Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Boot Hill

Despite not caring much for APPALOOSA – or maybe because of it – I was still in the mood for a Western, and this one was close at hand. I remember really liking the Trinity movies starring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer (whose real names, respectively, are Mario Girotti and Carlo Pedersoli ), and although they’re not playing Trinity and Bambino, they’re both in this one, along with another old favorite from THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE and ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, Woody Strode.

BOOT HILL starts out in a fairly intriguing fashion. A traveling circus has stopped in a small Western town, and at the same time a mysterious stranger (Hill) arrives being pursued by gunmen. After he’s wounded in a shootout with his pursuers, the stranger hides in one of the circus wagons and leaves town with them the next day. Hired killers are still after him, though, and his presence draws down trouble on the circus performers, who wind up siding with him in his battle against an evil mine owner played by Victor Buono. The plot is revealed gradually, with a number of shootouts along the way leading up to a big final showdown.

There’s nothing here you haven’t seen many times before. BOOT HILL was written and directed by Giuseppe Colizzi. The script is pretty good, the direction less so. There are a lot of Sergio Leone style close-ups, but without the sweeping vistas that Leone also provides for the viewer. The action scenes are also hard to follow at times. And there are ’way too many grubby, bearded hombres who look too much alike, which often led me to think, “Wait a minute. Who’s that guy again?”

Despite these flaws, BOOT HILL is reasonably entertaining. Terence Hill always makes a good hero. Twenty years ago when I was writing the ABILENE series for Book Creations Inc. and Pocket Books, there was some discussion about adapting the books into a syndicated TV show that would have starred Terence Hill as Marshal Luke Travis. Nothing ever came of it, of course, but it would have been interesting. Bud Spencer isn’t given much to do in BOOT HILL, but he’s a good sidekick anyway. And the script has enough oddball bits to make it interesting.

BOOT HILL is available on several cheap compilations of public-domain Westerns, and I’ve also seen it as a single DVD for a buck at Dollar Tree, Wal-Mart, and places like that. It’s not a great movie by any means, but if you’ve got an extra dollar and an hour and a half to kill, there are worse ways to spend your time and money.

8 comments:

Randy Johnson said...

I've got one of those compilations and have seen this onw. Enjoyable, but not up to My Name Is Nobody, Hill's best western for my money.

GeoffS said...

Boot Hill is great. Another underrated Western I like w/ Hill & Spencer (and Eli Wallach) is Ace High.

Chris said...

James, I really enjoy reading your reviews. Even when you can't fully recommend something, I'm still a little interested. (:

I've always wondered about those $1 DVDs at various places. Thanks for the insight!

Charles Gramlich said...

I really liked the Trinity movies and "my Name is NObody." Terrence Hill was always a fun actor.

James Reasoner said...

Geoff,

I think ACE HIGH is another Giuseppe Colizzi film. I'm sure I'll get around to watching it eventually. Colizzi made only a few films before dying at a relatively young age.

Chris,

The picture and sound quality on those cheap DVDs is usually not great, but I've never found one that was unwatchable (at least for those reasons).

Charles,

According to IMDB, Terence Hill is still making quite a few movies, including some that sound like cop films instead of Westerns. I'd like to see some of those.

Fred Blosser said...

James,

"There are a lot of Sergio Leone style close-ups, but without the sweeping vistas that Leone also provides for the viewer." -- I haven't seen BOOT HILL since it had an American release in 1972, so I don't remember anything about the scenery. IMDB indicates it was filmed in widescreen. At least in the cases of other widescreen Spaghettis that were put on DVD in pan-and-scan, low-budget form, the cheap-seat transfers ruined what was usually, on the big screen, pretty good cinematography.

BOOT HILL was the third movie featuring Terence and Bud as bounty hunters Cat and Hutch. GOD FORGIVES I DON'T was the first (and in that one, Bud's character was a railroad insurance sleuth), ACES HIGH the second.

The beginning of the second movie followed right on the end of the first, like the last two James Bond movies. I don't recall if the third was equally connected to the others. However, I have a vague memory that the character played by Woody Strode in BOOT HILL was supposed to be the same one played by Brock Peters in ACES HIGH.

GOD FORGIVES I DON'T was my favorite of the three (and one of the greatest movie titles of all time).

I think I'd agree with Randy, MY NAME IS NOBODY was Terence's best (great dynamic between Terence and Henry Fonda). A GENIUS, TWO COMPANIONS, AND AN IDIOT is a close runner-up, but sadly never released in U.S. theaters that I know of, nor available in a U.S. DVD release, not even a cheap one.

James Reasoner said...

Fred,

Thanks for the info. I suspect that BOOT HILL did indeed look better on the big screen. And while GOD FORGIVES, I DON'T is a great title, A GENIUS, TWO COMPANIONS, AND AN IDIOT is a heck of a title, too. Shame it's not available on DVD.

Ray said...

Woody Strode takes over the role played by Brock Peters in Ace High.
Terence Hill's new western 'Doc West' played at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
I think that this series of films were overshadowed by the Trinity movies.
In case anyone is interested I did a take on the first movie 'God Forgives...I Don't' on my blog.
And 'A Genius, Two Partners and an Idiot' at The Tainted Archive blog.