The Man Called Noon

Despite the presence of Richard Crenna, "The Man Called Noon" is a real obscurity - I couldn't find a listing for it in any of my movie reference books, and I have a lot in my personal library! But it didn't take long watching it to figure out why it is unknown today. Now, I will say that the director manages to pump in a lot of atmosphere into just about every scene, and occasionally there is some decent action. However, the movie is all the same a tough slog. It is remarkably slow for a European western, with the movie remaining at a near standstill for long periods. The screenplay also suffers with the amnesia subplot - not much is done with it, and what there is has a strong degree of extreme familiarity. No freshness there. Also, there are some strange changes in tone - one scene the movie is trying to be a gritty western, and then it suddenly changes into a western with a more epic tone. In short, the movie is a real mess, and even fans of Euro westerns might be squirming in their seats.

This is an average Spanish/British/Italian co-production filmed of course in Almeria , Spain . It deals with Robert Noon (Richard Crenna), a gunslinger who has turned amnesiac. Helped by Rimes (Stephen Boyd), another gunfighter who has befriended him, he attempts to figure out who he is actually. He gradually aware that his wife and child have been killed . Is he Noon ? . The duo goes to ranch Rafter where lives Fan Davidge (Rosanna Schiaffino) who will support them , there the foreman named Henekker (Jose Jaspe) gives him a letter signed by Noon and Dean Cullane . As they go to El Paso where lives the scheming sister (Patty Shepard) of the lawyer named Dean Cullane . As time goes by, Noon also recalls a lot of gold buried somewhere but he is double-crossed . Niland (Farley Granger), an ambitious judge and the outlaw Ben Janish (Angel Del Pozo) along with his hoodlums ( Aldo Sambrell, Jose Canalejas, Fernando Hilbeck, Julian Ugarte) will do everything to prevent Noon and Rimes from achieving their objective .

In the picture there're action western, shootouts, thrills, and a little bit of moderated violence . It follows American models more than Italian , displaying an intrigue about possible fake personality . The film is well starred by a fine star-cast though wasted as Stephen Boyd , Richard Crenna , Rosanna Schiaffino ; all of them early deceased , exception Farley Granger who passed away this same year . The starring Richard Crenna played another British Western titled ¨Catlow¨ that bears remarkable resemblance , as the same author Louis L'Amour , some actors and similar Almerian scenarios .The motion picture has been filmed on La Pedriza , Manzanares of Real , Madrid and Almeria(Spain), where during the 6os and early the 7os were shot several spaghetti western . The film well filmed in Tabernas and Texas Hollywood-Fort Bravo, Almeria, with a good production design including great a fortress , one of the best ever created , firstly used in ¨El condor¨ and where were posteriorly shot several Spaghetti as ¨ Blind man, Massacre at Fort Holman, ¨ and ¨Conan the Barbarian¨. Nevertheless, today the fort has been partially crumbled and only remain some ruins . There appears usual Spanish western secondary actors : Angel del Pozo, Julian Ugarte, Barta Barry , Ricardo Palacios, Jose Canalejas and of course Aldo Sambrell, among others. Atmospheric score by Luis Bacalov who subsequently won Oscar for ¨The postman and Pablo Neruda¨ and colorful cinematography by John Cabrera , though is necessary and urgent remastering .The movie is regularly directed by Peter Collinson. Collinson's directorial treatment provides it with action, gun-play, and suspense . He was an expert on thriller (Sell out, Target on assassin), intrigue (Spiral staircase, Ten little Indians, Open season), terror(Straight on till morning), Warlike-adventure(You can't win ém all), his biggest hit was ¨The Italian job¨ , until his early death by cancer at 41. Rating : Mediocre but entertaining .

reviewers on this page complain that this is just another ordinary western - that's the same as saying that the Taj Mahal is just another house - which it is - but what a house!

OK, this is not the Taj Mahal of anything but it is a western in which somebody took the time to find the right angles to shoot from and the right beautiful music to accompany everything with. This time and care put in, changes this film from being a trivial western into being a nicely mysterious experience with imagery that stick to the mind.

The mystery - it is true - is not so much in the dialogue as in the silence between the spoken words. The action is not as important as the scenery in which it takes place.

In the end you are left with a feeling of surprising satisfaction for something that on the surface seems trivial indeed.

I would never put paella westerns and Louis L'amour in the same sentence, let alone in a film, as L'amour books are traditional as it gets, but it works here. From the tense intro till the end, the film lives up to the excellence of the book, capturing the mystery, the characters quite well. The landscape lends itself to the suspense - and the action is gritty and exciting, especially at the end ( the ranch in the cave is well-imagined.)

Though there's action, it never overrides the narrative, and the focus is on Richard Crenna, looking cool, all dressed in black looking like Johnny Cash, who has lost his memory after an attempt on his life. From there, with the help of the underrated Stephen Boyd, he tries to learn who he is, and for his efforts he gets a passel load of bullets heading his way.

Great cast - Farley Granger, Rosanna Schiaffino and the hottie villainess Patty Shepherd. - great action. A bit confusing at times, but amnesiac films - like Bourne identity - tend to have this streak, and you have to sit it out and be patient and you'll soon get the answers. Maybe the dialogue could've been sharper, more clearer, however, it is a solid western that should get more attention.

Four years before this film, Peter Collinson had directed the hugely successful ITALIAN JOB featuring a terrific European ensemble that included Michael Caine and Raf Vallone, and was full of humorous heist action.

Sadly, he did not manage to whip up the same level of inspiration here, and the highly original and irreverent sequences in ITALIAN JOB make way in THE MAN CALLED NOON to a ponderous narrative occasionally jolted out of its snail pace by shootouts, and a contrived dialogue ripping off such quality Westerns as Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME in the WEST, Fred Zinnemann's HIGH NOON, Nicholas Ray's JOHNNY GUITAR, among others. Even UN FLIC, the 1972 Jean-Pierre Melville-directed French thriller featuring Alain Delon and Richard Crenna, made a contribution with the model train sequence in which Crenna also runs around the roof (thankfully without the helicopter).

Acting is generally substandard. Crenna never amounted to much as an actor. Here, he suffers from amnesia, keeps giving himself the name of a man who exists and Boyd seeks. Crenna's good looks are consistently emphasized, and he often seems either perplexed or like he has just spotted another killer. The film opens with him getting shot and escaping from a pinned down, under fire position, to a train that just happens to be blowing its horn to leave the tiny town's station. In the process, the injured Crenna eludes and flees more than 10 heavily armed men seeking him and makes off on the train where a strangely solicitous Stephen Boyd helps him evade.

That is where movie producer Boyd comes in. 14 years earlier, Boyd had memorably played the evil Roman consul Masala in BEN-HUR, but the sole connection is that here he too does quite a bit of horseriding. By 1973, Boyd was a waning star playing a pawn on the film's chessboard, of which two different sets surface at the end with Farley Granger deciding the moves as Judge Niland, who also masters rifle shooting, thereby sentencing no end of lives.

Two beautiful females appear: spaghetti beauty Rosa Schiaffino as the white dressed good woman Fan Davidge, and Patty Shepard as the black-dressed baddie Peg Cullane. Neither is particularly necessary for the action, but obviously the film needed female presences to be box office viable.

Plenty of breathtaking landscape shots, lovingly filmed trains arriving at stations, make THE MAN CALLED NOON rather easy on the eye, especially when the musical score is not too loud and modern to fit the action in the late 19th Century West.

Rather mediocre film. I doubt I will rewatch it. 6/10.