BY FRED BLOSSER
Kino
Lorber has released Mario Bava’s “Roy Colt and Winchester Jack†(1970) in a
handsome, restored Blu-ray edition as part of its extensive “Mario Bava
Collection.†The disc will please
devotees of the late Italian director, whose wide range of genre work is
evident in this and the fifteen other Blu-rays that Kino Lorber has released in
its series, from the celebrated Gothic trappings of “Black Sunday†(1960) to
the Bond-era burlesque of “Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs†(1966). Bava is revered by his enthusiasts as one of
the pre-eminent directors of horror and giallo in the 1960s Italian cinema, but
like other workaday filmmakers in the busy European studios of the time, he
made pretty much every kind of picture there was to make, riding successive
surges of popularity for horror, sword-and-toga epics, westerns, thrillers, and
sex comedies. “Roy Colt and Winchester
Jack†was the third of Bava’s three Italian Westerns -- a genre that paid the
bills, but one that Bava wasn’t especially fond of, as Tim Lucas notes in his
audio commentary for the Blu-ray. Of
Bava’s approach to “Roy Colt,†Lucas relates: “On the first day of shooting,
when he learned that no one was particularly enamored of the script, Bava threw
his copy into the nearest mud puddle and said, ‘Screw it, let’s have fun
instead’.â€
In
the film, Roy (Brett Halsey) and Jack (Charles Southwood) are leaders of an
outlaw gang. The two partners split up
when Roy decides to try his fortune on the right side of the law. Going straight, he pins on a sheriff’s badge
and agrees to retrieve a cache of buried gold for Samuel (Giorgio Gargiullo), a
devious banker. In the meantime, Jack
continues to rob stages and saves a pretty Indian woman, Manila (Marilu Tolo),
from bounty hunters after she kills her abusive husband. Manila encourages Jack’s romantic advances
but shrewdly charges for her favors. Another outlaw, the Reverend (Teodoro Corra), follows the trail of
Samuel’s gold, and the storyline eventually settles into a familiar Spaghetti
Western pattern. The three rivals --
Roy, Jack, and the Reverend, with Manila as a fourth wild card -- alternately
help and double-cross each other to reach the promised riches first.
Lucas‘
commentary suggests that “Roy Colt and Winchester Jack†began as a
straightforward action script by Mario di Nardo, and then turned into a comedy
when Bava suggested that he and the actors “have fun instead.†Bava’s decision to send up his material may
have been partially influenced by the success of 1969’s “Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid,†but it also coincided with a fundamental change in the genre
itself. With the success of another 1970
Italian Western, Enzo Barboni’s “Trinity Is My Name,†the genre began to skew
from violent, sometimes operatic stories of revenge and betrayal to lowbrow
farces that were geared (it’s said) to the tastes of working-class audiences in
the poorer sections of Italian cities and towns. The staple elements of these Spaghetti
lampoons included slapstick brawls, rather cruel visual jokes ridiculing
physical and mental infirmities, childish sexual innuendo, and infantile
delight in gastric embarrassments. Dubbed prints of Barboni’s movie, its sequel, “Trinity Is Still My
Name,†and other comedy Spaghettis traveled overseas to drive-ins and
small-town theaters in the U.S., arguably preparing the way for Mel Brooks‘
wildly popular, fart-laden Western parody, “Blazing Saddles,†in 1974. “Roy Colt and Winchester Jack†incorporates
the usual characteristics of the comedy Spaghettis, notably in a rudely
gratuitous scene built around a gunslinger’s extreme facial and verbal
tics. More sophisticated audiences are
likely to squirm, but at that, thanks to Bava’s sure visual sense and a capable
cast, his film is easier to bear than most Spaghetti farces. Pictures like “It Can Be Done, Amigo†(1972),
“Life Is Tough, Eh Providence†(1972), “The Crazy Bunch†(1974), and “Shoot
First, Ask Questions Later†(1975) are guaranteed to try the souls of all but
the most dedicated genre fans.
The
Kino Lorber Blu-ray edition of “Roy Colt and Winchester Jack†features a
superlative 2K restoration from the original 35mm negative. Other extras include the original Italian
voice track with English subtitles, a partial English track, and the
aforementioned commentary by Tim Lucas with a wealth of information about the
film, Bava, and Italian cinema in general.
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