Cemetery Without Crosses

Robert Hossein (who also co-wrote and directed) is a brooding, ghost town dwelling sharpshooter who, for either love or money, seeks vengeance against the family who apparently stole stole an ex-friend's livestock (or were they already stolen?) and hung him for trying to get them back.

One of the most cynical and grim of the Euro-westerns, this is fairly stylish, told with a minimum of dialog. It has the look and feel of a spaghetti western. However, the film owes a bit more in terms of storytelling to it's French half.

As far as the movie goes, Cemetery Without Crosses was offbeat and definitely worth watching, though I didn't find it as brilliant as others make it out to be.

Really puzzling is the writing credit issued to Dario Argento. If he didn't co-write the film, then why is his name on it? Does anyone else say otherwise?

This is a very good eurowestern that will have you in its grip from start to finish.

It is beautifully filmed with lots of desolate wide open desert, and impressive mountain scenery. The film has a feeling of loneliness as much of it takes place in a deserted ghost town which has apparently become the home of the protagonist.

The movie is populated with bitter characters that are primarily motivated by revenge. There are no happy endings here. This definitely wasn't "the feel good movie of the year," which is a good thing. The female lead is a beautiful woman in black with little left to live for other than seeing her husband's killers pay for his death. Her relationship with Manuel, the man she goes to for help with her plan, is a very intriguing one. This is because we are left to wonder what their history is until close to the end of the film when it is finally revealed.

The music score is excellent. The opening/closing theme is a great spaghetti western ballad with vocals. The music during the film is mostly guitar designed to create feelings of suspense and sadness. There's also a touch of organ thrown in for good measure. It all works wonderfully with the film.

This is a high-quality spaghetti western that is riveting and entertaining. I highly recommend this one. If you get the chance to see it, don't pass it up.

The qualities inherent in this Spaghetti Western have more to do with its uniqueness rather than for any outstanding merit: the film, in fact, is a French-Italian co-production (albeit co-scripted by none other than Dario Argento!). Also unusual is the fact that the movie was helmed by its own leading man – incidentally, the two stars (Hossein and Michele Mercier) had just finished the 5-picture "Angelique" series, which is currently being re-proposed on Italian TV (I've recorded four of them so far but have yet to watch any). Of the remaining cast members, I was mainly familiar with Michel Lemoine (perhaps best-known for playing the Mephistophelean figure in Jess Franco's SUCCUBUS [1967] and who would himself graduate to direction with the likes of SEVEN WOMEN FOR Satan [1974]); though his character isn't given any distinguishing features, the actor's odd looks are enough to give an offbeat tone to the traditional Western garb and settings.

The plot – a running feud between two factions, with each of whom the laid-back and detached ex-gunfighter Hossein becomes involved – is quite typical and straightforward; actually, the hero had been Mercier's flame but the latter eventually married another man, who turned out to be no good…though she's determined that the perpetrators of his death be punished, which is why she now turns once more to Hossein (living a hermitic existence in a nearby ghost town!). In direct opposition to the "Angelique" films mentioned above – where the sensuality of Mercier, one of the loveliest starlets of her time, was given center-stage – here, she deliberately chose to be deglamorized (not only forced to bury her husband all by herself but being physically manhandled by the villains at the end). Anyway, Hossein joins the other side – ostensibly as a rustler – but subsequently kidnaps the patriarch's daughter for purposes of ransom; on the other hand, they retaliate by beating up the two brothers (Lemoine among them) of Mercier's husband. By the time it's all over, unsurprisingly, there are bodies lying everywhere – even the stars get it (with Hossein giving himself a particularly ironic demise)!

Much of what's admirable in the genre at its best is evident here as well: laconic dialogue, good action (ominously donning a glove before engaging in shoot-outs, Hossein's gunplay is so quick as to border on the invisible!), terrific score (by the director's father Andre'!) and an evocatively grubby look (the opening and closing moments, then, are given an added dimension by being presented in sepia); interestingly, Hossein dedicated the film to his friend (and undisputed master of the genre) Sergio Leone!

Ever since I saw Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) as a child after burrowing into my brother's VHS collection, I've loved spaghetti westerns. It was only in my teenage years that I realised just how many of these films were made - some excellent, some terrible, and some just outright bizarre - and it's been fun tracking down some of the more obscure titles. While not strictly a 'spaghetti' western due to being French (a 'baguette' western as Alex Cox puts it), Cemetery Without Crosses is a stoic curiosity. Clearly influenced by the work of Leone, the film is an existential, near-silent work that is in equal parts hypnotic and plodding.

Humble farmer Ben Caine (Guido Lollobrigida) is chased and gunned down by members of the Rogers family, who are scooping up all the livestock business from the surrounding areas through fear and violence. Ben is gunned down and hanged in front of his wife Maria (Michele Mercier). With her livelihood destroyed and Ben's brothers Thomas (Guido Lollobrigida) and Eli (Michel Lemoine) opting to flee across the border, Maria turns to old friend Manuel (Robert Hossein), a brooding gunslinger residing in a nearby ghost town, for help. Manuel soon infiltrates the Rogers family and joins them on their ranch, where he sets Maria's revenge in motion.

Though more of a homage to spaghetti westerns, Cemetery Without Crosses certainly looks and feels like it was born and reared in Italy. There are a couple of glimpses of brilliance - a familiar scene of intense stare-downs at the dinner table quickly flips into a moment of outright comedy, and the scene in which a character lights a candle to reveal that they are not alone is truly nerve- shredding. But the plot is wafer-thin, so the camera is often left lingering while the characters do little or nothing at all, and the dialogue is especially sparse, even for a spaghetti western. Hossein, who also directed and co- wrote the film with the credited Dario Argento and Claude Desailly (though in reality Argento had no involvement), simply doesn't possess the magnetic presence of Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson. Exhilarating in bursts but meandering in places, Cemetery Without Crosses is still worth checking out.

Cemetery Without Crosses (1969)

*** (out of 4)

Manuel (Robert Hossein) is asked by his former lover (Michele Mercier) to seek out the men who murdered her husband. The gunslinger agrees to take the job so he gets some help and heads out to take the gang down.

CEMETERY WITHOUT CROSSES was a French/Italian co-production that has gained much popularity over the years because it's basically a love letter to the style of Sergio Leone and the film is even dedicated to the legendary filmmaker. Hossein not only stars in the picture but he also directed it as well as co-wrote it and for the most part it's a pretty good entry for the genre. Is it in the same league as Leone? Of course not but this is certainly worth watching.

The screenplay, which included Dario Argento as a co-writer, isn't all that original but what I enjoyed the most about this picture was the style. There are several long stretches where there's not a single line of dialogue spoken. There's often a lot of noise whether it's sound effects or the music score by André Hossein blaring and this allows the terrific cinematography to come to life. The camera just floats from one shot to the next with the sound effects really taking your mind off everything that is going on. This often time leads to a nice surprise with one of the best examples being a scene at the diner table.

You're watching a group of men eat and we hear the sound of them chomping and then out of nowhere there's a little surprise that really works well. I won't ruin the ending but it too was quite effective because of the set up and how the director shows the final shoot out. Both Hossein and Mercier are very good in their roles with Hossein obviously trying to copy the Man With No Name role. CEMETERY WITHOUT CROSSES is a well-made little film. I think there's more style than substance but that's really not a problem here.