Steffi_P This largely overlooked Spaghetti Western is one of the most unique and unusual entries in the work of prolific director Sergio Corbucci. Coming after the simplistic, over-the-top action of Django and the inferior Navajo Joe, it marks a beginning of a gradual increase in the quality of his films during the late 1960s.Corbucci had clearly been attracting attention – Django was a massive hit – and was now commanding bigger budgets, as well as bigger names in the credits. The Hellbenders boasts talented Mercury Theatre veteran Joseph Cotton in the lead role. However, like his friend Orson Welles, Cotton's career was in the doldrums and it's fairly clear he appears here for the money, not the fun of it.In style and story The Hellbenders is clearly a very different plate of spaghetti. The plot is based on a simple yet original premise. It's a great idea to have the defeated Confederate soldiers who hope to restart the Civil War carry their loot around in a coffin – a perfect symbol for the hopelessness of their cause. This device also allows for several extremely satisfying twists. As far as look goes, there is none of the grit and seediness of other Italian westerns and, with its compliment of cavalry and wagons The Hellbenders has more of the trappings of a John Ford film. It also has a somewhat more positive (albeit rather patronising) portrayal of women than most of its contemporaries, as it is the female lead who outwits all the men. While the basic plot elements are great, The Hellbenders is let down by the minutiae. The characters are fairly one-dimensional. Corners are cut and motivations are unrealistic. The ending is a total mess – while the final moments are nicely done, the screenwriters needlessly squeeze in a beggar and a tribe of vengeful Indians into the last ten minutes.Corbucci's direction was never great, but he was a cut above the average in the genre, and there are some occasional moments of genius. The first action scene, the massacre of a few dozen Union troops, is brilliantly constructed, and Corbucci gives a level of realism to the violence that even Sergio Leone didn't have at this point. As usual though he is still let down by his overuse of the zoom lens and his having absolutely no feel for landscape shots. The editing on this picture is very good, and no wonder, since it's done by Leone's frequent collaborator Nino Baragli. Ennio Morricone provides the music, although it's a rather mediocre score by his standards.While some top class actors tend to get a bit half-hearted when they're in less glamorous company, Joseph Cotton does a good job here, lending credibility to this somewhat creaky production. The same can't be said for the rest of the cast who are by and large abysmal. Despite some attention-grabbing cameos from Aldo Sanbrell and Al Mulock, The Hellbenders has a real lack of familiar spaghetti western faces. Luigi Pistilli, Mario Brega, Giuliano Gemma, Tomas Millian, Klaus Kinski – any of those would have been more than welcome.Despite those flaws I've listed I do enjoy The Hellbenders fairly well, and I do think it's often underrated. If you could just polish up the script, and add a few more decent acting performances, this under-appreciated spaghetti would have been one of the genre's classics.

mgtbltp I finally watched "The Hellbenders" on Saturday, got the Anchor Bay DVD off Amazon.com and sat down and watched this Joseph Cotton starring flick with Norma Bengell, Julian Mateos & Gino Pernice. It also has great cameos by Benito Steffenelli, Aldo Sambrel, and Al Mulock.This was a film that looked and felt very much like an American Western, which I wasn't quite expecting (though I shouldn't say that since I've come to expect the unexpected from Corbucci) though it did have SW twists. Basically it starts with a Union Cavalry detachement that is escorting a million dollars in old currency designated to be destroyed (ie., burned). We see this detachment struggling to cross a river and there are some great action shots of this segment alone.Joseph Cotton plays the part of an ex Confederate officer determined to take the money and make a new start, resurrecting the Confederacy. This is one of Hollywood's and 50's TV Westerns staple post Civil War "characters". You've seen variations of this depiction from the officer that goads the posse into stringing up Anthony Quinn and his compadres in "The Ox Bow Incident" to Edmund O'Brien's turn as one in living in a surreal southern mansion in "Rio Conchos" starring Richard Boone these come to mind. But Cotton is not restricted to just a few scenes at the climax but is present as a somewhat sincerely dedicated semi religious looney throughout the whole film. Great stuff! So the story concerns the stealing of the money and the treck to get it to safety through a countryside swarming with soldiers and civilian posses all looking for the perpetrators of the heist.This film is pretty much devoid of any SW style standoff gunfights and derives most of its tension from the various encounters and twists in the plot. It does have some of the familiar SW symbology though. All this is very well done. The actors that play Cotton's sons could have used a bit more fleshing out but thats a minor quibble. You don't quite react to them as well as you might have.It dose have some faults however, its supposed to be just after the end of the Civil War and here my "curse of Leone" rears its head.Now I don't know about you but ever since I've seen GBU and the rest of Leone's work I've been effected by the "curse" which is Leone emphasized the weaponry and ever since I've paid attention to this particular aspect of all Westerns, both AW's and SW's and even some of the classic AW's ie. "Red River" fall prey to it. I guess pre Leone nobody really cared a Western was a Western and not taken seriously.In Il Crudeli the ex Southerners of the "Hellbenders" Regiment are equipped with Winchesters. OK in 1866 there were "Yellow Boy" Winchesters so you can over look this, but the six guns they carry are Colt 1873 Peacemakers, a big anachronisim, that could and should have been corrected, and is not easy to overlook, if you are familiar with the weaponry. Other that this, this film is entertaining but it could have been great. Morricone's score is average, nothing that memorable, not bad but not outstanding either.Al Mulock has the biggest part I've ever seen and he does an excellent job, and its worth a look for this alone. He actually does a great job, check it out. Aldo Sambrel also makes an appearance, as does Steffenelli but his is brief.The Anchor Bay DVD has just a trailer and a printed bio for Corbucci, pretty sparce if you ask me. But I'm glad to have this film.Here is a film that could be remade with a slightly bigger budget more Western landscapes and a better attention to accuracy, its a great story won't need a lot of sets, and I can see a modern version of this somewhere down the line if Westerns come into vogue again.

Cimmerian_Dragon This film (which I saw as "The Hellbenders") is not much like the average western. As you watch, it is not easy to decide if we are supposed to be rooting for or against the main characters. Even when it becomes apparent which side of the good/evil line most of them stand on, Jonas (the real focus of the story) remains in a grey area. In the end, wether he is a hero or villain depends on the ideals of the audience. That is what I found most refreshing about this film. It lets you make up your own mind, rather than forcing one opinion of what is virtuous on you.

Samoan Bob Pre-'Django' Spaghetti Western from Sergio Corbucci has some good action scenes but the dull characters and bad pacing sink it. A group of Confederates massacre some Northern soldiers and steal some moola in order to restart the Confederacy or some such nonsense. Of course, one of the guys doesn't feel right about it and creates conflict within the group. Not completely devoid of interest, but there's a black hole at the center.