Minnesota Clay

For right or wrong, movie fans think Sergio Leone created the spaghetti western genre. They would be wrong. With his Dollars trilogy, especially Fistful of Dollars, he didn't create the genre but instead put it squarely on the map, put it in the spotlight. Spaghetti westerns had been around for several years but in an earlier, nicer form. Leone would flip that formula. One pre-Leone spaghetti is pretty decent, a mix of an American and Italian western, 1964's Minnesota Clay.

Wasting away for years at a labor camp in the desert, Minnesota Clay (Cameron Mitchell) has had enough, vowing to prove his innocence. Years before, Clay was sent to prison in a frame-up job, found guilty for gunning down two men. In reality, it was self-defense, but a bribed court didn't see it that way.  He manages to escape, heading for home but in his hometown of Mesa Encantada, Clay finds the town being run by two rival gangs, one a gang of Mexican bandits led by General Ortiz (Fernando Sancho), the other run by a man called Fox (Georges Riviere), an old friend originally hired to protect the town. Looking to clear his name, Clay finds himself pitted against both gangs, working to save his own skin before they turn on him. His reputation as one of the fastest guns around is about to be tested in a big way.

Part of the 50 Spaghetti Western collection I bought several years ago, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I knew this next tidbit but didn't remember it going in, but 'Minnesota' is from director Sergio Corbucci, later of Django, The Great Silence, The Mercenary and Companeros fame, among others. Corbucci's big hit, Django, would hit theaters internationally two years later, but here in 1964 with the genre still in its infancy, Corbucci shows his potential with a middling movie. It still has touches of American westerns (forced love interest, forced comedic moments), but there's also some clear, early examples of where the genre is/was heading. There's some familiar locations, decent if not memorable music from Piero Piccioni (he did much better) and a story eerily similar to Fistful of Dollars which was based off Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo. Not great, but better in general than some early spaghetti entries.

Over the last year, I've been watching The High Chaparral, a TV western that aired for four seasons and is now on syndication, letting me catch up two episodes at a time. One of the stars? Cameron Mitchell who I like a lot as Buck Cannon, a loving life cowboy. I've seen plenty of movies with him, but nothing quite like this. A recognizable face in American westerns, it's cool to see him head to Italy and star in this early spaghetti. It isn't a flashy part but a good one just the same. Gravelly-voiced, steely-eyed and looking for redemption, Mitchell's Minnesota Clay is a good example of where the spaghetti western anti-hero would go in the coming years. Some time is wasted with his daughter (Diana Martin) who doesn't know her father and her bumbling suitor (Alberto Cevenini), not enough focus on his possibly doomed attempt to clear his name. Not the biggest name to lead the way in a western but Mitchell more than holds his own.

The supporting cast is a good example of how the spaghetti western genre helped change the western in general. We've got some very good characters and very evil characters with little in between. Riviere is the slimy, smooth Fox, a manipulative businessman with a gang of killers to back him up, Gino Pernice as his main enforcer, Scratchy (quite an imposing name, huh?). Sancho does what he did best, the crazy, overacting, cliched, stereotypical Mexican bandit right down to the crossed bandoliers, the greasy mustache, the maniacal laughing, all a lot of fun. Ethel Rojo gets to femme fatale it up as Estella, a saloon girl who attaches herself to anyone who can help her out. Rounding out 'the good' department, Antonio Casas plays Jonathan Mulligan, Clay's old friend who took his daughter in as his own.

Maybe the biggest thing that audiences ate up with spaghetti westerns was the brutality, just the out and out violent, vicious qualities. No one was safe. NO ONE. Everyone was a possible target. Corbucci especially took those qualities to heart in his movies (Django, Silence, The Hellbenders), and this 1964 western is a good preview. Corbucci loved torturing his anti-heroes, gunslingers who were crippled, maimed, wounded and handicapped, forced to overcome these things to save the day in the end...and sometimes fail. There isn't a ton of gunplay here, most of it saved for two shootouts late. The finale especially is pretty cool, a partially blinded Clay forced to take on a small gang of gunmen. The American and Italian versions had different endings, and for a change, the American ending was better.

A solid spaghetti western all-around.

Minnesota Clay (1964): ** 1/2 /****

The Mercenary

If Sergio Leone is the Founding Father of the spaghetti western, Sergio Corbucci has to be the really cool uncle in the family. He directed some of the coolest and most entertaining westerns to come out of the genre, everything from Django to The Great Silence, Hellbenders to Navajo Joe. Thanks to the Music Box Theatre on the northside of Chicago showcasing spaghetti westerns all summer, I was able to catch up with 1968's The Mercenary.

It's the 1910s and the Mexican Revolution is raging all over the country. Among those fighting is a peon turned bandit, Paco (Tony Musante), who dreams of fighting back against authority, doing something his father was never able to do. Leading a bloody uprising at the silver mine he works at, Paco gets his chance, earning himself a small group of followers. They soon meet Kowalski (Franco Nero), a Polish gun-for-hire who saves himself from a nasty death by agreeing to work with Paco and his men...for a price. Kowalski gives them weapons, ammunition and equipment, more importantly leading them with tactics and strategy. From town to town they attack the government troops, Paco gaining national notoriety while Kowalski earns more and more money. Their fame and notoriety has come at a price with the Mexican army hunting them down, including a dandy of a hired gun, Curly (Jack Palance). All their paths seemed destined to cross.

Over a span of just five years (1966-1970), Corbucci directed six different spaghetti westerns that are considered must-see flicks in the genre, and this is certainly one of them. Where Leone has a reputation of a master filmmaker, Corbucci doesn't have the same pull. His efforts -- while highly entertaining, sometimes highly controversial/weird -- are more straightforward. The movies have more of a rogue, renegade quality that at times feels like its a blood and guts amateur quality. The camera is off-center, cuts and edits are rough to say the least. The counter is that they're usually a hell of a lot of fun. Some like Django are shocking in their violence, others like The Great Silence are shocking but in terms of an almost romantically doomed storyline. Somewhere in between? The Mercenary, just an entertaining flick all around.

'Mercenary' comes from a subgenre dubbed 'the Zapata western' that dealt with the Mexican Revolution, usually focusing on political issues in one way or another. In that sense, it deals with a lot of familiar characters and themes. Nero's Kowalski is the almost necessary outsider, the gunrunner, the mercenary, the hired gun, any variation of American and/or foreign adventurers/profiteers who find themselves in Mexico with a chance to make money. Musante's Paco is the illiterate peon who wants more, who doesn't want to be held down. If there's some fame and riches in the process for him, so be it. Then there's Palance's Curly, the sadistically unique villain that every good western needs. The politics are there but not too heavy-handed, Kowalski and Paco talking about what they hope to achieve, what they can achieve, about what the people should get/want and what the government actually provides.

So, yes, there is politics, but the focus here is far more on the really cool characters and the really cool action. The similarities are obvious in the casting to Leone's Good, Bad and Ugly, assembling a trio of antiheroes -- one worse than the others -- and it works here perfectly too. Nero as Kowalski is a movie-stealer, his Polish mercenary who's out for money, riches and adventure and willing to sell his services to the highest bidder. It's the visual too, his long duster, his tight-fitting vest and tailored shirts, his flat brim hat, his Fu Manchu mustache and long sideburns, even a little guyliner for good measure. Kowalski is smooth, smoother and smoothest, letting absolutely nothing rattle him. It's that confidence that oozes out in the roll, the little touches Nero brings to the part, like striking matches on anything and everything; a woman's breast, a dead man's boot as he hangs from a noose, a rival's gunbelt among others. It is a great leading part, and another great part from the always criminally cool Franco Nero.

Two years later, Corbucci would basically remake this movie with 1970's Companeros. Nero and Palance would return in similar roles with Tomas Milian replacing Musante. While Musante has a good chemistry with Nero and he's very watchable, it just isn't a great part. He gets lost in the shuffle at times, his idealistically fun yet clueless revolutionary not quite living up to expectations. Musante also gets the love interest, Giovanni Ralli as Columba, the Mexican woman caught up in his revolutionary band. And then there's Palance as Curly. Spaghetti westerns had gay characters all over the place, but it's a scream to watch at times. Curly is the definition of a gay caballero, his immaculately coiffed hair, flowers in his jacket lapels, his almost-dainty mannerisms, and adding a nice touch just because, crossing himself over his victims and as he passes crucifixes and churches. An underused part, but a great villain just the same.

Also look for familiar spaghetti western faces Lorenzo Robledo, Raf Baldassarre and plenty of others rounding out the supporting cast. The focus is most definitely on Nero, Musante, Palance and Ralli as the story develops. Having worked with Corbucci in 1966's Django, Eduardo Fajardo returns here as Col. Garcia, the Mexican officer at the head of the regular army column always in pursuit of Kowalski, Paco and his band. And because it'd be criminal to not mention him, Ennio Morricone (working with Bruno Nicolai) turns in another memorable score, this one featuring three main themes, all of them gems. Give it a listen HERE.

Onto the action! Onto the gunfights! There are plenty here, the episodic story of Kowalski and Paco working together well to provide plenty of shootouts, both on a small scale and the large. When it is on-screen, the action is big and chaotic, explosions and shootouts, featuring machine guns, cannons and even an airplane attack late. Corbucci adds a nice touch, hinting at a coming attack at one point, but only lets us hear about its bloody details later. The best though is in the Leone mold, a shootout in an empty bull ring, Kowalski serving as the ringmaster. The buildup is great, the payoff even better. Now the fact that the movie goes on for another 15 unnecessary minutes is an issue, but a minor complaint. A spaghetti western with a great cast and fun action, just a lot of fun to watch.

The Mercenary (1968): ***/**** 

Navajo Joe

Since Burt Reynolds began working on TV in the late 1950s, the actor has pretty much never stopped working, doing movies and television shows over the years. But of all those parts -- and there's been some stinkers -- Reynolds thinks one stands below all the rest, his worst performance and movie ever. So goes 1966's Navajo Joe.

At the head of a gang of bloodthirsty cutthroats and murdering scalphunters, a bandit named Duncan (Aldo Sambrell) leads a vicious attack on a peaceful Navajo village. Men, women and children are massacred, their scalps taken for $1 bounty each. Duncan's gang moves on, working with a corrupt town official, Dr. Lynne (Pierre Cressoy) to rob a train and his own town of over $500,000. The job seems simple enough, but a survivor of the massacre remains, one warrior named Joe (Reynolds), who appears and disappears around the gang, killing one, two and three men with each of his attacks. Duncan becomes obsessed with killing him, especially with all that money on the line.

As Reynolds has claimed, is this his worst part? No, there's much worse out there, but as a movie, this wouldn't be a great introduction to spaghetti westerns. Stick with the Sergio Leone movies first, and then move on to lesser known entries like this. From director Sergio Corbucci (the "Other Sergio"), 'Joe' is rougher, cynical, aggressively in your face, and brutal. Corbucci was a shoot from the hip kind of director, rogue-like behind the camera with touches of an amateur. His camera is always moving, the shooting angles are always a tad off, and they never have (his earlier films at least) the polish of the Leone films. None of that's a bad thing, just know what to expect from Mr. Corbucci. With Django, The Mercenary, Companeros, The Hellbenders, and The Great Silence, he's responsible for some of the best spaghetti westerns around so he's not a talent-less schlub behind the camera.

So how about Reynolds as a Navajo warrior dispatching a gang of scalphunters? It is far from his worst work, but it ain't a great performance either. It's far from his fault. The script for 'Joe' isn't exactly the most well-written thing around, with plot holes and jumps in story all over the place. The 30-year old actor does his best though, and to his credit he commits. It's more of a physical performance than real acting (although thankfully he doesn't try to pull off an Indian "accent"). He leaps all over the screen, shooting, stabbing, jumping, strangling Duncan's gang. There are some unintentionally funny lines -- not just Reynolds, the whole cast -- but above all else, Reynolds looks comfortable. Looking to avenge his wife's death amongst the massacre, Joe is not going to be slowed up, no matter the odds.

As his opponent, familiar spaghetti western face Aldo Sambrell doesn't disappoint as the vicious half-breed, Duncan. Usually relegated to supporting parts, filling out gangs or playing a sheriff or bounty hunter, Sambrell does not disappoint when he jumps into a starring role. His Duncan is a great spaghetti baddie, on the brink of lunacy with past demons threatening to tear him apart. His gang seems to fluctuate as needed -- anywhere between 20-50 guys -- all of them ending up being characters without names, mostly because of their personal, unique and eccentric looks. Some include Jeffrey (Lucio Rosato), Duncan's half-brother, Robledo (Lorenzo Robledo), the quick-draw, trick-shot specialist, Sancho (Alvaro de Luna), the knife fighter, and Monkey (Simon Arriaga), the former Confederate soldier, among many others. Also look for Fernando Rey as what else? A Mexican priest, a role he played fairly often in the spaghetti era. Nicoletta Machiavelli plays Estella, a half-breed woman (Mexican/Indian), who sides with Joe in his efforts.  

Besides Reynolds in the starring role, the thing that has helped 'Joe' live on some 40-plus years later is Ennio Morricone's musical score. It is one of the more unique, quirky scores Morricone ever did, and that's saying something considering how many unique, quirky scores he did in spaghetti westerns. The main theme especially stands out, a woman chanting (seemingly in some sort of pain) before a male choir and instruments kick in. Give it a listen HERE. One of the best things going for the movie on its own, it's received a rebirth thanks to 1999's Election. A young Reese Witherspoon is running for her high school's student body president and in the voting process, tears down all her opponent's posters. What music is playing? Morricone's chanting choir score. Spot-on use of his music too. Watch one example HERE.

So watching this movie for the first time in five years or so, I didn't like it as much as I remembered. It's still good in that guilty pleasure sense, but it's not a classic. The selling point will be the action, and it's particularly brutal. Shooting, stabbing, even a death by scalpel. Navajo Joe alone takes out 26 -- by my count, it's probably light -- of Duncan's gang, who also have over 10 guys killed attacking a heavily guarded train. We see some uses of squibs, and with Corbucci's touch, it is fairly graphic. It isn't a great movie overall, but it is a fun movie, best to watch with some friends and have some laughs.

Navajo Joe <---trailer (1966): ** 1/2 /****