God Forgives... I Don't!

Their first official movie Spencer and Hill stared in together, a classic spaghetti western. Ironically it was Hill who started out as the harsher character while Bud played the more amicable guy.

It was an entertaining enough movie, but if you're looking for the humourous slapstick comedy we have come to expect from these guys, you won't get it. Unlike "They call me Trinity", it's a very serious Western with little in the way of humour, although I do find the shoot outs amusing as the guns seem to fire off more like cap guns than real guns.

What intrigues me here is the voice dubbing. Bud was dubbed by the man who was to do his voice in most of his movies; Glauco Onorato. Hill usually did his own English voice dubbing, but in this one he has someone else doing his voice, a much colder and harsher voice to match his character. I guess it's not surprising that they needed to do that, otherwise his character, Cat would just not have the same menacing aura to him. Perhaps for the same reasons Bud is normally voiced by Glauco.

This was the first in a series of three movies using these two characters.

Very good quality spaghetti western!Without exploration in genre but strong professional work on all levels.Not bad scenario (rude variation on THE GOOOD THE BAD THE UGLY scheme).Without inventions in plot and dialog but successful inside fighting and especially torture (rope,water(pit),fire) scenes.Red hair Bill San Antonio not demonic power character but sly fox.Terence Hill as Cat Stevens is equal parts of Franko Nero's (Django) and Clint Eastwood's (in "dollars trilogy") "good" guys performances.Bud Spencer's Hutch Bessy is pretty with limit (relatively for latest Spencer's characters) physical power. Generally: for all spaghetti western fans!

Again Hill as Cat Stevens and Spencer as Hutch Bessy team up against a baddie named Bill well played by Frank Wolff . Exciting western deals with a gunfighter robber hijacks a payroll train , kills everyone aboard and then stashes his loot . This violent Spaghetti Western oater goes on when Cat Stevens (Terence Hill or Mario Girotti) trying to save himself from a pursuit by nasties . Then meets Hutch (Bud Spencer or Carlo Pedersoli) who proposes him to discover the train robbing , allegedly committed by Bill St Antonio , and the two guys mess with Western baddies . Bill has been killed and holds on his tombstone an inscription captioning : ¨Here lies Bill St Antonio , greatest shot in the world killed by a traitor , otherwise no¨ and he receives a spectacular funeral in New Orleans style . Stevens reunites with Hutch joining forces, confronting baddies. Nevertheless , the heinous villain is alive and seeks revenge , he is a ruthless outlaw and supported by heinous henchmen .

The movie contains gunplay, action Western, bloody spectacle and fist-fights . Terence Hill as a tough gunslinger and Spencer as a bouncing hunk are good but still not personified the Trinity hero characters . At the picture appears usual Spaghetti secondaries who played ordinary characters as villains in numerous Spanish/Italian Western as Jose Luis Martin , Frank Braña , Jose Canalejas , Tito Garcia , Francisco Sanz and Luis Barboo , among others . The film belongs the Giuseppe Colizzi trilogy starred by Hill and Spencer as Cat Stevens and Hutch Bessy . This one is the first , superior and the best outing ; the second installment is ¨Four gunmen of Ave Maria or Ace high ¨ with the great Elli Wallach and more camp tendencies ; and the third is ¨Boot Hill¨ with Woody Strode and less of a budget . The film is produced by DÁmbrossio and accompanied by a musical score by Carlo Rustichelli with an enjoyable leitmotif . The movie is finely photographed by Alfio Contini, and of course is shot in Almeria , Spain, location where were filmed hundreds Western in the 60s and 70s . This motion picture also titled ¨God forgives¨ will appeal to Hill and Spencer fans and S.W. aficionados.

I'm not sure why American-International chose to theatrically release in the U.S. this particular spaghetti western over dozens of others. Although this does the job for spaghetti western addicts (like myself), and it's never boring, it is not spectacular in any department - scenery, story, action, violence, etc.

The main attraction this movie has today is the early pairing up (before the TRINITY films) of Hill and Spencer. Spencer acts like his usual ornery self, though we do get the chance to see hill play a determined, more brutal western hero. The movie is also interesting that we see the duo in a more serious story for once. However, there are a few (mild) comic moments where you can see the rumblings of the comic characters the two were to later play. Did the TRINITY people see these scenes? I wouldn't be surprised!

Among all the spaghetti-westerns I have seen(maybe 50) this one belongs to the better ones. It has in fact a pretty complex story line with revenge, false accusation, treasure-hunt and buddy relationship elements which cannot be told in one sentence. There is even a twist and some well placed flashbacks. Terence Hill showed his talents and the "chemistry" with Bud Spencer worked so well that it wasn't their last pairing, to say the least. And I liked to see them as serious actors.

No special score and overall regular cinematography.

Noteworthy: Sandra Brennan from Allmovie Guide rated it with only 1 star, the lowest rating I found. ;)

6 / 10.