Disc 2 - Prega il morto e ammazza il vivo/Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead/Mörder des Klans

Directed and edited by Giuseppe Vari under the alias of Joseph Warren and with Klaus Kinski in Top Form as a
volatile and almost hysterical gang leader. I liked this unusual spaghetti western as it had an interesting minimal style
to it, with few locations and the feeling of a chamber drama piece. Waiting for Daisy in a paraphrase on the famous
Samuel Beckett play. The film also gains a lot from the charismatic and lively performance by Victoria Zinny.

Klaus Kinski waiting for Daisy

If Quién Sabe? (A Bullet for the General) was a Super Great western this one is Good, and the Fidani one is Bad.

Klaus Kinski plays Dan Hogan, the leader of a gang of criminals who have robbed a bank in Phoenix of 100 00 USD in
gold and now wants to escape to Mexico with their loot. To escape the hunting raiders on their trail Hogan has left the
gold in the hands of his ex-wife Daisy, but she have to deliver it to Hogan at a certain meeting place.
The Gang has taken shelter and waits for the gold at a stage-coach rest stop, the Jackal's Ranch, managed by an old
man (irritatingly played, there's always an annoying comic relief old geezer in spaghetti westerns) and his granddaughter
Sandy (Patricia Adiutori). Also there is a silent slick looking man that calls himself John Webb (played by Paolo Casella
alias Paul Sullivan) who offers Dan Hogan and his gang a guidance through the desert to Mexico. Price: Half of the gold.
Soon a quartet of travellers joins the group of people, including a constantly bickering married couple where the woman
is played brilliantly by Argentinian actress Victoria Zinny. She's an ex-prostitute and very sarcastic, and she's great.

The Spaghetti western gang leader with a tortured soul or an actor in a Shakespearean play?

The whole first part of this film takes place in this saloon or rest-stop and with the interactions between the group of people
gathered there. Gangsters vs. gangsters and gangsters vs. travellers and among Hogans underlings Dino Strano (or Dean
Stratford) is memorable. Then Daisy (Adriana Giuffré) arrives with the gold and the second part starts - with the journey
through the desert to the Mexican border. But poor Marietta (Anna Zinneman) is not with them as she suffered a terrible
fate at the rest-stop. IMDB has switched the actresses names in the cast list though, an often recurring thing with IMDB.

anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1, english audio DD 2.0 (italian and german dub also with german subtitles)
Extras from Koch Media: Töte die Lebenden und bede für die toten (11 minutes in italian without english subtitles but with
german subs) with an Italian film historian about the style of Giuseppe Vari,
Töte Kinski featurette (15 min in italian without english subtitles but with german subs) with cameraman Claudio Morabito,
Italian trailer and a picture gallery

 

Disc 3 - Per una bara piena di dollari/A Coffin full of Dollars/Pray to Kill and Return Alive/Für einen sarg voller dollars

Presented in 4:3 fullscreen a slightly cut ratio from 1.66:1 and also in italian with only German subtitles. No English subs!
But, as this is a bottom of the barrel spaghetti western from the director called The Ed Wood of Spaghetti Western it's
quite easy to understand the story even without english subs. This film is BAD ....
but quite enjoyable none the less. It has got the great Klaus Kinski as the worst gangster boss EVER, a maniac that
shoots his underlings as soon as he's annoyed with something, and annoyed he gets at any time. The Boss from Hell and
very funny. It also has got nice crisp cinematography from the Legend Aristide Maccassesi (alias Joe D'Amato).

Gordon Mitchell and Jeff Cameron

I've only seen this one film from the infamous Demofilo Fidani and it's not at all comparable to Ed Wood films, yes, it's
Bad for sure but if Ed Wood, Jr. made Z grade films Fidano made C grade ones. The film is made on the cheap and was
filmed just outside of Rome according to the great extra material interview with this films actress. But, i really looked for
modern houses, telephone wires, cars, TV aerials in the background or car tracks on the dust-roads and other anomalies,
but didn't find any (and jeep tracks could be seen in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West as a comparison).
So, the photo is great and i actually liked the ultra-cheap settings with worn down houses, suitable for a deserted village
inhabited only by gangsters. The actors were bad with the possible exception of Klaus Kinski and his underling Tomayo
played by Jack Betts and all the shot underlings, cannon fodder for the heroes, are doing stupid pirouettes when shot.

Hagen - The Boss from Hell

A Nightmare for any employee, being an underling to Klaus Kinski's Hagen

The Super Great Story:

The Criminal Hagen (Klaus Kinski) has murdered the whole of Mark Hamilton - Nevada Kid's family (Mark is played
stiffly by Goffredo Scarciofolo alias Jeff Cameron). He's returned from the civil war and will revenge his family.
He meets Joe the bounty hunter (Gordon Mitchell), another sharpshooter, and they team up and kill the criminals en masse
but also manages to save the kidnapped daughter of the film director, Monika ..... ? No, sorry, i mean Monika is played
by Simonetta Vitelli alias Simone Blondell, and she's the daughter of the great Demofilo Fidani and acted in dozens of
his films during the 1960's and 1970's. Lucky for her that her father was a film director because she's quite a bad actress,
sorry Simonetta, but that's OK as everyone else is bad too in this film and she's lovely to listen to in the Extras interview.

This epic masterpiece ends very enjoyable with a hysterical Hagen murdering all his poor and unexplainably loyal underlings
and with Hagen for some absolutely unfathomable reason climbing out on the wood church's roof to be shot by Nevada Kid.
Maybe he had a death wish or something?

Simonetta

Extra: Memories from the Near West Featurette (20 min Koch Media interview with Simonetta Vitelli in italian with
german subtitles .... Hey! As a swede you can understand a lot even if you haven't studied German.
She's just Lovely to listen to and she, a directors child and an actress during the Italian Golden Years Trash cinema era,
she speaks about the filming and everyone involved with this film .... and, ha, ha, she has got the same kajal pencil make up
around her eyes just as in the film. I love to listen to stories like this, told with much love from people unknown to most
I Love You Simonetta!