Giubbe rosse (1975) watch online HD

Italian Western made at the tail-end of the "Spaghetti" style, though it doesn't really fit into those parameters. The snowy setting recalls THE GREAT SILENCE (1968) - which, incidentally, I only watched a day prior to this one!

The plot revolves around the hunt for an escaped convict (Guido Mannari) by Canadian Mounties; however, it also takes in a personal grudge between him and one of the pursuing officers (played by Fabio Testi) - its eventual revelation, absurdly delayed, is clearly inspired by Anthony Mann's WINCHESTER '73 (1950). Testi, however, is unable to express the essential ruthlessness which marked his character following the death of his loved one (Lynne Frederick), who had previously been the neglected fiancée of his quarry; the trio's relationship also evokes memories of the James Coburn character's backstory, shown in intermittent flashbacks, in Sergio Leone's A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE (1971). Incidentally, Testi and Frederick later appeared together in another (unsuccessful) Spaghetti Western - Lucio Fulci's THE FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE (1975)!

An unusual element added to the fray is the relationship which blossoms between the villain and Testi and Frederick's child, whom he kidnaps and holds hostage; at one point, the boy saves the man's life and the latter reciprocates - by calling in befuddled doctor Lionel Stander - when the young one becomes feverish. The climactic scenes involve a showdown between Testi and his nemesis that's interrupted by the latter's greedy cohorts (prior to his capture, he had hidden a cache' of gold) and in which, finally repentant, he willingly succumbs to a hail of bullets.

In the end, the film is harmless enough but also strictly routine. This was the first film to bear the name of director D'Amato. He previously directed under his real name of Aristide Massaccesi, which he still retained for his other credit as the film's cinematographer! In anticipation of this, I rented the director's more typical sexploitationer EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS (1977) - which I'll eventually get to sometime this week...

This is the last of D'Amato's Westerns, and the last time (1974) he made a film which could possibly be described as family entertainment – a rollicking boy's own adventure about a Mountie in pursuit of the villain who has kidnapped his son. Yet beneath the usual Saturday morning at the pictures thrills – the cloying kid, the brave dog, the gunfights and the quirky supporting characters, there are intriguing and troubling strands which prevent the story becoming just another good versus evil Manichaean morality tale.

Cormack the Mountie is an obsessive tracker, with a touch of The Searchers' Ethan Edwards about him. In flashback-story, we find that his once close relationship with the villain Cariboo was cankered when he fell in love with and married Cariboo's woman. Cariboo himself is everything the steadfast Mountie is trying not to be – a risk-taking, bullying, gambling, drinking and quarrelling man. Way back then, he was sent to prison (arrested by Cormack) for his part in a gold robbery. Between then and now, the woman loved by them both has died, the son she bore Cormack has grown into a fine young lad and Cormack has retreated into something more like the living personification of Civilised Justice than a living, breathing human being. Cariboo kidnaps the son, hoping that his old enemy will be lured after him to the slaughter, but the story is complicated by the presence of Wolf and his gang of outlaws, after their share of the gold from the robbery, which Cariboo has secreted somewhere all for himself.

Some of this is troubling: Cormack has cut himself off emotionally after the death of his wife and lives apart from his son; once the son is kidnapped, he begins to cathect to Cariboo and, more surprisingly, Cariboo finds himself caring for the kid. All the time, there seems to be something more going on between Cariboo and Cormack than simply rivalry over a woman – one suspects that it is "the standard case of the repressed homosexuality that underlies most American adventure stories" and, when Cariboo notices and notes that the pretty blond boy is the spitting image of his mother, we suspect that things are getting pretty transgressive and lurid. The film cops out at the end by revealing that Cormack and Cariboo are brothers rather than lovers, but the suspicion remains as this just swaps one cloak for another. Also intriguing is the backdrop of wars against the Iroquois Indians in the region which is mentioned periodically – the civilisation that Cormack represents and which Cariboo is discontent with is a colonial project, built on the exclusion of the natives of the land, on their forced compliance, on their genocide. This all makes the story rather more D'Amato than it at first appears.

The film rattles along at a good pace, includes some beautifully choreographed and edited gunfights, has a wonderful turn from Lionel Stander as a drunken doctor and, most strikingly, takes place for the most part against a backdrop of snow covered mountains, beautifully photographed. This snow-setting makes the story elemental, as the characters enact out their Freud-tinged rivalries in the face of a cold, careless, barren and unblinking natural world.

Fine Italo-Western with a few surprises at the end and a fantastic showdown in the snow. The whole movie plays in a landscape of snow and so this is the second western after "Il grande silenzio (Leichen pflastern seinen Weg)" who plays the whole time in a snowy landscape. The bad guy who kidnapps the son of the heroe isn't really a bad one. The psychological aspect between the child and the kidnapper is very interesting. If you like Italo-Westerns this is a great one!

Butlins Skegness is a harsh, lawless place, and only Red Coat Fabio Testi can keep the invading hordes from the North at bay with his upbeat, enthusiastic nature and his encouragement to get people involved. With his side-kick Russel Grant in tow. Fabio sets off on an adventure to find someone to clean up a pile of sick outside of the Waltzers.

On the way there he also takes up a job as Cormack, a no-nonsense Mounty guy who learns that his arch Nemisis Caribou has escaped jail, vowing to get revenge on Cormack. This triggers a lengthy flashback while Cormack explains that he and Caribou used to get great mates, but then a woman got involved and that was that. Just like the Beatles, eh, fellas?

What happened was that Caribou had hooked up with Lynne Frederick but then became a drunken bitter gambler who neglected Frederick, and if you snooze, you lose, so hunky Fabio and Frederick start making eyes at each other and before you know it, Caribou is in jail for killing a couple of fellas and Frederick has borne a son to Testi, but then she dies off screen in a way that isn't explained...so...moving on...

Long story short - Caribou gets a gang together and gets a hold of some gold which gives Cormack plenty of bad guys to gun down while Caribou kidnaps Cormack's son. There's also a dog sidekick called King thrown in there to give the film a White Fang vibe (and King gets his licks in with the bad guys too, for good measure). Lionel Stander plays a boozed-up doctor who gets involved when the kids ends up with diphtheria.

What plays for a while like a straightforward Western turns into a tale of redemption as Caribou and the kidnapped kid bond and start looking out for each other. I'm not sure if it was implied that Caribou might have actually been the boy's real father, so who knows. This leads up to a revelation and a good old shoot out in the snow until Cormack returns to Butlins and is killed by sinister new employee Michael Barrymore.

He's Cormack! Cormack! Cormack of the Mounties! Soon the man will full of flan and Mars Bars and Bounties! Cormack! Cormack! Cooooormack!

And King the dog.