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And as you can expect of the hundreds of Italian Westerns churned out, quite a few of them only rate as sub par. Some of these sub par entries have an interesting twist or memorable scene but are still only sub par at the end of the day. That is this is what I figured A Town Called Hell (1971) was going to be. To my surprise, the movie was not only ‘strange’ gothic-western like Django Kill! and High Plains Drifter, it also had wonderful production qualities. The very first scene in which a church is the site of a bloody slaughter during the Mexican Civil War was quite Hammeresque. For the simple reason that ten years later, the handsome gentleman (Robert Shaw) who played the priest was a very big deal in Mexico. And then comes to town a mysterious woman in black in a horse and carriage with a pale mute gentleman.
The carriage has a black coffin in it, which she plans to use to store the body of her husband’s murderer (assuming he is in the town) but until that time comes, she slumbers inside the coffin like a vampire (she’s neither, but it’s not very gothic). Unlike a lot of run-of-the-mill Spaghetti There, A Town Called Hell offers differing ideas instead of focusing on one particular issue as the novel progresses. Now, the solutions to those queries are not exactly remarkable, and the film is somewhat tough to watch because of how disjointed the story is. Fortunately, the viewer does not have to miss out on the entertainment value purely because they do not buy into everything that is presented. Even back then, puberty was fascinating viewing. Parish had previously directed sci-fi flicks like Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun (1969) and bits of the 1967 Casino Royale due to some of Peter Sellers’ scenes Parish did not want to be a part of. John Robert Shaw, along with the massively underappreciated Telly Savalas who Shaw himself refers to as ‘”the absent one” on the poster, makes a large impact in Canada.
The rest of the impressive cast, which includes such stalwarts as Stella Stevens and the lovely Aldo Sambrell, Michael Craig, Martin Landau Al Lettieri, and even Fernando Rey all, put in good performances as well, and the music score by Waldo de los Rios is superb. If one didn’t know better they might think Rios scored westerns often, when in fact only one other before this. The sets in particular are a stand out aspect in the production, most of all the interior of the church where the massacre takes place which makes this one of the more lavish Spaghetti Westerns.
To be accurate, the film Italian Western, but was financed by Benmar Films out of Britain. Concerning the Kino Lorber Blu–Ray, the transfer is simply gorgeous for the most part, but here one sad fact is revealed: the spoken dialogue is impossible to hear in some spots which is yet another reason why the film is at times harder to follow. There are no special features save for a trailer for another Kino Lorber release, Navajo Joe. On the whole, however, while the story never seems to quite measure up to the questions it raises or its intriguing Gothic trappings, A Town Called Hell is still highly recommended for Spaghetti Western buffs and completists.
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