Day Of Anger

Day of Anger (I Giorni Dell'ira) (1967)

Runtime: I saw the version that is 114 minutes long

Directed by: Tonino Valerii

Starring: Lee Van Cleef, Giuliano Gemma, Walter Rilla, Christa Linder, Ennio Balbo

From: Several Italian and West German companies

 I have known of this for awhile now; I am glad I finally saw Day of Anger, as it's very good: 

I realized recently I hadn't seen any Western in awhile, so why not make it one of the spaghetti variety? Note that the version I saw is the full 114 minute cut and not the 86 minute International Cut that reliable sources say is greatly inferior.

This has a different storyline of a mentor and young neophyte following the mentor. This young neophyte (Scott) was played by Giuliano Gemma and while his performance in general has not been well-received, if he had been dubbed by a voice that seemed more appropriate, perhaps those cries wouldn't be as strong. Anyhow, at least he does have a character arc, which isn't always present in this particular genre. The mentor is Lee Van Cleef and yes, he was his usual badass self.

Frank Talby is a veteran gunslinger who arrives in town and turns out, he's looking for revenge. Gemma is Scott, a guy who literally and figuratively has a crappy life. He was orphaned and he has to not only sweep streets, but collect sewage from outhouses. Scott wishes to be a gunslinger himself so he befriends Talby, who memorably gets his way. Then things change... I won't say much more except that it was an interesting journey for the character of Scott.

Of course there are nice sets (some of which were familiar to me as I recognized them from a few of the most famous spaghetti Westerns ever made), exciting action and plenty of cool moments, but a big asset was the score from the awesome Riz Ortolani; as typical his music was aces. I'll admit the movie has some flaws and is not always the most plausible. That said, aside from me having a good time watching what was going on, part of the reason for the high rating is that the opening titles are AWESOME. The song playing for it is quality and the credits for them are stylized and colorful; they were a delight to watch, as well as this movie was in general.