From Wild East Productions: Two Italian Westerns on DVD For The First Time in The US!

(French poster for Kill Them All And Come Back Alive.)


Wild East, a great source to find DVDs of European exploitation films, just released, for (I believe) the first time in the US, two little known "Spaghetti Westerns" (or if you prefer, "Italian Westerns") on DVD: Kill Them All and Come Back Alone and the really obscure 3 Bullets For Ringo.


(The opening credits, in Italian, of 1966's 3 Bullets For Ringo.



The color picture quality of both films is pretty good & the sound is fine. Kill Them All... (1968; released in the US in 1970) has TV's Rifleman Chuck Connors (1921-1992) leading a group of Confederate spies (think a more bloodthirsty A-Team) to rob a Union outpost during the Civil War. (They also kill a lot of the Union troops. but the shootings & explosions are so out-there -think the action sequences in the James Bond movies with guys bouncing into the air as stuff blows up- that you can't take it too seriously.) Connors is told by his commander (Frank Wolff, formerly a member of Roger Corman's unofficial acting company & who found International fame in European films, before killing himself in 1971 after his wife took their kids & went back to the US) that as soon as he's gotten the Union's gold, he (Connors) is to kill everybody in his unit & come back with the gold alone (hence the title; spoken 14 minutes into the film). Of course, things don't go according to plan... Kill Them All... has a energenic Connors performance (he actually seems to be enjoying himself, esp. in the stunt scenes) and some great action sequences, but don't expect historical accuracy. (Conners & Wolff did their own dubbing BTW.)

3 Bullets For Ringo (1966; released directly to US television as Three Graves For a Winchester) has Mickey Hartigay (you-know-who's father; he's dubbed by somebody else, apparently to make him sound more American, as Hartigay had a strong Hungerian accent) as Ringo Carson, a sheriff who's blinded during the Civil War while saving a kid from a fire. While he's recovering, his former friend Frank (American muscleman actor Gordon Mitchell, who, like Hartigay, found movie success overseas; he & Hartigay were real-life pals & friendly weight lifting championship rivals) takes over the town, terrorizing everyone, then kills Ringo's mother & kidnaps Ringo's wife to keep his former buddy in line. It's a little more closer to a Hollywood western (yes, Ringo gets better & saves his family & the town), but the usual European "spaghetti western" elements such as over-the-top villians (Mitchell laughs a lot, esp. when he's shooting something) and action sequences, make this fun to watch. Hartigay occasionally mugs at the camera but is pretty good. Also, unlike Kill Them All, there are actually female characters in the film (and pretty good-looking ones too!).

Here's a short trailer for Kill Them All And Come Back Alone from 1970. The sound & picture isn't great but you'll get the general impression.



And if you want to know more about Italian Westerns, go back to Wild East and also to
John Nudge's site to get the pasta.., err, story. (Sorry...)
-Ed