6.4
Ruthlessly pursued by the Rogers family following a dispute over cattle, Ben Caine (Benito Stefanelli) is chased back to the Caine Ranch. Despite his wife Maria's (Michèle Mercier) desperate pleading, the Rogers family hangs Ben Caine, forcing Maria to watch. Consumed with revenge but finding her two brothers-in-law reluctant to assist, Maria enlists the help of Manuel (Robert Hossein). Manual, presumably preoccupied with the past, wears a single black glove and lives alone in a ghost town. Manuel agrees to Maria's plan with reluctance, in part because of his deep feelings/attraction to her. Manuel finds employment as foreman at the Rogers' ranch and surreptitiously kidnaps Pa Rogers' (Daniele Vargas) only daughter Johanna (Anne-Marie Balin). With Johanna as the bait, Maria will be in the perfect position to exact her revenge on the Rogers but things don't turn out quite as planned.
Robert Hossein
Manuel
Michèle Mercier
Maria Caine
Guido Lollobrigida
Thomas Caine
Daniele Vargas
Will Rogers
Serge Marquand
Larry Rogers
Pierre Hatet
Frank Rogers
Philippe Baronnet
Bud Rogers
Pierre Collet
Sheriff Ben
Ivano Staccioli
Vallee
Béatrice Altariba
Saloon Woman
Michel Lemoine
Eli Caine
Anne-Marie Balin
Johanna
Benito Stefanelli
Ben Caine
Fabio Testi
Rogers' man
José Canalejas
Saturno Cerra
Álvaro de Luna
Maria Gustafsson
Ángel Álvarez
Director, Writer
Robert Hossein
Writer
Dario Argento
Writer
Claude Desailly
March 30, 2014
8
The Black Glove Man.
Une corde, un Colt (AKA: Cemetery Without Crosses) is directed by Robert Hossein, who also stars and co-writes the screenplay with Dario Argento and Claude Desailly. Starring alongside Hossein are Michèle Mercier, Anne-Marie Balin, Daniele Vargas, Guido Lollobrigida and Serge Marquand. Music is by Andre Hossein and cinematography by Henri Persin.
After being forced to watch the lynching of her husband by the ruthless Rogers family, Maria Caine (Mercier) asks her inept brothers-in-law for help in retribution. Getting no joy from the pair, she seeks outside help in the form of fast gun Manuel (Hossein), a loner living in solitude out at a ghost town...
It's dedicated to Sergio Leone, who directs one of the best scenes in the film, contains the Argento factor, so it's not really a shock to proclaim that Leone's influence is all over Hossein's movie.
It's a Pasta Western that operates in the void between the real and the spirit world, deliberately ethereal in tone, even sprinkling dashes of the surreal onto the hearty portion. Dialogue is used sparingly, but not to the detriment of films quality, and Hossein the director dallies in black and white staging, slow zooms and excellent usage of sound effects.
Much like the dialogue, the violence is pared down, there's no Blunderbuss infused blood laden approach to the evil that men do here, it's all very controlled and in keeping with the tonal flows that Hossein favours. The cliché's of the sub-genre are adhered to throughout, thankfully so, while the finale is suitably melancholic.
Thoughtful, sombre and ripe with blurry ambiguity, Cemetery Without Crosses is comfortably recommended to the Euro Western fan. 8/10
Status:
Released
Original Language:
Italian
Budget:
$0.00
Revenue:
$0.00