BLOOD MONEY (1974)

  Better known as THE STRANGER AND THE GUNFIGHTER this is a spaghetti-western mixed with a kung fu flick(heavier on the western and way lighter on the kung fu though despite being a co-production of Shaw Brothers studio). You get Lee Van Cleef and Lo Lieh searching for a Chinese treasure by looking at the asses of various women(one of which is cult favorite Erika Blanc) who have clues tattooed on them. I do tend to like these mashups and despite lots of goofy comedic moments this one isn't terrible. My favorite of these types of films, which there aren't very many to choose from, is probably THE FIGHTING FIST OF SHANGHAI JOE.

Known in Italy as THE BRUTE, THE COLT AND THE KARATE:

COMMANDOS (1968)

 Lee Van Cleef is the main attraction here and he really acts the hell out of this role of a tough-ass sergeant who, along with a group of fellow commandos, goes undercover in Italy on a secret mission. This is an Italian/German co-production which, when we consider that those two countries were not exactly the heroes in this tale, is a bit strange. Then again I suppose it makes about as much sense as Italians romanticizing the American old-west which, of course, was a major idea in tons of films in this same decade(many also starring Mr. Van Cleef!). Overall this one is an o.k. Euro-warsploitation flick that moves along at a pretty snappy pace and has plenty of action to keep things interesting enough. There is one thing that perturbs me about this movie and that's one scene where Mr. Lee explains to his commanding officer how difficult it is to kill a man and then in almost the very next scene we see people getting stuck with knives and instantly falling over dead in a very Hollywood-style of dying. Besides that though this one is worth a look if war films are your bag.
 Of interest to horror devotees, Dario Argento was one of the 5 writers on this thing(which seems like an awful lot of writers for a fairly simple story) and while there's certainly a lot of killing going on nothing is very horror-like.

GOD'S GUN (1976)

 Lee Van Cleef plays two roles in this spaghetti-western(at least it looks like a spaghetti-western even though it was actually made in Israel) from later in the cycle. He plays a priest who ends up getting gunned down by a gang of outlaws led by Jack Palance and then he also plays the twin brother who gets some revenge. Sybil Danning and Leif Garrett(who was also in KID VENGEANCE with Van Cleef) also appear in this. This is a pretty standard western though it seems filmed pretty poorly in spots with some stuff just not making a whole bunch of sense. Kind of disappointing considering the cast. Try one of the 10 million other spaghetti's out there instead. AKA A BULLET FROM GOD

MEAN FRANK AND CRAZY TONY (1973)

 Lee Van Cleef, outside of his more well known western persona, plays a mafia big-shot here. Tony Lo Bianco plays Crazy Tony and this film is a cool Italian crimesploitation flick that, of course, focuses on these two characters and their wacky adventures. It really straddles the line between comedy(with Tony's over-the-top idolization of Frank and some crazy car-chases and whatnot) and action flick(with Van Cleef's tough-guy bad-ass mobster character) and there's even a little horror element with some driller-killer action going on. A good film to check out if you dig the Italian crime thing. AKA POWER KILL, FRANK AND TONY and ESCAPE FROM DEATH ROW




The ESCAPE retitled/re-edited version came out after ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and was devised to confuse the public into thinking it had something to do with that film:

GRAND DUEL (1974)

 Probably the most memorable thing about this spaghetti-western flick is the bad-ass theme song by Luis Bacalov used throughout. This was later on used in KILL BILL so I guess Quentin Tarantino agrees there. Besides that though you do get a family of degenerates as our bad guys which includes a gay pox-faced sleazy fellow and Lee Van Cleef as our man-in-black hero which is always a good thing. The Beast(Salvatore Baccaro) from the nazisploitation film THE BEAST IN HEAT also shows up for a bit and there is the promised big duel at the end. While not the most original thing ever it's worth a look if you're a hardcore euro-western junkie or Van Cleef aficionado. AKA THE BIG SHOWDOWN

BEYOND THE LAW (1968)

                           "I've never seen or heard so many bastards in all my life"

 Lee Van Cleef stars in this story of an outlaw who winds up becoming the sheriff of a town.  His partners include Lionel Stander(the old guy from that HART TO HART show) and Gordon Mitchel(Hercules from those old Hercules movies), who shows up as a bounty hunter type.  From there we get some double-crossings and the usual spaghetti-western shenanigans.  The real goody-good guy is played by Antonio Sabato and he's kind of an annoying naive fellow.  The awesomely named Herbert Fux from MARK OF THE DEVIL also shows up for a small bit.  While this isn't the worst thing ever it's what I would consider a middle of the road spaghetti-western really only memorable for Van Cleef and you can find him starring in better stuff around the same time.  The title itself  is completely forgettable and I think it must be the name of at least one other action movie if not more.  One big disappointment I have with this film is that they have the great Bud Spencer in it but he's all clean cut and shaven playing a boring boss character instead of his usual gruff head-smashing self.

DEATH RIDES A HORSE (1967)

 
 So this kid sees his family raped and murdered right before his very eyes by a gang of dirty western outlaw types and then grows up to become a revenge seeking John Phillip Law(DANGER:DIABOLIK). Along his path of vengeance he gets some help from one Mr. Lee Van Cleef. Why is Van Cleef helping him out? We find that out in the revealing conclusion and I'm not really the kind of asshole that spoils the ends of movies for people.
 Pretty decent, if not also pretty basic and by-the-numbers, Eurowestern with a good soundtrack by the master of western soundtracks Ennio Morricone. I will say that this movie does seem to be a little overrated since I've heard so much high praise for it and it's really just an OK film in this genre and entertaining enough for what it is but nothing spectacular(It is a pretty cool title and tagline though). Also noticeably John Phillip Law seems to be doing a John Wayne impersonation throughout much of the movie which is a little weird.

KID VENGEANCE (1977)

 Very late into the whole spaghetti-western cycle(technically it was shot in Israel so I guess it could be called a matzo-western?, but it sure plays like a typical spag) this one is a pretty simplistic revenge tale about a young Leif Garrett(before becoming a big teeny-bopper pop star) who sees his parents murdered right before his eyes and as a bonus his mom gets raped by Lee Van Cleef. This leads to a trail of revenge. You might have to suspend your disbelief for a bit watching this little boy take out a bunch of bandits but it's done realistically enough and he uses the hunting skills that his pops taught him earlier on. We also get Jim Brown who gets his hard-earned gold ripped-off by some other more goofy bandits and he needs that shit back. These two stories come together and it has a decent explosive pay-off with many expected casualties. While I wouldn't say this is a bad western it is sorta unmemorable and I know that for a fact because I've seen this a couple of times now and after a short while the only thing I can recall is young Leif Garrett stars in it. You can find this on a bunch of spaghetti-western compilations and old dollar-store discs without looking too hard.
 I don't think I've ever seen a movie before where the title at the beginning of the movie is different than the title at the end of the movie but my copy of this has KID VENGEANCE as the opening title and VENDETTA as the closing title so that's kinda weird. A.K.A.'s=VENGEANCE and ANOTHER HARD RIDE(which tries to make this seem like a sequel to TAKE A HARD RIDE(which also starred Brown and Van Cleef along with Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly and was a sort-of spaghetti-western version of THREE THE HARD WAY))