Boot Hill (1969)

That was an excellent one.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I could only find this film in a terrible full screen version that looks like its permanently raining all the way through the film, so let's not allow that to cloud our judgment of the film. Let the comedy and meandering storyline do that instead. That was harsh, but this as far as I know is the beginning of a trend involving Italian Westerns becoming sillier, less violent and more slapstick. Boot Hill is still a sixties Western too, so there's still plenty of gunplay and violence in amongst the bar fights and cheeseball antics. Terence Hill is pursued and wounded by some undesirable types and ends up hiding out in a circus wagon. Followed by these bad guys, he's forced to retaliate with the help of trapeze artist Woody Strode. Once mended, he heads off for wherever just before Romano Puppo turns up and kills Woody's partner Joe, maybe for just being black. Woody's livid and out for blood, but he needs bait and Terence isn't too far away……there's also Bud Spencer as Hill's mate, George Eastman playing a ginger mute called Baby Doll (?), and others (waves disinterested hand). Basically a bunch of jerk businessman are stealing land off the miners and….etc. Gunfights. Bar brawls. Bud Spencer being grumpy. Trapeze stuff. Political imagery. I dunno. The usual. It was okay.

This movie essentially begins with a traveling circus performing in a small town in the American West with a cowboy by the name "Cat" (Terence Hill) surrounded by several armed men out to kill him. Although he is wounded in a gunfight he manages to hide out in one of the circus wagons and subsequently evades those after him when the circus eventually leaves the town. It's then that he is discovered by one of the circus hands who then proceeds to take him in and treat his wounds. Unfortunately, when the armed men catch up to the circus in another town they find some makeshift bandages covered in blood and subsequently kill one of the performers in a fit of anger. This, in turn, infuriates the performer's father named "Thomas" (Woody Strode) who sets out to kill the people responsible. However, since there are so many of them he decides to search for Cat in the hope that he will help him. Yet even then the odds are not in their favor so Cat takes Thomas to find someone they can count on and trust—"Hutch" (Bud Spencer). Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an okay film to end the trilogy which included "God Forgives…I Don't!" and "Ace High". Admittedly, the sets seemed rather cheap but then that isn't too unusual for "Spaghetti Westerns" of this type. Again, by and large it was an okay film and because of that I have rated it accordingly. Average.

I approached this film with little to no expectations, after reading a few fairly negative reviews here on IMDb. I was pleasantly surprised.The film opens up with Stephens (Terence Hill) trying to evade a posse of killers chasing him through a small town, where a circus is performing. After taking a bullet, Stephens eludes his would-be killers and stows away in a circus cart. We soon learn that one of Stephens fellow gunslingers is working as a trapeze artist with the circus. Ultimately it is revealed that a local exploitative mine owner is in control of the posse and one of his henchmen eventually crosses the circus performers. So the gunslinger, trapeze artists and a local itinerant official join forces to fight against the corrupt mob lead by Honey Fisher (Victor Buono).The film is well-paced, though not as hurried as many spaghetti westerns sometimes are. The camera work is just a touch above the standard spaghetti western, and a little different from the standard approach. There are a lot of close-ups and the camera is used effectively to create an unsettling and downright weird atmosphere throughout a good portion of the film - this puts an unexpectedly sinister spin on the seeming novelty gimmick of circus performers in battle.Director Collizzi did a masterful job with a script and story which were - by genre standards - merely OK. Some of the characters remain somewhat weakly developed, but this doesn't really detract from the film's entertainment value. The actors perform generally well (though the charismatic Lionel Stander gets just a little irritating at times).Recommended for fans of the western genre.

This Spaghetti Western oater starts when Cat Stevens (Terence Hill or Mario Girotti) trying to save himself from a pursuit by nasties . He's picked up and healed by a circus troupe (Lionel Stander , Woody Strode, among others). Later on , Stevens reunites with Hutch (Bud Spencer o Carlo Perdesoli) , joining forces and confronting baddies . The villain is Honey Fisher (Victor Buono) , a powerful magnate in a small town and supported by heinous henchmen . A government commissioner (Eduardo Ciannelli) comes to little town and the ruthless Fisher is worried but he's usually swindling gold prospectors and gaining exorbitant price leases .The movie contains gunplay , Western action , circus spectacle and fist-fights . Terence Hill as a tough gunslinger and Spencer as a bouncing hunk are good but still not personified the Trinity heroes characters . In the picture appears usual Spaghetti Western secondaries as Lionel Stander , Woody Strode, furthermore, George Eastman (Luigi Montefiori) , Alberto DellÁcqua and Romano Puppo . The film belongs to the Giuseppe Colizzi trilogy starred by Hill and Spencer as Cat Stevens and Hutch Bessy . This one is the third and inferior installment , the first and the best is ¨God forgives¨ or ¨Blood river¨ with Frank Wolff and the second is ¨Four gunmen of Ave Maria¨ with the great Elli Wallach . The film was produced by Manolo Bolognini , a nice producer of classic Spaghetti (Djanjo , Goodbye Texas , Keoma) and accompanied by an atmospheric musical score by Carlo Rustichelli with an enjoyable leitmotif . The film will appeal to Hill and Spencer hardcore fans .