Giuliano Gemma stars in Giorgio Ferroni’s post-Civil War Western, FORT YUMA GOLD.
production short cuts (especially a painfully day-for-night skinny- dip) as well as attractive wood- land locales (which, admittedly, Maylam doesn’t make as much of as, say, Andrew Davis on THE FINAL TERROR). The disc looks better than two variant standard- frame UK R2 releases (cut and uncut) from Vipco (the fact that this title was issued twice in the UK before its US DVD debut at- tests to the lingering fame of the Video Nasties list); a German two-disc set from Raptor Enter- tainment doesn’t have the com- mentary or this Savini interview, but includes a 50m documen- tary about Savini. The other ex- tras on this release are the trailer (plus spots for the JEEPERS CREEPERS films and a general MGM horror batch) and a selection of stills.
FORT YUMA GOLD
Per Pochi Dollari Ancora “For A Few Extra Dollars” 1966, Wild East Productions, DD-2.0/16:9/LB/+, $14.95, 95m 43s, DVD-0 By Sheldon Inkol
This is the second of three Spaghetti Westerns directed by Giorgio Ferroni (MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN) aka Calvin
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Jackson Paget and starring Giuliano Gemma aka Montgom- ery Wood, coming between ONE SILVER DOLLAR (1965) and WANTED (1967). Gemma plays unrelated characters with the first name of Gary in each of the three; here he is Gary Hammond, a Confederate prisoner of war recruited by the Union to lead Captain Lefevre (THE BIG GUNDOWN’s Angel del Pozo) and Sergeant Pitt (Nello Pazzafini, in a rare good guy role) on an urgent mission to Union gold re- serve Fort Yuma shortly after the end of the Civil War. Hammond agrees to help his Union captors in order to prevent the needless massacre of 800 rebel guerillas, many of them his friends, who have been tricked into thinking that the fort will fall easily. In re- ality, the traitorous men behind the plot want the rebels to insti- gate this suicidal attack so that they can make off unchallenged with the Fort Yuma gold. FORT YUMA GOLD is well-re- garded by genre enthusiasts but, while there are a few effective touches along the way, the film lacks the style and edge of the better entries in the genre. The liner notes by Charles Ambler praise the plot, describing it as complicated (seven writers
worked on the script) but still logical. None of the plot twists are particularly surprising, how- ever, and the story stops dead in the first half for extended brawls showcasing Gemma’s acrobatic skills, and even a saloon number sung by the outrageously-named heroine, Connie Breastfull (Sophie Daumier). The story does pick up in the last 40m when the villains (led by former pepla star Dan Vadis, in the midst of making an effective transition to Western bad guy roles) capture Hammond and torture him by forcing him to stare at the sun. The blinded hero’s subsequent plan of action is quite well-handled.
The acting is above average, and the cast includes several fa- miliar Spaghetti Western faces as well as a good turn by Jacques Sernas (LA DOLCE VITA, GOLIATH AND THE VAM- PIRES). An Ennio Morricone soundtrack can be the saving grace of a pedestrian Western, but fans of the Maestro will be disappointed to learn that his contributions here are limited to unauthorized lifts from his score for MALAMONDO (1964), in- cluded in order to add the cache of Morricone’s name to the cred- its. Morricone reportedly sued over this, but the dispute was not
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