Black Killer

I'm getting bored with this plot now. A bunch of Mexican bandidos are terrorizing a Western frontier town with the aid of a local banker. A mysterious wonky-faced stranger (Klaus Kinski) turns up. He's got loads of books with guns in them and seems to be some sort of lawyer. Another more normal faced stranger turns up and after killing some bandidos, finds himself the new sheriff. This in turn causes the bandidos to go and murder his brother and gang-rape his sister in law. You know the drill.

This one tries to bring the old tired plot in line with the increasing excesses of the seventies by including nudity (hilariously random when it happens and nothing to do with anything!) and more violence and bloodshed. The rather bloody killing of the first sheriff aside, most of the first half of the film kind of wanders round in circles while they try and establish a reason for the gunslinger to get revenge on the bandits.

That said, they do also have the sister-in-law go on the rampage too – which also makes this some kind of half-arsed rape revenge flick too, but this plot has been driven into the ground and in being more extreme Black Killer ignores the tongue-in-cheek elements that make Guiliano Carnimeo's films of the same year more enjoyable.

I'm guessing though that Klaus Kinski fans would like it though. He's quite substantial here instead of the usual cameo, and is dubbed with a rather strange voice.

*Pulls up chair* You know, years ago, I said to the missus I said "I like Italian horror films, and the Mad Max rip offs, so I'm just gonna collect them" I said, saying in a speaking voice "I'll never collect Spaghetti Westerns…that way lies madness." I intoned in a sexy, breathy voice to the empty room I was addressing as the missus has already left by that point.

And I never did. In fact, I just made up the plots to all these reviews.

I'm a big fan of Spaghetti Westerns, but unfortunately; Black Killer really isn't one of the best. The thing that I like best about this type of film is the entertainment value; and that is where Black Killer unfortunately falls down. The film is likely to be a target for many because of the fact that it stars the great Klaus Kinski, and indeed the actor the helped to make The Great Silence such a pleasure puts in a decent performance amidst a somewhat tedious movie. The plot is all over the place, but seems to have something to do with Kinski's lawyer character (complete with gun concealing books) and a band of Mexicans. The atmosphere is gritty, and the film features a handful of fairly nasty scenes; although it's not nearly as action packed as some of the other Spaghetti Westerns released around the same time. You cant really expect coherency from seventies Spaghetti Westerns, of course, and it really wouldn't be a problem if director Carlo Croccolo had managed to make the action entertaining and the characters interesting; but unfortunately this didn't happen. The title refers to the fact that Kinski dresses in black and goes around killing people; but even this theme has been done better in other films (e.g. The Grand Dual). Overall, someone may get some enjoyment out of this; but in a genre populated by entertaining films; I can't recommend seeing this one.

I was sold when I saw Klaus Kinski on the poster artwork. Playing the title character too. Sadly in spite of that, he actually plays secondary to Fred Robsahm's rugged heroic cowboy, corrupt townsfolk judge and flamboyant dressed, evil cackling Mexican bandit brothers in this surprisingly ruthless, yet formulaic spaghetti western set in the town Tombstone?!

What starts with a loose string of story threads and characters eventually had Kinski's sly, scheming lawyer as the glue holding the (confounded and raggedly edited) plot together. It's rather a collected performance, although the intensity in his eyes is all on show emoting every lingering thought. However he doesn't get much to do on the action front. Unless you enjoy watching him read, glare down, creeping about, peering out of windows or behind red curtains with books always in hand. Books you say, yep books. Oh there's a catch. Think Django with his coffin... now how about Black Killer/James Webb with his books. Even one with a built in draw string. Kinski gets creative with his pistol handling, real creative on the quick draw and faultless with his aim. The problem... I just wish we had more of it. It's a small novelty, but this along with the wicked spaghetti flavoured music score made a lasting impression.

Much of the positive that is to be found in "Black Killer" can be found with Klaus Kinski and the character he plays. The cold-eyed Kinski instantly brings in some grit with his charisma, though I have to admit that the unintentionally funny English dubbing for him sounds NOTHING like how Kinski (who could speak English) sounded in real life. There is also some novelty that Kinski is playing a lawyer (!), though one who is handy with a gun. Other positive things in the movie include a good musical score, as well as some good shoot-outs. And there is a significant amount of nudity, which you usually don't see in a spaghetti western. On the other hand, there isn't much of a story here, and the little there is unfolds very slowly. There were a couple of slow stretched where I almost drifted off into sleep. This isn't a bad movie, but I would only recommend it to Kinski fans and/or spaghetti western fans.

This spaghetti western has a very good music score and a great performance by Klaus Kinski as a strange lawyer who kills with books that have guns inside of them. He's really a natural for the role. His look and mannerisms fit the character perfectly.

Not only does this western have Kinski, it also has a family of Mexican thugs named O'Hara! There's definitely nothing like a good old Italian western.

This is one of those movies that will have you scratching your head a lot if you try to make perfect sense of everything that happens. It's best not to think about it too hard. Just sit back and enjoy it for what it is. It's got style, action, violence, weirdness, and an interesting though somewhat vague storyline.

All in all, it's pretty good stuff for the spaghetti western fan.