TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR A MASSACRE - GUNS OF VIOLENCE (1967)

Excuse me, Señor. But I was wondering how much it would cost to massacre this 100-minute movie made in 1967. You might have heard about it during your travels. It was Directed by: Romolo Guerrieri; and Starred: Gianni Garko, Loredana Nusciak, with Claudio Camaso. What? How much? You must be bloody joking, Amigo! That's twice as much as my mother would charge!


Ten Thousand Dollars For A Massacre

THE STORY:

Hello, Manuel (Claudio Camaso). Do you remember me? I'm that bounty hunter you once met in a card game. Django (Gianni Garko). We played a few rounds together before a couple of poe faced bandits tried to fill me full of lead.

Anyway, Amigo, the main reason I'm here, today, is because some guy with a very convincing beard has asked me to retrieve something you currently have in your possession. It's his daughter, my friend. His beautiful young daughter named Dolores (Adriana Ambesi).

Hey! Don't worry yourself, Manuel. I quickly turned down his proposition because he wasn't offering me enough money. And on top of that, I'm also thinking about leaving town for San Francisco with my better half, Mijanou (Loredana Nusciak).

Then again, that's most probably why what next transpires all kicks off when a very convincing beard gives me an offer I can't refuse. As a fat lady loves to dance - an unholy pact turns into a game of chance - a good guy gets buried up to his neck - and at the end of the day, the bad guys are shuffled back into the preverbal deck.

THE REVIEW:

At face value 'Ten Thousand Dollars for a Massacre' looks and sounds like any other Spaghetti Western made in the sixties. You have the good guy with his designer stubble. You have the bad guy with his menacing stare. Plus you have the jingly guitar music complimented with a story-line that doesn't want to go anywhere too fast.

However, my friends, I'm happy to say that in this case all of these factors were greatly enhanced with a number of discernible qualities that I got a right kick out of.

To begin with I did like the way that you could distinguish most of the principal characters -- which there are quite few of -- because each of them had a visual nuance or tick that made them stand out from the rest. For example, Django came across like the love child of Terrance Hill and Clint Eastwood. Manuel reminded me of a younger version of Ramón from 'A Fist Full OF Dollars', except he wore an awful lot of eye-liner. Plus the rest of the players were a mixture of elderly vagabonds, fat lady's, skinny women, as well as token side-kicks with some rather obvious character traits.  

Something else I also enjoyed about this movie was how its general narrative appeared to evolve over time. It started off as your usual hunter / hunted type scenario. It then progressed into some sort of unholy alliance, where both the good guys and the bad guys were singing from the same prayer sheet. After that, though, well, thing really went back to your more conventional show-down shindig. You know. Where a man's got to do what a man's got to do, yadda-yadda-yadda.  

Also, there was this one scene that I best mention. It was the one where Django was buried up to his neck in sand, and had the threat of a deadly scorpion looming over him. Honestly, folks. It was one of those scene-steeling death-traps you can't help but wonder how he's going to get out of. 

Admittedly. There were a couple of small things about this script I wasn't too keen on either. Like why was Dolores so adamant to stay with Manuel considering he's such a cold hearted b*stard? Why was Django willing to take the word of a known thief even though he could have had the upper hand? And let's not forget that the final fate of Django's photographic sidekick appeared to be lost in its conclusion as well!

But as I said, folks, my gripes are generally small and they're mainly associated with its overall narrative. Those were the gripes. These are the filmic-facts. (1) 'Flora Films' first released this production in Italy on the exact same day the United States started performing nuclear tests on a new Nevada test site. It was on the 3rd of March, 1967. (2) Loosely translated, this project was entitled 'Django Kills for Money' in Brazil; 'Django Vendetta' in Denmark; and 'Shooting Star for Two Animals' in Japan. (3) In 2007 this film was included in a Spaghetti Western retrospective held at the '64th Venice International Film Festival'. (4) One of the Italian production companies who developed this flick, Zenith Cinematografica, was in the business between 1962 to 1976, and during that time they developed fifteen movies in total. (5) This adventure was one of the many unofficial Django sequels, and during pre-production it was given the working-title, '7 Dollars on Django'. (6) That nice Italian chap who directed this film, Romolo Guerrieri, also directed such action adventures as 'Young, Violent, Dangerous', 'City Under Siege', 'Covert Action', and 'The Police Serve the Citizens?'.  (7) This was the only screenplay Franco Fogagnolo ever wrote throughout his years in the industry. Later on he would become an administrator, a production manager, and a second unit AD. (8) After this picture prepared some pasta, Gianni Garko starred in the drama, 'Days of Blood'; Loredana Nusciak starred in the rom-com, 'Tiffany Memorandum'; and Fidel Gonzáles starred in the adventure, 'Mad Heart... Mad as a Hatter'.

Overall I'd say 'Ten Thousand Dollars for a Massacre' was a surprisingly good film to sit down and watch. Granted, it's no 'Good, Bad, and the Ugly'. But what it is, is a fairly nice slice of sixties cinema that is defiantly a cut above the rest.

Nuff said.

THE RATING: B+