I finally watched "The Hellbenders" on Saturday, got the Anchor Bay DVD off Amazon.com and sat down and watched this Joseph Cotton starring flick with Norma Bengell, Julian Mateos & Gino Pernice. It also has great cameos by Benito Steffenelli, Aldo Sambrel, and Al Mulock.
This was a film that looked and felt very much like an American Western, which I wasn't quite expecting (though I shouldn't say that since I've come to expect the unexpected from Corbucci) though it did have SW twists. Basically it starts with a Union Cavalry detachement that is escorting a million dollars in old currency designated to be destroyed (ie., burned). We see this detachment struggling to cross a river and there are some great action shots of this segment alone.
Joseph Cotton plays the part of an ex Confederate officer determined to take the money and make a new start, resurrecting the Confederacy. This is one of Hollywood's and 50's TV Westerns staple post Civil War "characters". You've seen variations of this depiction from the officer that goads the posse into stringing up Anthony Quinn and his compadres in "The Ox Bow Incident" to Edmund O'Brien's turn as one in living in a surreal southern mansion in "Rio Conchos" starring Richard Boone these come to mind. But Cotton is not restricted to just a few scenes at the climax but is present as a somewhat sincerely dedicated semi religious looney throughout the whole film. Great stuff! So the story concerns the stealing of the money and the treck to get it to safety through a countryside swarming with soldiers and civilian posses all looking for the perpetrators of the heist.
This film is pretty much devoid of any SW style standoff gunfights and derives most of its tension from the various encounters and twists in the plot. It does have some of the familiar SW symbology though. All this is very well done. The actors that play Cotton's sons could have used a bit more fleshing out but thats a minor quibble. You don't quite react to them as well as you might have.
It dose have some faults however, its supposed to be just after the end of the Civil War and here my "curse of Leone" rears its head.
Now I don't know about you but ever since I've seen GBU and the rest of Leone's work I've been effected by the "curse" which is Leone emphasized the weaponry and ever since I've paid attention to this particular aspect of all Westerns, both AW's and SW's and even some of the classic AW's ie. "Red River" fall prey to it. I guess pre Leone nobody really cared a Western was a Western and not taken seriously.
In Il Crudeli the ex Southerners of the "Hellbenders" Regiment are equipped with Winchesters. OK in 1866 there were "Yellow Boy" Winchesters so you can over look this, but the six guns they carry are Colt 1873 Peacemakers, a big anachronisim, that could and should have been corrected, and is not easy to overlook, if you are familiar with the weaponry. Other that this, this film is entertaining but it could have been great. Morricone's score is average, nothing that memorable, not bad but not outstanding either.
Al Mulock has the biggest part I've ever seen and he does an excellent job, and its worth a look for this alone. He actually does a great job, check it out. Aldo Sambrel also makes an appearance, as does Steffenelli but his is brief.
The Anchor Bay DVD has just a trailer and a printed bio for Corbucci, pretty sparce if you ask me. But I'm glad to have this film.
Here is a film that could be remade with a slightly bigger budget more Western landscapes and a better attention to accuracy, its a great story won't need a lot of sets, and I can see a modern version of this somewhere down the line if Westerns come into vogue again.
This was a film that looked and felt very much like an American Western, which I wasn't quite expecting (though I shouldn't say that since I've come to expect the unexpected from Corbucci) though it did have SW twists. Basically it starts with a Union Cavalry detachement that is escorting a million dollars in old currency designated to be destroyed (ie., burned). We see this detachment struggling to cross a river and there are some great action shots of this segment alone.
Joseph Cotton plays the part of an ex Confederate officer determined to take the money and make a new start, resurrecting the Confederacy. This is one of Hollywood's and 50's TV Westerns staple post Civil War "characters". You've seen variations of this depiction from the officer that goads the posse into stringing up Anthony Quinn and his compadres in "The Ox Bow Incident" to Edmund O'Brien's turn as one in living in a surreal southern mansion in "Rio Conchos" starring Richard Boone these come to mind. But Cotton is not restricted to just a few scenes at the climax but is present as a somewhat sincerely dedicated semi religious looney throughout the whole film. Great stuff! So the story concerns the stealing of the money and the treck to get it to safety through a countryside swarming with soldiers and civilian posses all looking for the perpetrators of the heist.
This film is pretty much devoid of any SW style standoff gunfights and derives most of its tension from the various encounters and twists in the plot. It does have some of the familiar SW symbology though. All this is very well done. The actors that play Cotton's sons could have used a bit more fleshing out but thats a minor quibble. You don't quite react to them as well as you might have.
It dose have some faults however, its supposed to be just after the end of the Civil War and here my "curse of Leone" rears its head.
Now I don't know about you but ever since I've seen GBU and the rest of Leone's work I've been effected by the "curse" which is Leone emphasized the weaponry and ever since I've paid attention to this particular aspect of all Westerns, both AW's and SW's and even some of the classic AW's ie. "Red River" fall prey to it. I guess pre Leone nobody really cared a Western was a Western and not taken seriously.
In Il Crudeli the ex Southerners of the "Hellbenders" Regiment are equipped with Winchesters. OK in 1866 there were "Yellow Boy" Winchesters so you can over look this, but the six guns they carry are Colt 1873 Peacemakers, a big anachronisim, that could and should have been corrected, and is not easy to overlook, if you are familiar with the weaponry. Other that this, this film is entertaining but it could have been great. Morricone's score is average, nothing that memorable, not bad but not outstanding either.
Al Mulock has the biggest part I've ever seen and he does an excellent job, and its worth a look for this alone. He actually does a great job, check it out. Aldo Sambrel also makes an appearance, as does Steffenelli but his is brief.
The Anchor Bay DVD has just a trailer and a printed bio for Corbucci, pretty sparce if you ask me. But I'm glad to have this film.
Here is a film that could be remade with a slightly bigger budget more Western landscapes and a better attention to accuracy, its a great story won't need a lot of sets, and I can see a modern version of this somewhere down the line if Westerns come into vogue again.