ironhorse_iv
'His Name was Sam Walbash, but They Call Him Amen' is one of the most ridiculous titles, I ever heard of. First off, it's really long and second off, nobody call him Amen, in the film. Unless, they meant 'a man', because it kinda makes more sense. They do call him, 'a man', a few times, in the film. I'm kinda thinking it was mistranslating or something. Still, it's a horrible title for a film. I would rather have the 'Savage Guns' title, they used in some US release than that title. 'The Savage Guns', title, even has some problems with it; as you see, there is already a Spaghetti Western movie titled 'Savage Guns' made in 1962. That movie is the first credited as the first traditional Spaghetti Western film. This 1971 movie should be mark as the one that nearly kill the Spaghetti western film genre. Whatever, this movie wants to be call; it's so bad, the owners didn't even bother, renewing their copyright, and since then, the movie has fallen in public domain. So it's pretty easy to find, really bad transfer DVD copies of this film. It add to the crappiest of this already grainy film. It was filmed in widescreen mode, but the DVD copies out there, doesn't know that, so you're losing some resolution, you might have zooms to fill an HDTV screen. Directed by Miles Deem AKA Demofilo Fidani, the movie tells the story of Sam Walbash/Wallace (Robert Woods), whom was wounded by Mash Flannigan's (Dean Stratford AKA Dino Strano) gang who enters a saloon and kills everybody in sight including his brother. Walbash chases Flannigan to Golden City for revenge, leading to a deadly showdown. While, this sub-up seems simple enough, the movie makes the plot a lot more complex and confusing than it should be, by adding a lot of barely explain exposition scenes that doesn't link, one bit to the main plot. First off, there is the main character's phobia of swinging doors. You would think this would had, something to do with his brother's death, but no, it's from a memory of him as a child, in which his father and mother were gunned down in their home—for no apparent reason—by a gang that must have fired 100 bullets to kill two people. Wow-overkill! It's not even clear why the movie gives this up ¾ in the film, because it doesn't looks like Flannigan did it. He had nothing to do with that attack. It would be nice to establish that he got the post-traumatic stress from that event in the beginning of the film. Sadly, it doesn't add anything to the film. It felt like a distracted more than a key part of the story. Honestly, the movie could had been better if they used this post-trauma stress in the climax of the film, with his fight with Flannigan, but no. Another miss opportunity is Mash Flannigan hiring gunfighters. They spent minutes, explaining each character's history, but the three bounty hunters; Gordon Mitchell, Lincoln Tate and Peter Martell are barely in the film. They could have add so much to the climax, but they MIA, during those scenes. The over the top action is mostly a miss than hit for me. I hate the over kill bullet spraying. I doubt a six bullet revolver shoots more than six bullets are a time. I dislike the one shot death scenes with over acting from the actors playing the victims. It's really unrealistic. People in this film seem to have not only unlimited funds for unlimited guns and ammos, but the wherewithal to, overnight, acquire a dummy U.S. Army pay wagon with a hand-cranked fake looking Gatling gun and two wax dummies dressed in Army uniforms. Even the hand to hand combat is weak. There is a barroom brawl that uses way too much slow motion to truly be effective. I like the boxing match, even if it felt like filler. I like a sub-plot of a boxer not fixing his fight, and getting shot over it. It was a lot more interesting than the main plot. Then, there was the really hard to get through 'musical' type number by one excruciating French singer. It was horrible to listen to. My ears kept on bleeding, because of it. The other music in the film wasn't that bad. The Music score by Lallo Gori sounds so genetic. I guess, they were trying to past off as somebody with talent like Ennio Morricone. It wasn't anything special. The acting is just horrible. There are plenty of bad English dubbing. Robert Woods actually is forgettable. He didn't really stand out for most of the film. I can only tell him apart when the dooraphobia kicks in. Simonetta Vitelli is beautiful as Fanny the barmaid. I can't recalled anything else, besides good about that. She's spent most of the movie, getting beat up and hardly doing anything about it. The movie was shot, bad. Lots of badly done, day for night, camera shots and slow motion galloping. Lots of galloping to burn up some time for all the credits. Too bad, the movie Title was in a white font. It made it really hard to see in the slow-motions opening scenes because of the bright sun. The only good shots from this film are when Robert Woods is reacting to the swinging door phobia. Overall: After watching this movie, it was perfectly clear to me why Demofilo Fidani is called the Ed Wood of the spaghetti western. This movie is amateurish, ultra-cheap production that lacks all possible coherence, visually as well as story-wise. I'm not sure, why they needed to add so much things. It's 85 min. long. According to critics, this movie was to pay tribute to Eli Wallach. I think, he would disowned this movie, if he saw it. It was just too awful.
MARIO GAUCI
This is the first film I've watched from the Italian Ed Wood, Demofilo Fidani aka Miles Deem. The above title was superfluously added later on since there exists another similarly titled 1961 movie starring Richard Basehart which was Hammer Films' Michael Carreras' one and only stab at the Western; the genuine Italian title was originally translated as HIS NAME WAS SAM WALBASH, BUT THEY CALLED HIM AMEN…although it was actually WALLACH in the Italian variant which, of course, implies a tribute of sorts to Hollywood actor Eli! While certainly not unwatchably bad, instances of clumsiness and ineptitude abound so that I was often cracking up into howls of laughter: a horrid number by a would-be irresistible French chanteuse; a totally irrelevant bar-room brawl; actors doing somersaults when being shot; an aged villager doing an impromptu dance routine; ineffective use (indeed abuse) of slow-motion; and, easily the most preposterous, seeing Gordon Mitchell and Lincoln Tate play two gunfighters (sporting the actors' own names!) hired by the villain to kill off the title character and then never having them appear in the rest of the film at all!! Lead actor Robert Woods is just that even down to ineffectively whispering the Amens over the bodies of his victims. Supporting actress Simonella Vitelli (actually, the director's own daughter!) as the villain's broad is quite a looker but, unfortunately, she doesn't get to do much in the film – despite having a change of heart towards the end. The main musical theme is actually pretty good but, again, the title song is, in itself, quite lousy.
spider89119
This is a very quirky film. It is, at times, unintentionally funny, and at other times just plain bizarre, but hey I like that kind of stuff so it's alright with me. I actually find this film to be extremely entertaining. Of the four or five Demofilo Fidani movies I have seen, this one is the best.The music score by Lallo Gori is excellent. It is probably the highest-quality part of the movie. The trumpets, guitar, and organ are used skillfully to create suspense and emotion with a style that is undeniably spaghetti western.Though Fidani's movies are not known for good acting, Robert Woods actually does a pretty good job in this one as Sam Wallach, the slightly whacked protagonist who suffers from dooraphobia (Yes, he breaks out in a cold sweat and gets hysterical at the mere thought of a door opening and closing. I'm not making this up!) Simonetta Vitelli is also good as Fanny the barmaid. I can't think of any other Fidani film that actually has TWO halfway decent acting performances.I noticed that another reviewer has commented that the movie seems out of order and makes no sense. Actually, there is a plot here and it's not all that hard to follow. The order of events seems correct to me. It is a simple revenge tale. It's a rather typical story, but a pretty decent one. It also has more action than the other Fidani westerns I have seen. Perhaps my copy is a more complete version than some of the others out there. I'm not sure. It's 85 min. long. The movie's got some corny dialog, but that just makes for more laughs, which is a good thing. I suspect it's because the English translation is poorly done, but who knows? Some strange highlights of the film include a surreal, slow-motion brawl with echoing sound and laughter, an odd conversation between the main villain and his gang where he orders them to split up to avoid capture but doesn't mind when they refuse to leave, a way over-the-top cheesy slow-motion flashback sequence, Sam's dooraphobia, of course, and a French female barroom singer whose accent seems more German than French. She sounds like she has a microphone, and sings in a style that sounds more like it's from the 1930's than the 1870's.You either love this kind of stuff or you don't. Like I said before, I find it very entertaining. I'd rather watch this one than many of the so-called "great" films. It sure beats the hell out of trying to sit through "Gone With the Wind." Yuck!
