Minnesota Clay

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.

A pre-Django Spaghetti Western from Sergio Corbucci, starring b-movie master Cameron Mitchell as a gunslinger going slowly blind, and out to revenge his wrongful imprisonment before his condition overtakes him! Cam's been in prison for eighteen years but decides to break out one day and return to his home town, where his daughter lives (she don't know he's her dad though). The town is ruled by Fox, a nasty fella who put Cam in jail in the first place and is looking for a way to rid the town of the Mexican bandit gang (led by Fernando Sancho. Fernando basically plays the same character in every film I've seen him in - the chicken leg eating, cackling, Mexican bandit leader...and that's not a complaint).

Cam thinks about hooking up with Sancho to get rid of Fox but there's a Latin spanner in the works by the name of Estella and she's playing everybody for a fool. She frames Cam for stealing gold and basically leads everyone into a massive shoot out. Cam is going blind but he's also the greatest shot the town has ever seen, which makes him a bit of challenge.

Perfect pacing in this film I felt, and not only a great performance from Cameron (who is prone to over acting or not acting at all), but also a complete turnaround from Georges Rivieres as the bad guy Fox. The last film I watched him in (Castle of Blood) he played a wide-eyed, innocent romantic type...in this he's a man without a soul.

Cameron steals the show as the world weary gunslinger out to save his daughter before his blindness is complete. He basically has to fight his last battle using sound alone, which makes it very interesting. He sure ends up in some state by the end of the film! A quick note on Cameron Mitchell. He was the king of the b-movie, from low budget acid westerns like Ride In the Whirlwind (with Jack Nicholson), horrors like Nightmare In Wax, terrible weirdo films like Medusa, Hollywood bigshot films like the Klansman (with Lee Marvin!), mystery films like Haunts, playing a psychic so terrible the people who hired him shoot him in the South African slasher film The Demon, going up against Satan himself in The Nightmare Never Ends, being a cult leader talking crap in kung fu film Low Blow, or a park owner in Memorial Valley Massacre, one things for sure: He always looked middle aged, for some reason.

As a huge lover of Italian Westerns, Sergio Corbucci is one of my favorite directors ever. Corbucci's most famous and influential film is doubtlessly the blood-soaked cult-flick "Django" of 1966, his most brilliant achievement is the dark 1968 masterpiece "Il Grande Silenzio" ("The Great Silence"). But Corbucci enriched the Spaghetti-Western genre by even more masterpieces than the aforementioned two films, such as the Mexican revolutionary Westerns "Il Mercenario" (aka. "The Mercenary", 1968) and "Vamos A Matar, Compañeros" (1970). And even his lesser known films, such as "I Crudeli" ("Hellbenders", 1967) or "Navajo Joe" (1966) stand out as gritty and great Spaghetti Westerns, which makes Corbucci the undisputed number 2 in the genre, right after Sergio Leone. This being said, Corbucci's early Western "Minesota Clay" of 1965 does not live up to his later films in the Genre. While this is by no means a bad film, it is nowhere near as cynical, gritty and memorable as Corbucci's later Westerns were, as it bears more resemblance to the traditional American 'Good Guys Vs. Bad Guys' Westerns than the masterpieces of Corbucci's later career.

The eponymous hero, Minnesota Clay (played by the great Cameron Mitchell) is not really a typical anti-hero, as he is looking partly for revenge, but mainly for justice and for an opportunity to redeem his name. The two rivaling gangs (Mexican vs. American) that control the little town where this is set resemble the premise of "Django" as well as Leone's milestone "Fistful Of Dollars" (both of which were based on Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece "Yojimbo"). Yet, "Minnesota Clay" can not nearly make as much of it as "Fistful..." and "Django". Since the aforementioned films are masterpieces, this is not to say that this film is bad, however. "Minesota Clay" is an entertaining film, without doubt. The film's main fault is probably the lack of a real anti-hero with hardly any morals. If the film had just been a little more 'evil', it could have been way better. Even though a tough guy, Minesota Clay is basically an honest man who is looking for justice, and not nowhere near as immoral as anti-heroes like The Man With No Name or Django. Yet, Cameron Mitchell gives the character a certain greatness. I've been a fan of Mitchell since I first saw Mario Bava's Giallo-milestone "Sei Donne Per L'Assassino" (aka. "Blood And Black Lace", 1964) years ago, and he once again delivers a great performance here. The sexy Ethel Rojo and Diana Martin make a nice-looking female cast and the supporting cast includes Spaghetti Western regulars Antonio Casas ("The Good, The Bad And The Ugly"), Fernando Sancho ("The Big Gundown") and Gino Pernice ("Django"). As mentioned above, this film often resembles a traditional American Western - only with a bit more violence and Spaghetti-style. The locations and photography are great and the score by Piero Piccioni is also quite nice. Overall, I would have probably rated this a 7/10 as such, but I have to detract one star as it is way inferior compared to Corbucci's later films. This is an entertaining film that my fellow Spaghetti-Western-freaks should enjoy, yet I recommend everybody to see some of Corbucci's other films before. Especially "The Great Silence" and "Django" are essential. My opinion on "Minesota Clay": 6.5/10

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!).

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.