Death Rides a Horse (1968)

Death Rides a Horse
Starring: Lee Van Cleef, John Phillip Law
Director: Giulio Petroni
Writer:Luciano Vincenzoni
Genre: Western
Year: 1968
My rating: 

I'm not the world's biggest connoisseur of spaghetti westerns, but I'm really surprised that I'd never heard of this film before I found it in the local bargain bin. The title, DEATH RIDES A HORSE, automatically catapults it somewhere near the top of best-named westerns (the original Italian title is DA UOMO A UOMO, which Altavista's Babelfish translates as the singularly uninteresting "From Man To Man").

The film stars Lee Van Cleef ("the bad" in THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY) and John Phillip Law (known to Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans for his roles of Kalgan in SPACE MUTINY and of Diabolik in the film of the same name). As a child, Law's character witnesses a gang shooting his father, and raping and killing his mother and sister. During the attack, the child notices a distinct feature on each member of the gang.

Flash forward fifteen years, and Law is an angry young man who has trained himself to be the finest marksman in the West. But his inexperience is his weakness as he begins a journey of revenge against the evil men who took his family from him. (Luckily for him, his targets haven't thought to remove the distinguishing pieces of jewelry and clothing in the intervening decade and a half.)

Cleef has just finished serving a fifteen year term of hard labor and he has his own score to settle with the same gang who killed Law's family. The two protagonists -- while potential allies -- find themselves at odds when their methods of revenge don't exactly turn out to be compatible. Their conflict is what drives the film, as well as providing some of the (very) few laughs.

The acting is what one can usually expect from Spaghetti Westerns -- everything from professional actors right on down to people one assumes were random folks who showed up at the film location with their own rags. Lee Van Cleef, I had only before seen in the two "Man With No Name" movies, but he's as collected, smooth, tough and just plain cool here as he was in those. John Phillip Law is fairly wooden (no surprise there), but his style fits the character he's playing.

Behind the scenes, there are a fistful of connections to the well-known Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone trilogy. Writer Luciano Vincenzoni had co-written FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE and THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. Composer Ennio Morricone, who composed for THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, contributes the score. For my money it's just as good as what he wrote for that better known film. (As an aside, I've read on the Internet Movie Database that Quentin Tarantino used part of this music in his KILL BILL.)

In the past I've poked fun at the hilarious typographical errors present on the Digiview Productions DVD boxes. I've tried to refrain of late, partially because my own typing skills are nothing to write home about, but mostly because it's like shooting fish in a barrel. But I must make note of the phrase written across the bottom of the front cover. The tag line states, "The Lenghts (sic) One Man Will Go to Take His Rewenge (sic)". Rewenge? Who's their copy-editor -- Peter Cook's character in THE PRINCESS BRIDE? ("Rewenge! Rewenge is what bwings us togewah today!")

The sound quality is abysmal. Since the movie was dubbed into English, I'm assuming that the original soundtrack wasn't very clear either, but the version on this DVD seems particularly poor. It's extremely muffled, making the dialog difficult to discern. At times you'll wonder whether the sound is coming out of the TV in front of you, or your next-door neighbor's speakers.

The picture quality is acceptable, although not what anyone could realistically describe as good. The worst problem is that the film is presented in full-screen and it was obviously shot with wide-screen in mind. There are a number of scenes where it's obvious that the audience is missing something because of the inferior aspect ratio.

DEATH has everything that a good western needs. It's got action, revenge, and treachery. The script is peppered with delightfully tough and macho one-liners. It's as stylish as any spaghetti western I've ever seen. The plot moves very quickly and in sometimes surprising directions (although if you don't spot the final twist before it happens, then you were clearly not paying attention). If you're a newbie who wants to try a spaghetti western, then this is a perfect one to start with. And, thanks to its budget DVD release, you can get it for about a buck or so. Though, I should point out that this is a detriment, really, since it means that no studio will bother putting out a cleaned-up (and wide-screen!) version. Which is what this film richly deserves.