Minnesota Clay

Sergio Corbucci's "Minnesota Clay" puts a spin on the spaghetti western genre. Here the protagonist (Cameron Mitchell) is losing his sight as he escapes jail and seeks revenge on the man who wronged him. There's a lot of the stuff that we expect to see in spaghetti westerns. To be certain, Corbucci went on to direct "Django", which inspired Quentin Tarantino's 2012 homage. But the important point is that the European* westerns - depicting a gritty, dismal Old West - were a rejection of the John Wayne mold (which made the Old West look immaculate and wholesome). I suspect that "Minnesota Clay" was a fun movie to make.

*It wasn't just western Europe that made westerns. The Eastern Bloc also made them. An example was "The Sons of Great Bear" from East Germany.

Quick draw Cameron Mitchell escapes a federal hard labor camp and returns to his old stomping ground to find the man who could have exonerated him of murder charges, where he reconnects with his estranged daughter, and tangles with two rival gangs, all while contending with his own failing eyesight.

The second western directed by Italian favorite Sergio Corbucci, this isn't as good as some of his later work. Still, it's a solid western that's handsomely produced and a lot of fun to watch, with some good gun-play and a memorable title character, effectively portrayed by Mitchell.

The climax where Minnesota Clay battles the heavies using only his sense of hearing is quite entertaining.

Before you watch "Minnesota Clay", I have one bit of warning. Apparently, multiple versions of the film were made depending on what country showed the film. Now of course this makes sense with dubbed films, but I am talking about making the film with DIFFERENT endings depending on the country. This is the second Italian western that features a happy ending in the Italian version and a less happy American version. Now here's the rub--you get BOTH COMBINED on the DVD of "The Fast, the Saved and the Damned" (a DVD collection of four Italian westerns). So, after the film ends, the Italian happy ending is tacked on--and it's all in Italian and with no subtitles! So, up until then, it was dubbed in English and suddenly it's all Italian!! Now I did not have a hard time following what happened (and you probably won't--especially if you are familiar with Spanish or Italian)--but others might feel incredibly frustrated and wonder what is going on in the film. My advice? Ask an Italian friend to watch it with you!

The film itself is an okay western--neither a standout nor a dog. Cameron Mitchell plays a man who was sent to prison--yet there WERE folks who could testify that he was innocent but they didn't! So, he escapes and goes looking for them in order to force them to tell the authorities what they know. However, being a film, you KNOW it won't go that smoothly! Decent acting, nice music but nothing much more to make it stand out from the crowd.

Corbucci's second Spaghetti Western is an improvement on the first – MASSACRE AT GRAND CANYON (1965) – but still a long way from his best efforts in the genre (namely DJANGO [1966] and THE GREAT SILENCE [1968]). The leading man is Cameron Mitchell, who wisely opted to appear in European films tackling starring roles rather than be stranded in Hollywood playing poor supporting ones; that said, he was also featured in a fine 'B' Western by Monte Hellman – RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND (1966) – alongside rising star (and screenwriter) Jack Nicholson! The narrative provides many typical Spaghetti Western elements but, as I said, it's an early example yet – so that it lacks the baroque touches inherent in later outings (suffice to compare Corbucci's relatively sober treatment here to the tongue-in-cheek approach to the same concept in the self-explanatory BLINDMAN [1971]!).

Here, as in his two better-regarded genre classics, Corbucci gives us a hero – his name probably derives from Jackie Gleason's character, Minnesota Fats, in the pool-room drama THE HUSTLER (1961)! – who has to battle not just the villains but a physical ailment (he's slowly going blind). Besides, he has a daughter who thinks him dead – and he's willing to offer her his protection, while remaining silent about his paternity (only at the climax, when the villain callously exploits his condition by putting the girl in Mitchell's line of fire, does he confess to their kinship!).

Wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, Minnesota Clay seeks revenge on the man who withheld evidence at his trial. There is a problem however; he is going blind.

The most notable hing bout this film is that it happens to be a spaghetti western before "Django". That title is the essential film of the genre, and more to the point, comes from the same director. People more knowledgeable than myself could probably make style comparisons.

In many respects, this is the same story that we see in westerns again and again: a good guy, a bad guy, and a town caught in the middle. The twist is that our hero is going blind, and I am not sure if this has been done in any other film before or since.