Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

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DarkImbecile
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Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#1 Post by DarkImbecile » Sun May 02, 2021 3:17 pm

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In the mid-1960s, the runaway success of Sergio Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy gave rise to an explosion of similar productions as filmmakers by the dozen sought to capitalize on this new, uniquely Italian take on the western, characterized by their deeply cynical outlook, morally compromised antiheroes and unflinching depictions savage violence. This specially curated selection gathers together four outstanding examples of the genre from the height of its popularity, all centered around a theme of revenge.

In Lucio Fulci’s (Zombie Flesh Eaters) Massacre Time (1966), Franco Nero (Django) and George Hilton (The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail) star as estranged brothers forced to band together against the powerful businessman (Nino Castelnuovo, Strip Nude for Your Killer) and his sadistic son who’ve seized control of their hometown.

In Maurizio Lucidi’s (The Sicilian Cross) My Name is Pecos (1966), Robert Woods (Johnny Colt) stars as the eponymous Mexican gunslinger, returning to Houston to settle a long-standing score against the racist gang boss (Pier Paolo Capponi, The Cat O’ Nine Tails) who wiped out his entire family.

In Massimo Dallamano’s (What Have You Done to Solange?) Bandidos (1967), Enrico Maria Salerno (Savage Three) plays a former top marksman who, years after being maimed by a former protégé (Venantino Venantini, City of the Living Dead), teams up with a fresh apprentice (Terry Jenkins, Paint Your Wagon) to get his revenge against the man who betrayed him.

Finally, in Antonio Margheriti’s (Cannibal Apocalypse) And God Said to Cain (1970), the inimitable Klaus Kinski (Double Face) stars as a man who has spent the last decade in a prison work camp for a crime he didn’t commit and who, upon his release, immediately sets out to wreak vengeance on the men who framed him.

Featuring a wealth of key Euro cult talent both behind and in front of the camera, Arrow Video is proud to present these four classic westerns in sparkling high definition restorations, three of them produced specially for this release, alongside a plethora of brand new bonus materials.

4-DISC LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
  • High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentations of all four films
  • 2K restorations of all four films from the original 35mm camera negatives, with Massacre Time, My Name is Pecos and Bandidos newly restored by Arrow Films for this release
  • Restored lossless mono Italian and English soundtracks
  • English subtitles for the Italian soundtracks
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtracks
  • Galleries for all four films
  • Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by author and critic Howard Hughes
  • Fold-out double-sided poster featuring newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
  • Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeves featuring original artwork and a slipcover featuring newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
DISC 1 – MASSACRE TIME
  • Alternate US dub
  • New commentary by authors and critics C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke
  • New documentary featuring a new video interview with actor Franco Nero and an archival video interview with actor George Hilton
  • New video interview with film historian Fabio Melelli
  • Italian trailer
DISC 2 – MY NAME IS PECOS
  • New commentary by actor Robert Woods and C. Courtney Joyner
  • New interview with actor George Eastman
  • New interview with actress Lucia Modugno
  • New documentary featuring a new interview with Fabio Melelli and an archival interview with cinematographer Franco Villa
  • Italian trailer
DISC 3 – BANDIDOS
  • New commentary by author and critic Kat Ellinger
  • New interview with assistant director Luigi Perelli
  • New interview with actor Gino Barbacane
  • New interview with Fabio Melelli
  • Alternate end title sequence
DISC 4 – AND GOD SAID TO CAIN
  • New commentary by author and critic Howard Hughes
  • New documentary featuring a new interview with Fabio Melelli and a new audio interview with actress Marcella Michelangeli
  • New interview with actor Antonio Cantafora

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feihong
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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#2 Post by feihong » Mon May 03, 2021 1:48 am

I don't know the other films in the set, but ...And God Said to Cain is a personal favorite. It's not a great film to my eyes, and is probably a step down in outrageous weirdness from a movie like Matalo! or The Fury of Johnny Kidd, but I love the wacky score, Margheriti's gothic atmospherics (I wish his sci-fi movies had that same feeling to them), and the unusual, relaxed "hero" performance from Klaus Kinski. Thrilled to see this movie coming out on blu ray. I'm happy to see a commentary track on there, and the Kat Ellinger commentary will probably make Bandidos fun to see.

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Banasa
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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#3 Post by Banasa » Mon May 03, 2021 8:09 am

It's a shame they couldn't/didn't get Roberto Curti to write anything for these films. His works in the liner notes and his books on Italian Crime and Gothic Horror films have clarified/corrected many issues which American and British authors have speculated for quite a while over these Italian genre films, namely due to Curti's connection to the Italian Nocturno magazine and his access to actual Italian Archival material (which even he admits, is not always accurate).

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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#4 Post by L.A. » Tue Jul 20, 2021 5:28 pm


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Banasa
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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#5 Post by Banasa » Fri Jul 23, 2021 10:48 am

Something to note on the packaging of these films. While digital extras that I have gone through are good, the booklet is plastic and slim, not like the other Arrow releases I've encountered such as the Sartana set. There also appear to be some errors on the packaging with three discs using the same graphic at the top (a face) to represent the film. The inner booklet has some of the cast with their names bolded incorrectly, such as "María Luisa Sala Rosy" when it should be "María Luisa Sala as Rosy". None of these are deal-breakers for me as Euro-Western fans are lucky enough to get these films from a company that does such good transfers, but the booklet could have used a look-over.

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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#6 Post by tenia » Fri Jul 23, 2021 11:31 am

From the unboxing I saw, the discs graphics are all different but based on the same idea (main character face as the main graphic).

Not sure if the booklet is "plastic" or simply glossy paper. It also doesn't seem slim as in Regular release stapled booklet slim, it does seem to have a glued spine and is a bit more than 50 pages which isn't unusual for an Arrow boxset. The Sartana book was about 56 pages.

The credits in Arrow booklets usually don't read "Name of the cast member" as "Name of the character" but "Name of the cast member" "Name of the character". The mistake here simply is the Bold font should also cover "Sala" but doesn't and what should read Maria Luisa Sala Rosy reads instead Maria Luisa Sala Rosy. On a computer, that's "[/b]" wrongly placed by 1 word.
Last edited by tenia on Fri Jul 23, 2021 1:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#7 Post by M Sanderson » Fri Jul 23, 2021 11:41 am

Sent off for mine. Can’t wait to see the Fulci in particular. Certainly curious about the Dallamano & Margheriti also.

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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#8 Post by black&huge » Fri Jul 23, 2021 6:20 pm

I basically bought the set for the Fulci. It's highly entertaining and at times even wacky. The main villain is a real caricature and you'll see the first time you see his face. The only other one I have seen is And God said to Cain which I like so the even if I dont like the other two I have a good 50% of a reason to hang onto the set.
Last edited by black&huge on Sat Jul 24, 2021 4:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

M Sanderson
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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#9 Post by M Sanderson » Sat Jul 24, 2021 3:32 am

Is there anything surreal or cruel about the Fulci?

black&huge
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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#10 Post by black&huge » Sat Jul 24, 2021 4:59 am

Nope. Very straightforward and I find it pretty interesting for that fact. As much as I can remember it's very "studio" like.

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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#11 Post by cdnchris » Sat Jul 24, 2021 8:06 pm

black&huge wrote:The main villain is a real caricature and you'll see the first time you see his face.
I kept thinking of Steve Martin in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels when he was doing the Ruprecht character ("May I go to the bathroom?") who is constantly squinting.

I've only seen a handful of Fulci titles but this is probably the most straight forward of his I've seen. "Studio" like as you said.

But I still thought it was a blast. Has some great, wacky stunts, too.

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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#12 Post by black&huge » Sun Jul 25, 2021 4:01 am

very happy to hear someone else enjoyed it and I never thought about the Steve Martin/DRS comparison but you nailed it

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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#13 Post by cdnchris » Thu Jul 29, 2021 11:44 am

For Bandidos, the opening shoot-out between a train of passengers and a posse of robbers goes to black a couple of times for a couple of seconds on region B players, cutting out horses falling.

The more I think about Massacre Time the more I like it. My Name is Pecos is okay. It's a pretty standard revenge pic with nothing much sticking out other than the laughably bad brown-face make-up and taped back eyes on Woods, along with his on-again-off-again Speedy Gonzalez accent (in the English version).

Bandidos is interesting, though gets overly complicated for a revenge pic. Salerno goes all out going from a distinguished gentleman in the first few minutes to looking like a rundown former gunslinger through the rest of the film; it took me a second to realize it was the same character. There's a certain cruelty to it but it's fun.

And God Said to Cain is kinda nuts. I felt it had more in common with a slasher film than a standard revenge western, me almost feeling bad for the victims set up and taken down one by one by the film's revenge-seeking protagonist. It was entertaining. EDIT: The supplements refer to the film being more along the lines of a mix of western and "gothic horror," which is more appropriate.

EDIT: And it was driving me nuts as the villain in Massacre Time looked soooooooo familiar, and then I saw he was Catherine Deneuve's "love interest" (I guess you could call him) in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. I'm not all that familiar with the actor and his work, so that's why it took me a bit.

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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#14 Post by colinr0380 » Mon Aug 09, 2021 5:27 pm

That's Nino Castelnuovo who was in Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers and the same year he was in his biggest role in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg he also appeared in Varda's The Creatures. Perhaps his most notorious role in the 1970s was the utterly irredeemable main character in the astonishing giallo Strip Nude For Your Killer. He also appears to really being having fun in the Italian Star Wars rip-off Star Odyssey (from director Alfonso Brescia aka "Al Bradley" the year before he did the notorious sci-fi sequel to The Beast, The Beast In Space) as a Han Solo-style figure called "Hollywood", which leads to a classic final line for the character!

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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#15 Post by TMDaines » Mon Dec 06, 2021 8:35 am

Tested the disc of Bandidos from the UK boxset. It appears to be the same disc as released in the US. All the content is there.

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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#16 Post by swo17 » Mon Dec 06, 2021 11:07 am

Then your player must be set to Region A. I played it in Region B setting and saw the black screen censoring

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Re: Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns

#17 Post by TMDaines » Mon Dec 06, 2021 12:35 pm

swo17 wrote:
Mon Dec 06, 2021 11:07 am
Then your player must be set to Region A. I played it in Region B setting and saw the black screen censoring
Sorry for not being clear. I was just trying to coyly inform people that there's no reason to import the US set if they want to watch the film uncut.
SpoilerShow
As I play everything on an HTPC, I've not even looked at the region code. The disc has two playlists of the film, one of which is presumably for Region A players and plays the film untouched, and one of which is presumably for region B players/UK audiences, and plays some intertitles informing of the BBFC-mandated cuts, before the film itself commences, which briefly goes black twice during a horse chase scene.

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