Day of Anger (1967)

Masterful Movie

A different way of telling a story

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

DAY OF ANGER is a solid addition to the spaghetti western genre, shot in attractive Almeria (as with so many films of this genre) and with fine performances from two leads who made the genre their own. The director behind this one, Tonino Valerii, also handled the popular likes of MY NAME IS NOBODY and A REASON TO LIVE, A REASON TO DIE.The plot is different to most standard spaghetti western stories. Giuliano Gemma stars as a down-on-his-luck young cleaner who falls in with an infamous gunslinger, played with relish by Lee Van Cleef. Together, the two men quickly clean up the town, but the stage is set for conflict when the pupil outgrows his former master.DAY OF ANGER has plenty of well-shot action to recommend it, and the cinematography is colourful and lush. The milieu is rather small scale, but the assured performances from the two likable leads make this a film that's hard to dislike overall. In some places it becomes pretty iconic, and it's certainly above average for the genre.

Tonino Valerii's "Day of Anger" ranks in the lower half of the ten top best Spaghetti westerns. This intelligent, superbly made, marvelously lensed formulaic saga about the rise and fall of a notorious gunfighter holds its own against comparable American horse operas, partially since veteran Hollywood villain Lee Van Cleef of "High Noon" stars as the lead-slinging anti-hero who is as fast on the draw as he is deadly accurate with his aim. This lean, mean, gritty 95-minute sagebrusher is one of the three best Spaghettis that Van Cleef appeared in, with "Death Rides A Horse" edging "Day of Anger" out as the best, while "For A Few Dollars More" closely follows in third place. As far as I know, no American western has gone into as much detail about the rules of being a gunfighter as "Day of Anger." Indeed, "Day of Anger" recalls both the Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins relationship in Anthony Mann's "The Tin Star" (1958) and Brian Keith and Steve McQueen in Henry Hathaway's "Nevada Smith" (1966) where an old gun teaches a young gun the rules. Frank Talby (Lee Van Cleef) delineates the nine things that Scott Mary (co-star Giuliano Gemma of "Fort Yuma Gold") must learn to survive as a gunfighter. First, never beg for anything from another man. Second, never trust anybody. Third, never come between a gun and its target. Fourth, like bullets, punches in a fistfight must be first if you want to finish the brawl. Fifth, if you wound a man, then you'd better finish him off; otherwise, he will try to kill you. Sixth, you must aim your bullets well and always shoot them at the right time. Seventh, take a man's gun away from him before you untie his wrists. At this point, Scott Mary interjects a rule that he contrived on the spot: "Don't give a man any more bullets that what he needs." Eighth, sometimes you will have to accept a challenge or lose everything. Ninth, when you start killing, you cannot stop it.Scenarists Renzo ("Jungle Holocaust") Genta and Ernesto ("My Name Is Nobody") Gastaldi, along with director Tonino Valerii, based their "Day of Anger" screenplay on a German novel by Ron Barker entitled "Der Tod Ritt Dienstags." Valerii and company waste no time establishing the primary setting in the inhospitable frontier berg of Clifton, Arizona, and we meet an illegitimate fellow simply known as Scott (Giuliano Gemma of "The Master Touch") who was raised in the local bordello and now serves as the community's garbage collector. Everybody looks down their collective noses at woebegone Scott. Scott's life is grim, unrelenting drudgery until gunfighter Frank Talby (Lee Van Cleef) rides into Clifton and pays Scott a dollar to stable his horse. Later, in the saloon, after Talby has given Scott his dollar, he invites the youth to have a drink. The outraged saloon owner refuses to serve Scott and another gunman challenges Talby. Talby guns him down and an inquest clears him of murder. The irate townspeople beat up Scott for testifying on Talby's behalf. Scott flees the town on his mule to track down Talby. He finds him in the border town of Bowie where Talby is demanding that Wild Jack (Al Mulock of "The Hellbenders") pay him back the $50-thousand that he owes him. Jack explains that he just got released from prison where he served a 10-year sentence. Talby has no sympathy for Jack, until he explains that the robbery that he staged was planned by the pillars of community in Clifton and that they sold him down the river. Eventually, Talby has to shoot Jack and then he sets out to blackmail the pillars of Clifton to obtain his $50-thousand. Scott helps Talby out of a scrape afterward by tossing him a gun after three bandits have dragged him through the sagebrush on his belly. Of course, Talby wipes them out and Scott and he become thick as thieves. Only in the final quarter hour do Talby and Scott Mary have their first and final falling out over Talby's decision to gun down Scott's friend, the elderly lawman. The shoot'em up finale reiterates the nine gunfighter rules. Riz Ortolani's jazzy energetic orchestral score is a welcome departure from the Ennio Morricone staple, and Enzo ("Beyond the Law") Serafin's widescreen cinematography captures the primitive quality of the west. At one point in the plot, Talby burns down a saloon that he has half-ownership in and kills his partner. The saloon that Talby orders built is probably the most distinctive saloon in the history of western movies both foreign and domestic. What stands out about the facade of the saloon is that huge, hand-carved, and painted Colt's .45 six-guns serve as the facade uprights.Although this Lee Van Cleef & Giuliano Gemma western is serious from start to finish, "Day of Anger" gets its best joke in early in the action, but you have to be a Spaghetti western fan to appreciate it. Scott grabs his mule to ride after Talby. Scott Mary calls his mule 'Sartana,' the name of an invincible gunslinger in Spaghetti westerns. Valerii and his scribes has fashioned an old-fashioned western that owes more to Hollywood than Europe. Essentially, "Day of Anger" amounts to a morality play wherein the hero is rewarded for his virtue and the villains are penalized with death for their perfidy. Lee Van Cleef excels as Talby and Gemma is convincing as the green kid who grows up fast. Talby remains a static character, while Scott changes over time from a nobody to a somebody, something rare in Spaghettis. Nothing in "Day of Anger" is unrealistic. Valerii stages a great joust-like duel on horseback where the rivals must load black powder rifles with cap and ball while riding hell-bent at each other and shoot to kill. The dialogue doesn't consist of snappy repartees, and violence isn't glorified as it usually is in most Spaghettis.

"Day of Anger" is an incredible western. Not only is it one of the 3 or 4 best non-Leone spaghetti westerns, It also has just about the best non-Morricone music score I have heard.Lee Van Cleef is at his very best in this movie as Talby, the slick, intelligent, and ruthless gunfighter. As is the case with many spaghetti westerns, this movie draws a very thin line between "good" and "evil." Talby is a killing machine who is out for his own personal gain, yet he is also very likable in many ways. When he takes Scott under his wing and teaches him not to put up with being treated with disrespect from the "good" citizens of Clifton, Talby actually becomes the only person who represents any real sort of "justice" in the whole town. Then we find out that the pillars of the community have something to hide, and Talby delivers his own brand of justice to them also.Giuliano Gemma always delivers a great spaghetti western performance, and he is at the top of his game here as well. In the role of Scott Mary he has to play a character who goes through a lot of different emotions, and a couple of life-changing events. When Scott becomes a gunfighter like Talby, we relate to him and like him even more as he demands and gets respect from the people who used to spit on him. Talby's comment to the townsfolk of Clifton sums up why: "He was born a wolf, but you made him rabid." What a great line! The final showdown at the end is one of the classics. It is wonderfully choreographed with the film's music, and has that artistic, operatic quality that the very best spaghetti westerns possess. There's lots of emotion going on in this one, as it is plain to see that the two men squaring off still have respect and admiration for each other. On some level, it even still seems like they are friends, but this moment was inevitable, like an uncontrollable force of nature. As Talby says, "once you start killing, you can't stop." Talby's killing finally draws that thin line, Scott ends up on the other side of it, and the final showdown begins. I will say no more.Riz Ortolani's score is awesome. I love the opening theme, and the pictures and movements on the screen that accompany it. It pulls you right into this film before the story even begins. Not only is the music great, it is very original as well. It is not a Morricone rip-off at all. Ortolani's style here is all his own. It is much more of a swinging 60's sound that retains just enough western flavor to make it appropriate for this type of film. This is a soundtrack I would like to have on CD.This is one of those movies that I just can't say enough about. I would recommend it to anyone, and if you like spaghetti westerns you really need to own it.

The first time I saw this western was on a triple bill with a Bruce Lee film and a Charles Bronson western. It holds it's own against any of the non-Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns that made their way stateside. Lee Van Cleef's Talby is as chilling as his Angel Eyes in The Good,The Bad, and The Ugly and Giuliano Gemma shows why he was once one of Italy's top stars. Beware, that there is a 85 minute version in circulation that is choppy. The original version that was shown here at 109 minutes is recommended.