Antes llega la muerte

Based on a real story about director's grandmother, a very sad western with great fatalism. Very good directing, good performances -specially Jesús Puente, sometimes Spanish voice for James Stewart-, superb cinematography, this is a little big movie that must be seen.

When Bob Carey is released from prison after a long sentence for murder, begins the search for Mary, his former girlfriend. But soon he finds out that during his absence, she has married Clifford, a wealthy landowner. The happiness of that marriage is only apparent, Mary, in fact, is seriously ill, suffering from a brain tumor whose pains she attributes to an imaginary pregnancy. It becomes necessary to bring to the city of Laredo for an operation, so Clifford sells all his possessions and begins the long journey towards hope. Soon others will join the expedition: a former army scout named Rogers, a nice Chinese cook, Lin-Chu, and a mestizo that responds to the name of "Bets".

Hour of Death (seven From Texas) is a captivating Euro western from start to finish - well-paced , well-acted, has enough suspense and a very moving storyline. It's not too predictable and keeps one guessing. It has a serious tone but there's some fine, gritty action to keep things enjoyable. The location and camerawork is superb. My one gripe is that I didn't like the ending. After all the fuss of traveling to Laredo it ends in tragedy.

Farmer Clifford (Jesus Puente) aware his wife (Gloria Milland) has a cerebral tumor and is necessary her intervention at a hospital of Laredo . Clifford sells his properties and organizes a caravan to city of Laredo throughout Indian territory . Along the way , Clifford is helped by various men as Bob Carey (Paul Piaget) , wife's ex-boyfriend , the gunfighter Ringo (Robert Hundar) who wishes to kill Carey and others ( Fernando Sancho , Francisco Sanz , Wu ) .

This interesting western contains a story full of humanity , good dramatic pace and slick direction . Enjoyable Chorizo-Spaghetti Western mostly produced by Spain and Italian secondary participation ; it doesn't follow the Sergio Leone wake and being proceeded in American style . The film packs action , shootouts , drama , good feeling , high body-count and it's fast moving and quite entertaining . It's a thrilling western with spectacular outdoors and breathtaking confrontation among protagonists , Robert Hundar and Paul Piaget ; and both of them against the heartless Ralf Baldasarre and his underlings . Acceptable action sequences with rousing Indian attacks against the Northern fort and spectacularly realistic shootouts . Charismatic performance for whole casting . The notorious Spaghetti actor , Robert Hundar is good in his usual tough role . Fantastic performance by the always great Fernando Sancho in a likable role , subsequently he would play similar characters , furthermore the slimy, menacing outlaw played by Ralf Baldassarre, here in his ordinary role as bandit and in a cruelly baddie character . There appears as secondaries the habitual in Spanish/Italian Western such as Francisco Sanz , Lorenzo Robledo , Beni Deus , Luis Induni , Gaspar Indio Gonzalez , Alfonso Rojas and of course Alvaro De Luna who still continues playing . The musician Riz Ortalani composes a nice soundtrack , well conducted , this turns out to be one of the most memorable parts of the movie; as it's full of enjoyable sounds and haunting musical background and with agreeable leitmotif . Very nice cinematography filmed by Rafael Pacheco on locations in Tabernas and desert of Almeria , as usual ; including good sets by Cubero and Galicia who carried out the most Production Design on Western shot in Spain.

The motion picture is finely directed and in personal style by Joaquin Luis Romero Marchent at his best . He's is an expert writer and director of good Western . His first film was ¨El Coyote¨ and the sequel titled ¨Revenge of Coyote¨ shot in Mexico . After that , he filmed ¨The shadow of Zorro¨ and ¨Revenge of Zorro¨. He went go directing Western as ¨ Riding to death ¨ , ¨Adventures in the West¨ , ¨Three good men¨, ¨Sabor Venganza ¨ and the most popular and violent ¨Condenados a Vivir¨ . Plus , he wrote for his brother Rafael Romero Marchent the followings Western : ¨Manos Torpes¨, ¨Ocaso un Pistolero¨ and ¨Garringo¨ . Rating : Better than average . Worthwhile watching .

This film directed by Joaquin Romero Marchent is a typical example of American western tough it is partly Italian and partly Spanish. Normally Italian films contain more violent scenes, shootings, deaths. In this one we have pure sentimentalism, assault by indians, irony and so on. We are far from Leone's style who launched a new western style that inspired many other directors, Americans too. Most of the actors are Spanish, even if there are some Italians like Raf Baldassarre in the role of Jeff, a violent cowboys, and Robert Hundar pseudonym of Claudio Undari a Sicilian actor specialized in western films. The original dialogues seem to be in Spanish then dubbed into Italian in the version I have. Shot in Almeria and in the Elios studios near Rome.