Dir: Demofilo Fidani
Star: Jeff Cameron, Klaus Kinski, Gordon Mitchell, Hunt Powers
a.k.a. A Barrel Full of Dollars
No prizes for guessing the spaghetti Western classic series the makers here are attempting to evoke. Not just in the title though: the significant role played by a watch with a musical chime seems inspired by For a Few Dollars More – which, of course, also included Kinski. Let’s be generous and call those “homages”, since this has a good number of original aspects that can be appreciated. The film doesn’t really need to ride on anyone else’s coat-tails, and is quite capable of standing on its own merits.
It’s a tale of revenge, opening with the brothers of Hagan (Kinski) being returned to him as corpses. He takes revenge on the Hamilton clan he blames for his brothers’ deaths. But he manages to miss George Hamilton, a.k.a. The Nevada Kid (Cameron). When the Kid returns home to find his family slain – and a musical pocket watch at the scene – he vows to stop at nothing to get revenge of his own. He starts asking around about the watch, and eventually discovers its connection to Hagan. The problem is, Hagan also discovers someone is asking, and sends his lieutenant, Tamayo (Powers), out to end the inquiries. Fortunately, the Kid has his own ally – bounty hunter John (Mitchell), who is happy to help out, since the Kid has no interest in collecting the rewards for the ever-growing pile of villains left in his wake.
This is one of the films where Kinski’s character is not the focus, yet is essential to the plot. It’s Hagan’s actions that set things in motion, although at the bottom level, there isn’t much moral difference between him and Hamilton: both want revenge for the death of family members, and to kill those responsible. Despite this mirroring of motivation and action, there’s no doubt who’s the good guy and who’s the villain, as far as the film is concerned. Fidani is firmly in the Kid’s corner, portraying his vengeance as “righteous”, unlike Hagan’s. It’s an interesting double-standard. Perhaps it’s that Hagan is seen to be acting out of rage, while Hamilton’s response feels measured, more like justice is being meted out. We also know he’s correct in his choice of target: we never see who was behind the death of Hagan’s brothers.
This was made the same year as the other Kinski/Fidani collaboration, Giù la testa… hombre – which starred Cameron & Mitchell too, and also rode in on other films’ coat-tails under its alternative titles, A Fistful of Death or The Ballad of Django. I skewered that one as “virtually worthless”: this is considerably better, and largely belies Fidani’s reputation as among the worst of spaghetti Western directors. [It’s not just me either: this rates a respectable 5.4 on the IMDb, while Giù la testa comes in at only 3.8] I think the tighter grip kept on the storyline is the main improvement, with a logical sense of progression here, as the Kid works his way up the chain towards Hagan.
Of particular note is some striking cinematography, by Aristide Massaccesi, who is better known as grindhouse veteran, Joe D’Amato. As a director, his filmography is peppered with titles such as Porno Holocaust, as well as the Black Emanuelle franchise [yes, that’s how it’s spelled, to avoid a lawsuit]. These are not exactly films renowned for their photography, shall we say… He’d go on to direct Kinski himself a couple more times: Heroes in Hell and Death Smiles on a Murderer. Here, though, he’s behind the camera and there are a couple of particularly impressive bits of framing. One has the Kid stalking his target, with the camera focusing not on the man, but instead his shadow. The other is a shot from above of Hagan climbing a ladder. Both provide the kind of artistic flourishes which help elevate the whole production above the expected run of the mill.
There’s even a significant female presence, which is something less than common for the genre. During their hunt, Kid and his partner liberate a kidnapping victim, Monica Benson (Simonetta Vitelli, credited as Simone Blondell, who is the director’s daughter) from Hagan’s gang. Not averse to her own revenge, for they killed her father when he showed up with the ransom, she sticks around to help them with their mission. They also help out a former slave (I’m guessing this is set not long after the end of the Civil War), making it fairly progressive for the time, in terms of its handling of characters outside the usual racial and gender norms for the spaghetti Western.
Kinski is, as we’ve come to expect, the best thing about this, not least his locks, which form a shaggy blond lion’s mane, deserving their own credit [“Starring Klaus Kinski… and Klaus Kinski’s hair”] Hagan is a complete savage, with a tendency to kill his own minions when they fail to execute his orders, or even if they merely annoy him. This happened on multiple occasions, to the point where you wonder why anyone would voluntarily work for such a short-fused master. Since, never mind the prospects for advancement, the odds of survival seem doubtful enough to discourage signing up. Still, there seems to be no shortage of faceless henchmen around for the final battle. where Hamilton and his bounty-hunter sidekick relentlessly work their way through, toward their target. Here, as throughout, there’s some decent stunt-work in the way of high falls, though I found the lack of any blood somewhat distracting.
It’s a decent enough entry, despite the demerits for shameless copying. If Fidani had avoided those aspects entirely, and made something entirely out of his own cloth, this could even have ended up being upper-tier among Kinski’s spagWes output, and certainly Fidani’s. Instead, I’m mostly left with a strong urge to pull out For a Few Dollars More, and watch the real thing.
