The Spaghetti Western - Page 3

Why?
Why would Wild East release a French transfer when they already have the best transfer from MGM?
You live in the USA, why not just buy the Wild East DVD?

The Wild East DVD of Death Rides a Horse renders the region 2 DVD's from the U.K. and France obsolete, at least insofar as USA customers are concerned.
You won't see a better quality picture on the French DVD.
As previously stated, Wild East's transfer is complete, uncut, widescreen, and anamorphic with the proper gamma and color and sourced from the best MGM elements..
Wild East may not be a major distributor but it is highly professional and its DVD's are up to major-label standards.
Edited by Richard--W - 9/1/11 at 9:35pm

I'm fairly certain Wavecrest is referring to Bury Them Deep (not Death Rides A Horse) in response my comment about the French DVD of Bury Them Deep which yes isn't outside the realm of possibilities for a Wild East release.  There's a goldmine in fabulous Eurowesterns that haven't been released in the US. 

 

 

I was referring to the film Bury Them Deep, replying to your previous post.

 

Just out of curiousity, do Wild East have a website?

Great stuff, many thanks.

 

The artwork is wonderful to look at. It feels like hand drawn movie poster artwork is a dying art these days (I'm assuming the artwork on the front covers of Wild East releases is hand drawn).

Edited by WaveCrest - 11/28/11 at 1:35pm

Wild East spaghetti westerns does great work with their dvds. It is hard to find SW with good video and the english audio dubs. Like any other movies, some SW movies are better than others. If you preorder before release date, the price is less. They charge $5 for shipping. Create a login with password before ordering. Last week before release date I ordered volume 37 double feature- A Place Called Glory/The Road to Fort Alamo. $14.95+$5 shipping. The price is now $21.72 plus shipping.

Preorders are now up for vol 38 double feature- Sartanas Here, Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin/Django Against Sartana, includes trailers and interview with George Hilton. Preorder price same, $14.95+$5 shipping.

I have all the Wild East SW except vol 1,2,3,5,6,7 & 11. I highly recomend Wild East for spaghetti western movies. Good picture quality and english 2.0 dub sound.

Checked Wild East's website and there was a title coming out in October (think it was Sartana's Here, Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin (1970) / Django Against Sartana (1971), but it said it was sold out. Have checked Wild East's website again, and it has two different prices. On the Coming Soon page it says the price is $21.72 (with a release date of Tuesday 11th October), but on the Pre-Order page the price is $16.28 (with a release date of Tuesday 25th October).

 

There's another double feature DVD title available to pre-order of Alive or Preferably Dead (1969) and Kiss Kiss...Bang Bang (1966). Extras are trailers and an interview with Dan van Husen.

Go with the Pre-order page for price, availability and release date.  They don't update the coming soon page on a regular basis.

 

 

Great, many thanks.

I want to recommend CIMITERO SENZA CROCI (Cemetery Without Crosses, aka The Gun and the Rope) (France, 1969) directed by Robert Hossein and co-starring Hossien and Michele Mercier. Hossein was best known as an actor, but he had written and directed a number of French dramas in the 1960s. He also co-starred with Mercier in the popular Angelique bodice-rippers, a series which had run their course before they collaborated on this spaghetti western.

An absolutely outstanding folk ballad of a western.
Terse, spartan, austere, as hardboiled as a noir, suspenseful, filled with elegiac imagery and ear-pleasing acoustic sounds.
The clear text is definite, the subtext is pregnant with repressed emotion, the plotting progresses logically but in unexpected ways, and the dialogue is worthy of David Mamet. Almost. This is a spaghetti western for people who don't like spaghetti westerns. That's because it's really French, being made by the French in Spain, and it plays out like any other character-driven French film.

Michele Mercier keeps her clothes on this time, and surprises us with an emotional range and conviction that Angelique never tapped into. She married the wrong man, who is hung before her eyes by a greedy rancher for stealing the gold the rancher got for running off their cattle. She offers the gold to the man (Hossein) she should have married to get revenge. He's a killer who still loves her, but he turns down the offer, refuses to help, and then goes after the rancher and his brood for reasons of his own. In the end, everybody pays. Mercier's grief and sadness drives the film like the mourning black that covers her up. As the story unfolds she turns from a victim into a black widow and back again. Wonderful performance I could watch all day. Whoever dubbed her into English has a lilting quality in her voice that pleases mine ears. Voices are important, and Hossein gets all the voices just right. The dubbing is so exact it makes other spaghetti westerns look slovenly in comparison.

The only flaw is a techno-pop tune and song heard at the beginning, the end, and four times in the middle. It is at odds with the mournful acoustic guitars applied throughout the rest of the film, and it violates the melancholy tone of the film. Big mistake. But the film is so engaging I can overlook it. Mostly.

CEMETERY WITHOUT CROSSES needs an official release, with a supplement explaining its background and perhaps a commentary channel to put into context with Hossein's other films. There is a political and social context that is consistent with the other films he wrote and directed. Hossein remains a sadly underestimated dramatist and film maker in his own country. Timeless Media Group offers a good widescreen transfer in the box-set THE BEST OF SPAGHETTI WESTERNS: IN THE TRADITION OF "THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY" currently dirt cheap on amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004L5GYFU/ref=oh_o00_s00_i01_details

CEMETERY WITHOUT CROSSES is on disc 2 and is worth double the price of the set on its own.
Edited by Richard--W - 12/18/11 at 5:19am

Giuliano Gemma double feature available on Wild East's website from tomorrow:

 

 

Alive or Preferably Dead (1969) and Kiss Kiss... Bang Bang (1966)

 

 

and coming soon, two films starring Guy Madison:

 

 

Reverend Colt (1971) and Vengeance is a Colt .45 (1968) - Tuesday 10th January, 2012.

Sadly nothing there for me.  Pretty mediocre fare IMO.

 

I'm not going to pretend to know their business but I'd sometimes like to know what criteria Wild East uses to select the titles they pursue.

 

There's a treasure trove of well respected SW titles never officially released on R1 DVD .......The Big Gundown, The Mercenary, A Pistol for Ringo, Return of Ringo, Tepepa, The Rope and the Colt, Johnny Hamlet, Bandidos, Face to Face, $10,000 Blood Money, The Bounty Killer, Django, Prepare a Coffin, Price of Power, etc.  Yet some of their choices have me scratching my head sometimes.

 

 

You took the words right out of my mouth.

The more Wild East double-features I watch the lower my opinion of spaghetti westerns.
They spend a lot of money sourcing out the best elements and cleaning up the worst films they can find.
I enjoy spaghetti westerns, even the bad ones, the way I enjoy horror films from Hammer and Amicus.
But Hammer and Amicus also made some excellent films, and these are available, too.

Django is out on Blu-ray and and DVD from Blue Underground, but the other titles you list -- my want list, essentially -- are not available in region 1.

At least Wild East is prolific, releasing as many as six-to-ten double-feature DVDs in a year, but you'd think they'd go for the better films everybody wants to see.

By the way have you seen this:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/314225/ismael-rodr-guezs-pancho-villa-trilogy-highly-recommended

Heads up to Spaghetti fans: Corbucci's The Mercenary is now streaming on Netflix. Nice-looking print, with an MGM logo at the head. Why this isn't even on MOD DVD is beyond me. The film seems like a dry run for Companeros, but has some fun touches of its own. Watching this, it seems to me like there were really two Corbuccis...the one who made borderline-exploitation like Django and Navajo Joe, and another who made epic, inventive & witty Zapata Westerns. Both are entertaining, but as Companeros is my current favorite non-Leone Spaghetti, my enthusiasm is obviously for the latter.

Also would like to thank this thread for the news about Death Rides a Horse. It's in the mail...

Anybody have any opinions on Keoma? Seems pretty late in the genre, but I've seen a lot of favorable reviews.

THE MERCENARY'S been up on Netflix Instant for the last year or so. Not sure why we still don't have a DVD in Region 1, either.

New title coming soon, The Brute and the Beast (1966), starring Franco Nero and George Hilton. The release date is Tuesday 20th March (source: Wild East's website).

Brute and the Beast looks interesting . I've never seen it but Nero is great in these westerns .

Keoma is one of my favorites and it's easily the best of the late Spaghetti's for me.  It's much more serious minded than the Spaghetti Comedy/Westerns that were churned out in the 70's and more mythical (somewhat overly at times) than the mid/late 60's prime Spaghetti's.  It's well worth a watch.  Be forewarned that you'll either love or hate the score which is unlike any other Spaghetti Western I've seen. The tune never quite leaves your cerebrum.........ever.

I like both Companeros and The Mercenary pretty equally.  I've got a decent anamorphic gray market edition of The Mercenary but would gladly purchase an official release (Wild East?  Blue Underground?), preferably Blu-ray but I'm not holding my breath.

 

Excellent news about Brute and the Beast (a.k.a.) Massacre Time which is a very good spaghetti western directed by later day gore-master Lucio Fulci.  I'll be picking this one up for sure.

 

 

i prefer macaroni combat movies.

New title coming soon, El rojo (1967), starring Richard Harrison. On the same release is coverage of the first Los Angeles Spaghetti Western Film Festival last year. The release date is Tuesday 29th May (source: Wild East's website).

 

Also, the release date of The Brute and the Beast (1966) has been pushed back to Tuesday 15th May (source: Wild East's website).

Edited by WaveCrest - 5/17/12 at 1:33pm

I've picked up quite a few of the Wild east Spaghetti westerns over the last few years . They do a pretty good job . I wish they would re release " A Reason to Live a Reason to Die . I missed it when it first came out now it's out of print and pricey .