I giorni dell'ira

Nothing here you haven't seen before if you're a fan of Italian westerns, but DAY OF ANGER develops its plot and characters carefully, keeping you on the edge of your seat throughout. Van Cleef is terrific--this is surely one of his finest moments--yet he's matched stride-for-stride by Giuliano Gemma and the rest of the cast, with solid performances from many bit players. The direction and camera work are first rate, also. It may fall just short of Leone and the first Django movie, but it's still a first-rate spaghetti western.

A scruffy garbage boy becomes the pupil of a famed gunfighter, and the stage for confrontation is set when the gunman becomes unhinged and overruns the boy's town through violence and corruption.

The film credits the novel "Death Rode on Tuesdays" by Rolf O. Becker as its basis, although director Valerii and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi have attested that this credit was primarily included to appease the West German co-producers, and that although some scenes are partially borrowed from it, the film is not an adaptation of Becker's novel.

This is an interesting western, not just because it has a young man going from janitor to gunfighter, but it has the audience questioning whom to trust. There is sort of the classic theme of a hero being mentored by a villain, and how that can complicate alliances.

Day of Anger (1967) is considered a top 20 by most fans and critics. I definitely agree this is a great SW movie with good music and acting by Lee Van Cleef, and Gemma. The story is great about a simple man with dreams to have respect and to own his own colt, but unfortunately Scott Mary (Gemma) is treated like dirt by the townspeople of Clifton and verbally and physically abused and it is a revenge style theme about a man name Talby (Van Cleef), who gets out of jail and goes to collect 50,000 from Wild Jack, who in return was lied and double crossed by some of the good old folks of Clifton so Talby goes to collect and helps mentor Scott, who becomes a side kick. It all changes when Talby kills someone close to Scott and then he gets a reality check and faces off with his mentor. Movie is overall fast paced with good action and story.

One of my favorite teen memories surrounds the film "Day of Anger." I saw it at the El Rey Theatre in Walnut Creek, California in 1972 as part of a double feature with "Superfly." Don't ask me how that match-up was booked, but I went with a couple of friends and thanks to the new release paired with it, the place was nearly packed. Old school singleplex with 1000 or so seats. Everyone was hushed and into the story until Lee Van Cleef stomped into the scraggly bar in the scraggly village, banged on the wooden plank serving as the bar and demanded: "Get me Wild Jack!" For a moment the theater remained hushed. Then, from a few rows behind us, a guy yelled out "WILD JACK! What kinda name is that?" Suddenly taken by the over-the-top melodrama, the crowd turned the whole experience on its end and started howling at what now seemed to be a self-referential satire on the spaghetti western genre. Of course I didn't think in such high-falutin' terminology at the time, I just thought it was funny. With all due respect to serious aficianados of the genre, it was just one fun night. One of the guys I went with suggested that we go back and repeat the astonished "WILD JACK!" comment the next night, but we figured, I think rightly, that you had to be there, it was a one shot thing, with perfect timing that had us laughing too hard to take it seriously when poor Scott Mary finally had his day in the sun and finished off his mentor while reciting the final rule of the gunfighter.

I've been trawling through the spaghetti western back catalogue lately, and it seems I've missed quite a few hidden gems. Day of Anger is one of them. Tonino Valleni's western is more American in its approach, although the staples of the spaghetti genre are still here. Close ups, violence (altough not as glorifying as you'd expect from your typical spag), a languid jazzy score by Riz Ortolani (a departure from the typical operatic Morricone scores), and great performances by Lee Van Cleef and Giulliano Gemma.

Giulliano Gemma is Scott, the garbage boy for the quite peaceful town of Clifton, a town where the sheriff wanders about without his gun and residents are surprised to hear the sound of gunshots. Scott is constantly pushed around and ridiculed, until gunslinger extraordinaire Talby strides into town. Van Cleef is typically superb as Talby, who takes Scott under his wing and teaches him the art of gunslinging by laying out the 9 rules of the gunfigher. Talby and Scott will come back into Clifton to get the 50,000$ a crook called Wild Jack owed him. Wild Jack was sold short by Clifton's higher class citizens, so Talby will have to get the money back in his own way.

The story follows both Talby's gradual usurping of the city and Scott's progress from a green boy to a man who stands his ground. The interaction between old experienced gunslinger and enthusiastic apprentice is executed very well. All in all a solid, if a little predictable, spaghetti western, that eschews the conventions of your typical spag for characterization. It's well worth tracking down in its uncut 109 minutes version. It's a shame that quite a few spags were lost amidst the truckloads of similar flicks churned out by the Italian studios in the genre's hayday. This is among the best. And it's one, even the American horse opera fans, will love.