Johnny Hamlet

Two worlds collide as Italian action master Enzo G Castellari takes on English wordsmith William Q Shakespeare in a mash-up of Hamlet and Spaghetti Westerns. It's faithful up to a point I guess. Not sure if Hamlet gets crucified in the play mind you.

Johnny Hamilton has a dream in which his father's ghost visits him and tells him he's been murdered and to head home and avenge his death. The usual stuff. Johnny's been hitching along with an acting troop who just happen to be performing Hamlet, so you get the 'to be or not to be' speech right there at the start of the film, on a beach, while another does backflips! Johnny heads home and meets his friend Horace, who seems reluctant to tell him what his mother's up to, and lo and behold, she's married Johnny's Uncle, the scheming Claude (Horst Frank, great as usual). Johnny now has to avenge his father's death, find out who really killed his father, get in many punch ups (like the play, right?), and kill loads of Danish Mexicans or something.

You see, Enzo is no fool. He's got the great source material, but he's still got to deliver an action-packed Western as well, and he manages to bring them together. Johnny is Hamlet, Horace is obviously Horatio, Ross and Gill I guess are (checks spelling) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, only with guns. Ophelia's there too but played down a bit.

You've also got a high instance of the 'Enzo Factor', which includes all his usual crazy camera angles, people appearing in mirrors, camera shots very often through objects (a chair, someone's legs, a bullet hole in a sheriff's badge), hyperactive camera shots, and the action amped up to ridiculous levels. I laughed twice - once when Mexican bandit Santana rode his horse through a glass door, and then again when Ennio Girolami shot a Chinese bartender by mistake.

This is a great because all the effort Enzo put into it is up there on the screen. It appeared on YouTube about a week ago in a great print. I don't imagine it will be there long, mind you.

Now someone upload The Return of Ringo! Also, my wife and I tried to go see Hamlet performed live in a park once, but for some reason the actors decided to perform it on the top of a hill while we were all seated at the bottom of the hill. It quickly became agony to sit on the tiny stools we rented so we left at the first interval, but also took the stools with us as compensation. The kids still use them to this day.

Take that Shakespeare!

First the good. The revenge story has a somewhat unique feel to it, despite being simply another revenge story, with a Hamlet storyline for the script. This makes it seem like fresher "Spaghetti." The location shooting is good, with some unique geological rocks, and more importantly caves. It is intriguing to see a cemetery located in one of these underground caverns. The soundtrack by Francesco De Masi is appropriate and good. Now the bad. Acting by anyone not named Gilbert Roland is sub par, including the wooden lead performance. The stunt work is also at fault, especially the fight scenes, which appear weak throughout. The film is totally watchable, but certainly is no classic. MERK

I'm going to rank this the 6th best Spaghetti Western of all time, behind only the five Sergio Leoni classics (because personally I find Sergio Corbucci's most renowned efforts too gothic and depressing for my taste)

Enzo Castellani has studied the SL playbook and does a great job of framing his shots to maximise the value of the scenery and uses zooms and close-ups to build tension and help mitigate the limited acting skills of some of the cast.

Most Spaghetti Westerns use generic semi-arid Spanish scenery to stand in for the West of the United States, making no attempt to match the scenic grandeur achieved by John Ford, in his use of Monument Valley as a backdrop, or Anthony Mann's use of the Rocky Mountains, and fair enough too as the genre is mainly one of B movies with small budgets. However great background scenery doesn't have to cost more money, and here they make extensive use of the picturesque rock formations of "Cuidad Encantada" near the equally picturesque town of Cuenca in Spain.

The script is decent and draws some added zest from elements borrowed from Shakespeare's famous play "Hamlet", however don't expect to carry that analogy too far, as there are not nearly enough fights and shootouts in a Shakespearian play to satisfy the intended audience of a Spaghetti Western. Castellani knows this and ensures that there is plenty of action to be found here, accompanied by thuds and whacks which even exceed the usual level of impact, with each blow sounding as if a door or wall had been demolished to provide it.

I also found the choreography of the fight scenes to be above average, with fights incorporating some imaginative use of flips, throws and tumbles to season the usual diet of punches and broken furniture.

As for the acting, it's up to the expected level for a Spaghetti Western, some memorably fruity villains, a very attractive but somewhat wooden hero and female eye candy, and a single Hollywood has been, hoping to follow in Clint Eastwood's footsteps and get a career boost. In this case it is the redoubtable Gilbert Roland, who once did a shift as the Cisco Kid in B Movies of the 1940s, and he brings his customary assured macho charisma to the role of experienced friend of the hero, who steps in to save him whenever he gets in over his head, which in this movie is pretty much constantly.

Highly recommended to fans of the genre.

Based on an idea by Sergio Corbucci, Enzo Castellari directed this western adaptation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" drama, as Django (or Johnny, depending on which dubbing you get in your country) avenges the death of his father. It is interesting to observe how the classical tragedy elements work in the context of a Mediterranean style western movie. Not yet 30 years old, Castellari was already very creative at little touches like the camera circling around Django's face in the scene at his father's grave, and should take this way further in "Keoma" a decade later.

"Quella sporca storia nel west" suffers a bit from the unconvincing cast: German actor Horst Frank with his blond hair does not look like he is a member of the same family as Gilbert Roland, the veteran actor Roland is too old to play Andrea Giordana's brother, whose mother is much too young to be the mother of any of them. But even if the audience won't buy this ensemble for a family, the cruelty of the old tragedy is working great for a tough western, and the visual qualities of the movie, also gifted with a thrilling musical score by Francesco de Masi, save the day and make it a must for the collection of every spaghetti western fan. Regrettably, Andrea Giordana did not make any westerns after this anymore, because the young man had talent.

This underrated spaghetti western, based on an idea by Sergio Corbucci and directed by Enzo Castellari of Keoma fame, sports excellent cinematography, a nice soundtrack by the recently deceased Francesco De Masi and an impressive cast. While the protagonist, played by Andrea Giordani, is the usual spaghetti 'avenging hero' fare, the highly charismatic Horst Frank and the rest of the cast do a great job. The 'Hamlet' theme injects a lot of originality into the vengeance story, the intro dream sequence being very surreal and creative. And while you will not find a deep, meaningful version of 'Hamlet' here, lots of religious metaphors are around and, along with the healthy dose of humor (which not everyone will appreciate) make this one of the more intelligent euro westerns around. Definitely recommended.