The Grand Duel

The Grand Duel (Il GrandeDuello) (1972)

Runtime: 94 minutes

Directed by: Giancarlo Santi

Starring: Lee Van Cleef, Alberto Dentice, Jess Hahn, Horst Frank, Klaus Grunberg

From: Several Italian/French/West German entitites

A little later I'll finally be caught up here; for now, my viewing of a genre that I am sure has become better recognized now because of a certain film... 

I haven't seen any Spaghetti Westerns in a long while and this seemed like the sort of thing Rick Dalton would have starred in, so this seemed like a good time to check this out.

It stars Lee Van Cleef, who participated in many examples of this genre. As always he was a bad-ass, an ex-sheriff who helps Philip, a young man accused of killing the patriarch of the Saxon family (none of whom was played by John, sadly), so he has a bounty on his head. That family is a band of brothers who are pretty despicable so it is easy to root for both ex-sheriff Clayton and Philip, even if the latter does not trust the former.

Director Giancarlo Santi was the AD for Leone on The Good, the Bad & the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West and he did try to ape the legend's style. Furthermore, the musical score did try its best to sound like Morricone... and it was used by Tarantino in the first Kill Bill. At times this is absurd and it isn't the best example of the genre but for me it was still a lot of fun as there are badass moments, memorable dialogue, colorful characters and nice rural Italian scenery. One of the brothers dresses all in white (including matching gloves) and well, between that and his manner, it is obvious what is being hinted at here. That is 70's Italian genre cinema for ya.