Black Killer (1971)

Best movie ever!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There are so many spaghetti westerns that have some weird film concepts. Some of them, don't really stand out, when it should had. This movie is one of those films; that deserve one more glance. After all, there isn't a lot of western movies that has a character, James Webb, (Klaus Kinski) a lawyer that disguise his guns with books! It's a little silly, but a pretty cool idea. It was a bit surprising to find out that Klaus Kinski isn't the main lead of this movie, but more like a supporting character. The trailer and marketing posters for the film were very misleading. I was hoping, he was, as it would make the movie, a little more memorable. Since, the movie doesn't really focus much on him, the movie directed by Carlo Croccolo AKA Lucky Moore goes another route with the normal often cliché concept of a mysterious drifter rescuing a fearful lawless town from bandits or gangs. In this movie, that drifter is named Burt Collins (Fred Robsahm) who become the new sheriff of the town call Tombstone when the previous one was killed by a Mexican gang known as the O'Hara Brothers: Ramon (Antonio Cantafora), Pedro (Enzo Pulcrano), Miguel (Calogero Caruana), Ryan (Antonio Danesi) & Slide (Mimmo Maggio). I really can't buy them, being Mexican. They don't even look anything near Hispanic. Who know, that the English sounding O'Hara was indeed Spanish or Latin American. While, the bandit's costumes look ridiculousness, they were very striking sinister in their actions. The movie was surprising very grim & violent, compare to other Spaghetti Westerns at the time. While, yes there are some one shot unrealistic kills, some of the kills, were pretty intense. There were some really hard to watch, brutal moments like the rape scene that might turn off, some people. The movie also has a lot more gratuitous nudity than I thought, coming in. Both Tiziana Dini as Consuelo and Marina Malfatti as Sarah Collins are beautiful ladies, and seeing them in the buff is a guilty pleasure, even if it didn't make any sense and seem very unnecessary. Still, only one of them, was treated like a real person than eye candy. Marina Malfatti's character had lot of character development. She had a very good back story, and purpose to take revenge on the O'Hara brothers. It was nice to see a female character have more to do, than a love-interested. She was badass, most of the film, shooting arrows and stabbing bad guys in the neck. Still, like the villains, her Indian get-up is a bit laughable, and bit short. Her ass was nearly out, the whole movie. The lead, Fred Robsahm wasn't that bad, but his character was a bit confusing and dry. He's nearly forgettable. I still don't really understand; what was the relationship with him and the lawyer, James Webb. There's a very pointless and totally implausible plot-twist near the end, which perfectly summarizes the overall clumsiness of this unconventional Spaghetti Western. It was bit odd. To be honest, the storytelling is a little confused and messy. It appears a lot more convoluted than it really should do. About the James Webb character, I was really hoping that he turned out to be a villain, because Klaus Kinski play it off, like he was. There were a lot of things that he did that made you question, who side, he was really playing on. I really didn't see him as a hero type. The English dubbing was alright for the most part. It's wasn't jarring or distracting like other critics, say it was. Some of the film editing was bit awkward. It was cuts so badly, that it make it seem like two characters were in the same room when they were in two different locations. There were some serious plot hole due to the editing like the missing redhead that was to go warn the main character, but she just basically disappears and there's no mention of her anymore. Maybe the print I had, had her scenes cut or something. It was a bit peculiar. It was really hard to tell, what's going on, at times. The music by Daniele Patucchi sounds more like Australia outback than American western, it's still very impressive. The cinematography is alright, but there wasn't much to look at. Kinda wish for a little more use in beautiful locations. Black Killer hasn't aged well, since it's released. The movie was often use as stock footage for later films such as 1972's Bounty Hunter in Trinity. This ultra-low budget gem is often badly copy in DVDs with discoloring and dirty grain film footage. The version, I had, had this static sound that rang, throughout the film. It felt like it was watching a movie in the nonstop pouring rain. Nevertheless, it's still was a tremendously fun and action-packed gunslinger movie. Overall: A must watch for any Spaghetti Western fan.

Many spaghetti westerns had absurd gimmicks that made them memorable while at the same time subverting the iconography of their traditional American counterparts. Perhaps most famously there was Django and his coffin, in Black Killer we have Klaus Kinski's lawyer with his guns disguised as books! Like a lot of the spaghetti western gimmicks it's simultaneously completely silly and very cool. On the whole though, its business as usual spaghetti western style in this movie. We have a lawless town called, perhaps unsurprisingly, Tombstone which is terrorised by a gang of Mexican bandits called somewhat improbably the O'Hara gang. A mysterious drifter called Burt who is adept with a fire-arm comes into town and is made new sheriff by the fearful locals. The bandits subsequently kill his brother and rape his sister-in-law, an Indian called Sarah. Burt and Sarah band together, with the help of Kinski's lawyer to get revenge.To be honest, the story-telling is a little confused and messy in this one. And it can appear a lot more convoluted than it really should do. But it ultimately is a pretty straightforward violent western. The sexual violence is fairly unpleasant, while one of the unfortunate early sheriffs is shot several times and then killed with a knife. It was good to see the character of Sarah get in on the retribution though – a female Indian with deadly skills with a bow and arrow made for a pleasant contrast to the typical taciturn gunfighter anti-hero she teams up with. Kinski is good as always as the lawyer who we can only assume the film is named after. He is in a rare good(ish) guy role in this one. He is dubbed with a silly English accent though it has to be said which is quite distracting. All-in-all though, this is a pretty entertaining spaghetti western.

Much of the positive that is to be found in "Black Killer" can be found with Klaus Kinski and the character he plays. The cold-eyed Kinski instantly brings in some grit with his charisma, though I have to admit that the unintentionally funny English dubbing for him sounds NOTHING like how Kinski (who could speak English) sounded in real life. There is also some novelty that Kinski is playing a lawyer (!), though one who is handy with a gun. Other positive things in the movie include a good musical score, as well as some good shoot-outs. And there is a significant amount of nudity, which you usually don't see in a spaghetti western. On the other hand, there isn't much of a story here, and the little there is unfolds very slowly. There were a couple of slow stretched where I almost drifted off into sleep. This isn't a bad movie, but I would only recommend it to Kinski fans and/or spaghetti western fans.

Man, if I wouldn't be a 100% heterosexual (and if he wouldn't be dead for more than 15 years already), I swear I would instantly send a love-letter to Klaus Kinski to state that he is the greatest and absolute coolest icon of European cult-cinema who ever lived! Kinski was an amazing actor! His on screen charisma has yet to be equaled, his bright blue eyes and grimaces were almost naturally petrifying and somehow he always managed to make even the crappiest movies worthwhile viewing. He appeared in many Spaghetti Westerns, some of which are widely acclaimed masterpieces by now ("The Great Silence", "Bullet for the General"...) and others still are very obscure and nearly impossible to trace down, like "Black Killer". This ultra-low budget gem can hardly be called a masterpiece, but it's nevertheless a tremendously fun and action-packed gunslinger adventure. The title doesn't refer to a cowboy with a dark skin color, but to Mr. Kinski himself, and he doesn't even play the lead role. That's how proud the creators must have been for being able to cast the Klaus Kinski, ha! Klaus plays a mysterious and freaky lawyer, entirely dressed in black and always carrying around books that contain guns instead of knowledge, and he's temporarily hanging around in the little town of Tombstone. The remote town is under the constant siege of terror of the five Mexican O'Hara brothers, who killed no less than NINE Sheriffs in only a couple of weeks time. The local authorities assign lone traveler Burt Collins as the new Sheriff, but the murderous O'Hara clan immediately kill his brother and rape his Indian sister-in-law. Collins teams up with the awkward lawyer to terminate the reign of the O'Hara's once and for all. The plot of "Black Killer" is a little too confusing and convoluted for its own good sometimes, but director Croccolo easily forces you to look past the script's incoherence and focus on the outrageous sequences of explicit violence as well as the awesomely ingenious gimmicks. The lawyer's method of killing people is original, to say the least, and the O'Hara brothers too come up with inventive ways to viciously entertain themselves. The gunfights and executions are quite nasty, and particularly the rape-scene is unsettling to watch, as it seems to last for several whole minutes. Tiziana Dini provides the film with an overload of gratuitous – but welcome – nudity, while the rest of the cast delivers more than adequate acting performances Daniele Patucchi's musical score is very enchanting and the filming locations are overall convincing. There's a very pointless and totally implausible plot-twist near the end, which perfectly summarizes the overall awkwardness of this unconventional Spaghetti Western. In conclusion, "Black Killer" certainly lacks the quality and competence to rank among Italy's best Westerns, but there's more than enough stuff to recommend if you're an open-minded admirer of the genre. And, for the record, Kinski is a cinematic deity!