And God Said to Cain...

This is a really cool film. It is directed by Italian horror director Antonio Margheriti, and the Euro-horror influence really shows. Margheriti really creates some atmosphere with this one.

This is a very dark tale of revenge. There's nothing even remotely resembling comedy in this film. It's the tale of a man named Gary Hamilton, who was betrayed and framed for a crime he didn't commit. It's time for him to wreak havoc on those that wronged him. The bulk of the story is told with great style on a dark night with the wind howling. Hamilton has his enemies so terrified that just the mention of his name seems to make windows fly open, or birds start screeching. He stalks and outwits his enemies under cover of darkness and dust, using their own fear against them. It's a very intense, uncomplicated story.

Klaus Kinski is excellent in this film. He is well-suited for the role of Hamilton. He has a look that can be sympathetic and frightening at the same time. I would have liked to see what this movie would be like if Kinski had dubbed his own voice. If they were worried about his accent, they could have just given his character a German name. I think it would have made the role even better.

Carlo Savina comes through with a very good score for this movie. The opening theme is one of the most memorable of all the spaghetti western songs with vocals. The use of organ music adds to the Gothic atmosphere, and there is a great recurring trumpet melody that stays in your mind long after the movie is over.

This Euro-western is one that should not be overlooked. It deserves more recognition than it gets, and it's a must-see for spaghetti western fans.

And God said to Cain (E Dio Disse a Caino) is directed by Antonio Margheriti, who also co-writes the screenplay with Giovanni Addessi. It stars Klaus Kinski, Peter Carsten, Marcella Michelangeli, Guido Lollobrigida and Antonio Cantafora. Music is by Carlo Savina and cinematography by Riccardo Pallottini and Luciano Trasatti.

When Gary Hamilton (Kinski) receives a pardon from his sentence at a prison work camp, he has only one thing on his mind; revenge on those responsible for his unfair incarceration.

A ghost returns and he'll have, he'll have only one desire in his heart, only one thirst: Revenge.

How wonderful, a Spaghetti Western/horror hybrid with scary Kinski as an avenging angel good guy! For the first 30 minutes the film looks to be building up a head of steam for a standardised Spaghetti Western, but things shift once Hamilton approaches town and night begins to fall. From here the film plays out as a Gothic horror involving Western characters, resplendent with big creepy mansion set in a shifty looking town that is cloaked in murky moonlight.

The whole town teeters on the edge of panic as they know who is coming to visit on this dark night. Atmosphere is tightly coiled as things move in the shadows, windows blow open, strange sounds emanate on the impending storm, and the stench of death is everywhere. A bell tolls ominously, birds flee the vicinity, all while Hamilton moves about the town with deadly silence, even using a network of catacombs under the town that were left over from an aged Indian cemetery.

The production value isn't high, but Margheriti maximises what is at his disposal to great ends. The sound effects work is simply terrific, with the shrill of the birds and the dripping water in the caverns playing a tune being particularly striking. There's inventive deaths, sublime scenes (love that rider less horse sequence and the Orson Welles mirror homage) and Kinski being ace as a ghoulish phantom taking a string from the bow of the Count of Monte Cristo.

It's also great to find that Margheriti and Addessi give strength to the picture by way of psychological smarts within the characterisations. This is not merely a spooky revenge story, a chance to pile the bodies up, there is substance to the main players, their motives and means, their frailties and family fractures brutally laid bare. The dialogue is sometimes naff, the cliché's of Spaghetti Westerns rife, and of course not all the visual effects work like they should, but this is one moody and memorable movie that is well worth seeking out if you can see a decent enough print of it. 8/10

"And God Said to Cain..." (1969), a Saghetti Western directed by Antonio Margheriti, stars Klaus Kinski, Peter Carsten and Marcella Michelangeli and is the recipient of a startling, innovative script by Antonio Margheriti and Giovanni Addessi that has a hero who prefigures Clint Eastwood in "High Plains Drifter" by being a ghost (or is he?). Even in the transcending, transgressive, aggressive genre splicing of the world of Spagheetti Westerns, this is surprising stuff.

The plot has all the hallmarks of tightly-knit Greek tragedy: it takes place in a twenty-four hour time frame as Guy Hamilton (Kinski) mysteriously seeks revenge against the rich, powerful Acombar family.

Crows shriek out whenever Hamilton's name is spoken and an ominous storms broods over the landscape; this is not so much a Western as a Horror Western. The explanation, the motivation for Hamilton's insane night of bloodletting is cursory, almost as if the filmmakers felt obliged to try to explain the unexplainable. For the film to succeed then, it has to rest on the strength of Kinski's performance, which is marvelous, a million miles away from his phone-in cameo role in the previous year "If You Meet Sartana, Pray for Your Death". The rest of the cast are admirable and the cinematography by Luciano Trasatti and Riccardo Pallottini and direction are both superb.

A Gothic Horror Western that is utterly unexpected, this is diamond that should be displayed much more than it is.

Pardoned and freed after serving ten years hard labor for a crime he did not commit, Klaus Kinski returns to his hometown for some well-deserved payback against the bigwig who framed him.

Overly talky at first, things pick up about a third of the way in, when Kinski blows into town ahead of a violent windstorm to wreak near biblical vengeance.

And God Said To Cain... is full of neat Gothic touches such as the howling wind, the dark secluded mansion, a ringing church bell, and the silent priest playing pipe organ. All the while, there's something akin to superstitious dread on the part of Kinski's nemesis and his hired guns as the silent Klaus hides and seeks his prey.

Director Antonio Margheretti made films in all genres of Italian exploitation films (horror, peplum, giallo, etc.) with mixed success. Not bad, this one lies somewhere in the middle.

This has a great opening theme song and a satisfying fiery climax.

If you read the synopsis for And God Said to Cain you would be forgiven for assuming it was another archetypal Spaghetti Western. The story starts with a man called Gary Hamilton, being released by Presidential pardon from a hard labour prison sentence. And from here he immediately sets about seeking out those who betrayed him leaving him imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Making matters worse is the fact that the chief villain, Acombar, has subsequently profited from his crime, making him a very wealthy land-baron and, to rub even more salt into Hamilton's wounds, has taken his wife as his own. It's a pretty straightforward and generic revenge narrative reminiscent of many an Italian western. But what sets this one out from the crowd a bit and gives it its interest factor is the way in which it goes about presenting this story.

Probably the single most significant element is quite a simple one. Virtually the whole story happens during one stormy night. This might not sound like much but I was raking my brains to think of another western whose main body of action all takes place during the night-time. The western genre, be it American or Italian, has a convention for action taking place mostly under the unforgivably hot, bright sun. It's a fairly ingrained part of the iconography, so much so that when a film deviates from it, it's pretty noticeable. This movie builds up the basic set-up typically enough but by the half hour mark we enter the final act and we never leave the darkness. The fact that the showdown itself last a full hour is pretty unusual too it has to be said. In this part Hamilton has to contend with Acombar's thirty henchmen and he does so via a variety of methods.

Director Antonio Margheriti was a solid, if unspectacular director who worked in a number of genres and made films such as the giallo Naked You Die. It's very possible that this could be his best effort though. He really cranks up the atmosphere in this one. The night setting sort of automatically creates a dark ambiance in truth but there are several details that really accentuate things nevertheless, such as the moody soundtrack from Carlo Savina that very much underscores the ominous tone that the director is going for. While there are some nice ideas that add an extra layer to the feel as well, such as the tolling bell that prefigures the villains doom. Even the ending is going for something interesting with a finale in a room full of mirrors.

The action is maybe a bit samey in the middle section, however, with faceless villain after faceless villain being dispatched by the hero. And the constant darkness didn't always ensure the action was always too clear which was unfortunate, although admittedly, this could be due to a poor print and not the film itself. But on the whole, this is a western that stands out a bit tone-wise and this is a good thing. And, how could I end without mentioning Klaus Kinski? He normally played the villains in the westerns he appeared in. In this one, along with Black Killer from 1971 he was in an atypical good guy role and this film, like the others he starred in, benefits from his charismatic presence.