acting or just playing himself.  In terms of pure cool, it doesn't get better than this character.  The same for Volonte as Vogel, an intense part as this mysterious crook we know nothing about.  Montand gets the most background for his character and doesn't disappoint.  Separately, all three parts are perfect, but together, they're as good as it gets in movies.  The scenes among the three are pitch perfect, each character knowing what is expected of them.  These men are professionals and they know how to get the job done.

The tour-de-force scene is an almost 30-minute extended sequence with not a word spoken as Corey, Vogel and Jansen pull off the heist.  With an obvious comparison to Jules Dassin's Rififi, Melville creates a tension that is hard to explain.  You're so geared up during the scene because any sound, any sound at all, will spell doom for this criminal trio.  The security system they're going up against features sensors, hidden locks, and a wide array of technology to deter them.  In terms of pure moviemaking skill, I don't know if Melville was ever better than he was here.  The whole heist is about as ideally laid out as a movie could do.  The whole movie is good, but that extended scene sets it apart from most.

MILD SPOILERS If you've watched any Melville movies, you'll know he's from the old school way of thinking; if your character has done something bad, he's going to have to pay for it.  Le Cercle Rouge applies in every way.  I'm not going to spoil it here, but it's certainly not a happy ending.  The police closing in as the three desperately look to get some cash out of the deal, they make a gutsy play.  It's an ending that caught me by surprise the second time around as much as the first one.  It is a surprisingly moving if downbeat ending that shows the honor and loyalty these crooks have working together.  They're partners, and that's how it is, end result be damned.

It all comes together with a fictional quote that explains the title, the red circle.  Men of a certain ilk like these criminals are destined to end up in the same place as unpleasant as it assuredly will be.  There's nothing they can to do avoid it, this is the path they've chosen.  In the end, they're going to end up together in this 'red circle.' And in the end for Melville, that's where they'll be no matter if it's far from happy. A great ending to one of my favorite movies.

Le Cercle Rouge <----French trailer (1970): ****/**** 

Face to Face

God bless, Youtube, where users can post movies broken up into 10-minute segments for fans to watch for free. I stumbled across a Youtube poster who's put up a wide variety of spaghetti westerns and kung fu movies so before somebody catches on and forces him to take them down, I thought I'd give one a shot. Face to Face is considered one of the best non-Leone spaghetti westerns, but it's only available on DVD from other countries, and I'm not plopping down a couple hundred bucks for a region free DVD player.

Directed by the other Sergio, no, not Leone or Corbucci, yes to Sergio Sollima, Face to Face was the director's follow-up to The Big Gundown which is also considered one of the best in the genre. While many spaghettis went for the lowest common denominator, lots of mindless killing, cool musical score, badass anti-hero, Sollima's westerns, like all his movies, try to deliver a message. It's nothing deep or profound, but there's always something there that adds a deeper layer to the story. Of course, it helps to have the killing, music and antihero to help things along.

A history professor at an eastern university, Brad Fletcher (Gian Maria Volonte) is told to head west by his doctors for the better climate to fight off the disease that is quickly killing him. He improves immediately, but one day a stagecoach occupied by three marshals transporting a prisoner pulls into his village. Brad offers to help the prisoner, but ends up in a hostage situation as the bandit kills his escort. Out in the desert, easterner Brad must care for the wounded bandit, Solomon 'Beau' Bennett (Tomas Milian), the leader of a decimated gang known as Bennett's Raiders.

With nothing tying him down to his home, Brad joins Beau as the bandit reassembles his gang who've been scattered all over thinking their leader is dead. He finds them one by one (spaghetti regulars Frank Brana, Jose Torres, Angel del Pozo, and Nello Pazzafini) and they go back to work. At first timid about handling and shooting a gun, Brad develops into a right hand man to Beau and possibly a threat to his leadership. That's not all that Beau must deal with as Pinkerton agent Charlie Siringo (William Berger) is on his trail, looking to bring him to justice.

Unlike a lot of spaghetti westerns where the bad guys are supremely evil and the antiheroes are really only in it for themselves and the money, Sollima's westerns play on the audience's preconceptions about the characters they're watching. From the start, it's figured that Volonte's Brad is the good guy, the one to root for, while Milian's Beau is the prototypical bad guy, a bandit who will get his due in the end. That changes by the halfway mark as both characters transform into someone different. It's great to see a spaghetti really flesh the characters out.

In doing that, it helps to have actors the caliber of Volonte and Milian. Starring in two of Leone's Dollars trilogy, Volonte is becoming one of my favorite actors. He has an intense look about him, and he wastes no time getting into character. Brad is the early favorite for the good guy role, but he undergoes a change over the course of the movie that is believable and never seems forced. The same can be said for Milian who made his fair share of high-quality spaghettis. He had a penchant for over-the-top Mexican bandit characters in the vein of Eli Wallach's Tuco, and even when his character is a little crazy, he's still appealing, likable to the viewer, or at least me for sure.

As for the checklist of must-haves in the Italian western genre, the leads are a given with Berger rounding out the top trio. His Siringo is based on a real historical figure, and Berger makes the most of a part that has him in and out of the story a lot. In the easy on the eyes department, Jolanda Modio, Carole Andre, and Linda Veras play love interests who are given little to do and have very few lines but look great doing it. So much for well-rounded strong female characters here. 'Face' was filmed in Almeria so you'll see a lot of familiar locations, and Ennio Morricone provides a typically reliable if not hugely memorable score. A botched bank robbery highlights the action late in the movie.

As is the case with Sollima's other westerns, Face to Face doesn't settle for the staus quo. It's a whole lot better than the typical spaghetti western and benefits from strong performances of stars Gian Maria Volonte and Tomas Milian. If like me you're not willing to drop a pretty penny on a region-free DVD player, cruise on over to Youtube and give this one a try. If you're new to the spaghetti western, it's also a good place to start right up there with the Leone and Corbucci entries.

Face to Face <----trailer (1967): *** 1/2 /**** Part 1 of 11 on Youtube

The Four Days of Naples

All too often war movies are thrown by the wayside, and some for good reason; they're not very good. I still love them though, the good and the bad. TCM, officially the best channel ever, aired a WWII drama that I'd never come across this week called "The Four Days of Naples." When I saw some of the cast and recognized names from the spaghetti westerns, I figured I had to give it a try.

This was renegade filmmaking before anyone knew what that meant. There's no big picture here, just the story of resistance fighters going toe to toe with the German troops occupying Naples. The movie starts with a description of how the war is going, Mussolini has been overthrown and the talk of an Italian surrender is rumored all over the country. When it seems like the war may be over for Naples, German troops move into the city to prepare for the upcoming Allied advance.

At first, the Neapolitans go along with the occupation, unwillingly of course but what else is there to do? It takes one moment to push the population to resistance. Two young boys, teenagers maybe, are killed in a brief firefight. One is known, but the other is a mystery. No one recognizes him. In the chaos that results, small resistance units take to the streets with weapons left behind by the Italian army. In the narrow streets of Naples, battles erupt as these inexperienced citizens fight it out with veteran German troops.

What jumped out from the movie was the casting. There's not one main star here, no huge name, just lots of characters the movie follows as the fightings in Naples develops. There's Stimoli (Gian Maria Volonte), an Italian captain who finds himself the unlikely leader of a large group trying to rescue hostages in an abandoned stadium. There's Livornese (Jean Sorel) and Pitrella (Aldo Guiffre, the drunk captain from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), a lieutenant and his sergeant dragging an artillery piece all over the city looking for a fight. There's Gennaro, a young boy separated from his mother who sees the fighting as a bizarre sort of game, joining in with his German helmet he found. Ayello (Raffaele Barbato) is a student at a reformatory, leaving the principal (Georges Wilson) behind, only to have the older man join his band of youngsters. Frank Wolff plays Salvatore, a man looking for revenge after his friend is shot down, his widow joining him. That's just a sampling with many more characters and plot lines jumping out.

One character especially jumps out, and he doesn't even have a name. Charles Belmont plays Sailor, an Italian sailor not quite sure what's going on with a rumored surrender. He begins to move across the city with a German soldier and ends up serving as an example to the Italian people of those who rebel. It's a small part, but a memorable one.

With so many characters, the movie works because director Nanni Loy puts the camera right there in the streets and on the rooftops with the resistance fighters as they tangle with German troops. The black and white cinematography adds something to the feel of realism all the way until the final shot of Italians celebrating their victory. The battles aren't staged or too Hollywood either; people die, there's no immortal hero gunning down hundreds of Nazis.

Of course there's no VHS or DVD so hopefully TCM airs the movie again so more people can see this underappreciated WWII story. The Four Days of Naples trailer, unfortunately with some bad dubbing, the TCM version had subtitles.