Long Days of Hate

Very well made Eurowestern with Guy Madison (almost unrecognizable) as Martin Benson. The plot may be a familiar one to Eurowest fans, but the director gives a standard plotline a fresh new look. No overacting in this film, which sometimes is the case, just straightforward acting from the entire cast. I would give the film at least five stars (maybe more)!

"I lunghi giorni dell'odio" (litrall translation: "Long Days of Hate") AKA "This Man Can't Die" (1967), directed by the capable Gianfranco Baldanello, who would go on to make the infamous "Black Jack" (1968), is above average Spaghetti Western. While not on the same level as Leone, Corbucci or Castellari, this film still holds it's grip pretty well, with excellent action scenes, some well staged bar brawls, very well done shootouts and a neat, Leonesque showdown for the climax. The plot is the usual story: parents murdered and daughter raped by outlaws, the sons set out to avenge their deaths. But it's capably handled, even if the revealing of who the head of the outlaws is is no big surprise. Still, a must-see for fans of the Spaghetti Western genre.

In This Man Can't Die (English title) Guy Madison plays an undercover agent of the United States government who recently finished up work on a group of gunrunner/bootleggers but failed to find out the identity of the ringleader. Meanwhile, a family is viciously attacked, the parents murdered and the youngest daughter raped.

The link between the two apparently unrelated plots isn't apparent at first, leading to some confusion on the part of the audience.

Overall, it's a decent little Italian western with a decent performance by Madison, good production values, and excellent use of locations, though the afore mentioned confusion and some slow spots lead it to be less than spectacular.

At first I was going to congratulate the filmmakers on an excellent imitation Ennio Moriconne score but then I recognized a few music cues as being directly lifted from A Fistful Of Dollars, which leads me to seriously question the other songs on the soundtrack! Were they from other movies too?

I never thought I'd live to see the day when there was a good spaghetti Western. Most of the ones we have rammed down our throats are those goofy ones Eastwood was in, the ones where men are classified into gods who can't miss, demi gods who can only miss gods, and mortals who just fill graveyards. Yawn provoking one dimensional caricatures they think can pass off as caricatures because they don't shave.

But this one combines the elements of credible characters with entertainment and an actual story line.

It helps to have Guy Madison, too. No doubt he had a large say in keeping this one from being a cartoon cardboard cut out.

Not saying it is realistic. This is a shoot em up. But the circumstances are more thought provoking and believable, because the characters actually have motivation. In the spaghetti flops that clowns like Leone directed, he simply made everyone a certain degree of a sadist to explain their actions. In this film we are spared that cliché of the modern movie. The gun play is far more believable than anything Leone ever did. There are a few clownish fight scenes with people doing flips, but not many.

Like most good Westerns, the minor characters and their treatment with dignity make this stand above the lesser ones. Again, one sees this a lot with Guy Madison, so either he had a large hand in it, or he was careful in the selection of the role.

This is entertainment.

Second-tier American leading man Guy Madison plays a character whose notoriety precedes him in this Spaghetti Western – which, having very modest credentials emerges as essentially routine (though featuring a nice enough score). The plot offers some mild interest: the title, incidentally, refers to a wounded man involved in the murderous assault by gun-runners on a ranch – the property of the family of their pursuer, cavalry agent Madison. The latter's younger siblings are determined that the injured party, now in their charge, lead them to the gang boss responsible; ultimately, the identity of either mystery man proves a surprise – and both, ironically, become involved with one of Madison's sisters (another is raped during the raid). Euro-Cult starlet Rosalba Neri appears unremarkably as a saloon hostess, and Madison's ex-flame.