The Moment to Kill

More than a bucket of blood promises the German title of the movie: "Ein Sarg voll Blut" means "a coffin filled with blood". Needless to say there is no such thing in the movie. Django and Bull, two gunmen with nothing else to do, look for a woman who knows the secret of a gold treasure. Quite a lot of baddies want to lay their hands on the gold, too, of course - not an unusual story, but "Il momento di uccidere" still is a spaghetti western above average due to excellent camera work and editing plus the ironic, yet very tough George Hilton starring as Django. Horst Frank ("Preparati la bara") is among the villains, while Walter Barnes plays Django's partner as such a rogue you wonder how he happened to be one of the good guys. Loni von Friedl acts convincingly as the pretty heiress who has more than one secret to hide. A movie without any serious flaws, really.

Django : George Hilton and Bull : Walter Barnes are two greedy gun-shooters who attempt to take a hidden loot from Confederation . They arrive in a littte town searching for a judge , but there they aware that many townsfolk want them dead and then happens various brawls , duels , fights and betrayals . They'll have to confront Forrester : Arturo Domicini , and his son played by Horst Frank . Meanwhile, the cripple daughter : Loni Von Friedl of a deceased Confederate Colonel seems to have some clues about the gold whereabouts. A Man without nerves , Hard as steel !. .

This is an entertaining Spaghetti Western with plenty of action , thrills , shootouts , crosses , double-crosses , twists , turns and an amazing final surprise. Stars George Hilton and Walter Barnes , giving chemical enough , they form an amusing and tough couple who will stop an nothing to get their purports , to unearth 500.000 dollars in golden hidden by a Confederate officer . George Hilton who recently passed away was definitively one of the Spaghetti greatest stars , Uruguay-born Hilton starred a lot of Pasta Westerns , outstanding the following ones : "Massacre time", "Sartanas's here trade you pistol for a coffin", "His name was Holy Ghost" , "The call me Hallalluya" , "Light the fuse Sartana is coming" , "Professionals for a massacre" , "The Ruthless Four" , among others . Along with protagonists Hilton and Walter Barnes there appears some familiar faces of the common European genres of the Sixties and Seventies , such as the German Horst Frank , Arturo Dominici , Renato Romano , Remo de Angelis and the Austrian Loni Von Friedl who is still playing , here as a paralytic woman bound to wheelchair . It displays a nice and cool score in Spaghetti Western style by musician Francesco De Massi who composed several Pasta soundtracks . As well as atmospheric cinematography by Stelvio Massi , showing the ordinary rocky and barren outdoors and shot on location in desert of Tabernas , Almería, Andalucía, Spain and Cinecitta , Rome , Lazio , Italy . The motion picture was professionally directed by Giuliano Carmineo who often used pseudonym Anthony Ascott . He was a fine artisan who made all kinds of genres . Being his especiality Spaghetti Western sub-genre , such as : "Find a place to die" , "They call him Cemetery" , "They call me Hallaluya" , and directed various Sartana movies usually played by George Hilton : "Have a good general my friend Sartana will pay" , "Sartana the gravedigger" , "Light the fuse Sartana is coming" . Though Carmineo also realized other genres as Giallo : "The case of the bloody Iris" , "Ana ese particular placer" , Fantasy : "Computron 22" , Sci-fi: "Exterminators of the year 3000" and Terror : "The Rat Man" , among others .

The second Western from Giuliano Carnimeo is a perfect production with a great cast. George Hilton and Walter Barnes are a perfect team and on the other side the great german actor Horst Frank. As Regina Loni von Friedl is also very good and insidious. Responsible for the good looking of the movie is Stelvio Massi with his camerawork. The movie has also a ironic sense of humor which is very good for it. Francesco de Masi did a great job with the wunderfull music. Giuliano Carnimeo and George Hilton made also a few other good movies together f.ex. the Giallo "Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer?" or the western- comedy " Il West ti va stretto, amico ... è arrivato Alleluja". Carnimeo is also responsible for three of the Sartana- movies with Gianni Garko.

The main reason I prefer Spaghetti Westerns to American ones is because the Spaghetti ones are generally far more entertaining. That's not the case here. The Moment to Kill is undoubtedly one of the most dull westerns I've ever had the misfortune to watch, and the film is made all the more disappointing by the fact that it could have been good! The story is certainly derivative, but similar ones have lead to great westerns before and after this film. Basically, we focus on a pair of gunslingers; Lord and Bull, that go after some treasure with only a book and a young crippled girl to go on. The film is very dark; but I don't mean in terms of the plot, I mean in terms of the picture; a lot of it takes place at night and I often found myself wondering exactly what was going on. The story gets boring very fast and this is mostly due to the tepid relationship between the central characters. George Hilton takes the role of Lord, but mostly looks bored; and he is joined by Walter Barnes as his partner. The two look odd on screen together and it doesn't work very well. There are not many noteworthy scenes, and even the many shootouts get boring before long. All in all, I wouldn't recommend this film to even the biggest Western fans.

The DVD company Wild East put this out with another George Hilton spaghetti western on the same disc, "Full House For The Devil". The two compliment each other, and not in a good way. This is a pretty poor western. The first third of the movie is very confusing, with motivations by the various characters murky. Eventually we learn what's going on, but the movie doesn't really improve with that knowledge. The story remains very slow-moving, and the sporadic action sequences are not particularly exciting. The two protagonists (played by Hilton and Walter Barnes) are not very likable, coming across as kind of smug and cold-hearted. Is there anything of merit to be found here? Well, the opening credits song is not bad, and the director occasionally pulls off an interesting visual. But I think even the biggest spaghetti western fans won't find this limited merit enough to make the movie worth investing their time with.