Silver Saddle (1978)

It is a performances centric movie

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Surprisingly lousy Western, especially considering that "Silver Saddle" comes from the creator of "Four of the Apocalypse" and "Massacre Time," which are two of the finest Italian Westerns of them all. This movie is a dud, dragged down by a lead who lacks the hardened charisma needed for a role of a lone cowboy bent on revenge and living off the rough terrain. Giuliano Gemma looks like he should be picking up gals, (or maybe even men) in some Euro disco, circa 1978. The fact that Gemma is wearing more make-up than a saloon hooker, doesn't make matters any better. Maybe in the days of grainy VHS tapes it could pass unnoticed, but that hi-def picture quality is unforgiving, and our hero is plainly wearing eyeliner and blue eye shadow and more foundation than a drag queen. But what really sinks the whole production is the music; there is this "theme song" that is so unbelievably sappy, corny and ridiculous, that I thought it must be some kind of joke. And the song is played again, and again...and AGAIN, throughout the movie. This fitfully dire song completely destroys a movie that wasn't any good to begin with. The story concerns a lame revenge plot; he sees his father killed in the beginning of the movie, grows up and seeks revenge. Original, huh?After watching the amazing "Massacre Time," and thoroughly enjoying the intelligently written and realized "Four of the Apocalypse," I felt like I had to search our Lucio Fulci's less-known "Silver Saddle." Now I know why it's so obscure; it sucks..

I must confess, dear Gemma (presumably) fans, that I have never seen a bad or uninteresting Italian western; never. Many of them have certain noticeable deficiencies in the content's sector—yet, despite this poor content, they are well—made and likable. The one I have chosen here looks very low-budget; it has some qualities that make it very enjoyable, and a must for all Gemma fans. It shares with other similarly themed films the same desolate, barren landscape and notions of a dehumanized society.To describe it in one word, Silver Saddle is a somewhat _cartoonish non—stop adventure western. Very compact and concise , while the content itself is quite average (the kidnapping and ransoming of a boy). (Allow me here a parenthesis, to mention that the western as a genre meant to me:--at first comics, in Romanian and French magazines;--then books, novels—Frânculescu, Reid,May and Cooper …;--in the third place, movies …. So I guess I especially enjoy this comic book look of the westerns.)In a certain sense, I like Gemma more than Nero. He has, if I may say so, a more interesting presence . Sella d'Argento (1978) came one year after California (1977) (another good Gemma western),and two years after The Desert of the Tartars. It marks the end of Gemma's career as a western mythical actor—as well as that of the European westerns as such. These movies are still considered like something of a guilty pleasure—and still don't receive the esteem they deserve.Sella … is a quite straightforward western, no-nonsense and violent; there is a scene of cruelty, when a kid is whipped by Garrincha. The tone is fortunately deprived of melodrama. Some of the characters are comic, or funny, or do comic things—Serpent (who is comic, but in a grim way) and the kid.The silver saddle in this film is an item belonging to Roy Blood,a gunman played by the cult—actor Gemma.The score that accompanies the suspense moments is very good; the song with English lyrics a la Keoma is less happily chosen.At least six of the characters are noticeable—Roy Blood himself; his partner Serpent; Turner; Sheba; Margaret; and the kid."Creatures bizarre and grotesque, yet somehow always familiar"—as Nathan M. Powers once happily wrote about Lem's world of Ijon Tichy.Like in many other Italian westerns, there is a strange, uncanny atmosphere.It is Lucio Fulci's film.

Lucio Fulci's "Sella D'Argento" aka "Silver Saddle" of 1978 is the last, and in my opinion the least interesting out of three Westerns directed by Fulci (not including his co-directing of Julio Buchs' "A Bullet For Sandoval" of 1969). "Silver Saddle" is definitely not a bad or boring Spaghetti Western, it is actually a fairly good movie, and Giuliano Gemma plays the lead very good, but I personally expected a little more from a Fulci Western, particularly after great "Tempo Di Massacro" aka "Massacre Time" of 1966 (with the great Franco Nero in the lead), and the moving though sadistic "Quatro Dell'Apocalisse" aka. "Four Of The Apocalypse", which was maybe no Spaghetti Western masterpiece, but which I personally liked a lot."Silver Saddle" starts out very good, when little Roy Blood witnesses the murder of his father by a henchman of the powerful Barrett Clan, and subsequently subsequently shoots the murderer and takes his saddle, which is adorned with silver. Grown up, Roy Blood (Giuliano Gemma) has become a deadly gunslinger, who still uses the silver saddle. After befriending a crook named Two Strike Snake (Geoffrey Lewis), Roy obtains an opportunity to kill the patriarch of the Barret Clan, and therefore ultimately avenge his father's death. When Roy hides where he suspects his arch enemy, however, a little boy shows up instead. Some thugs try to assassinate the kid and Roy keeps them from doing so by shooting them all......and at this point things started to bother me. Cute little kids in bigger roles may work fine in many movies, but they do certainly not belong into a Spaghetti Western directed by Lucio Fulci. The little kid was probably intended to be 'cute' and/or 'funny', but, I'm sorry to say this, I just found the little brat annoying as hell, and although he even admittedly is funny in some points of the film, the whole movie could have been a lot better without him.Nevertheless, "Silver Saddle" is entertaining in most of its parts. A Spaghetti Western enthusiast, I have utmost respect for Giuliano Gemma for his performances in such films as "Day Of Anger" or "The Price Of Power", but I have never numbered Gemma among my favorite Spaghetti Western actors, since he hardly ever embodied the typical antihero, but was more of a typical 'good guy' in most of his films. Nevertheless, Gemma fits perfectly in some roles, and one has to say that his performance in "Sella D'Argento" is very good, and I could hardly imagine anybody else playing the role of Roy Blood. Geoffrey Lewis also delivers a very good, funny performance as Gemma's buddy Snake. The supporting cast furthermore contains two truly great Spaghetti Western regulars, Donal O'Brien, who only has a small role, and Aldo Sambrell, who once again plays a thuggish Mexican bandit. The locations are good, the score is OK, I especially liked Snake's theme, the only parts I didn't like about the soundtrack were the parts with the singing. All said, "Silver Saddle" has its flaws, they should especially have left the little kid out and there is a lot of other unnecessary and silly cheese throughout the film, but apart from that it is an enertaining if disappoining Spaghetti Western, with a fair amount of action and violence in it. As a Spaghetti Western enthusiast I found it to be an enjoyable time-waster, fans of Giuliano Gemma should give it a try. Don't expect too much though.

Like the same director's "Four of the Apocalypse," whether or not this film ultimately succeeds for you probably depends on your willingness to tolerate its flaws for its strengths.Its flaws include bad acting on the parts of Giulliano Gemma and Sven Valsecchi, who are the two leads, a frustrating tendency to establish promising themes, only to allow them to dissipate after the first thirty minutes, and another frustrating tendency to put all the best action scenes in the first act.Its strengths include the presence of Geoffrey Lewis, Aldo Sambrell, and Donald O'Brien, some excellent classic western action that's filmed with a modern sense of realism (read: BLOOD SQUIBS), and great photography, locations, costumes and sets that give an overall feeling similar to that of Fulci's other 70's western, mentioned above. The musical score, overall, is great and befits the feel and tone, although the hippy-dippy theme song may mar it for some.For fans of Fulci and/or Italian westerns from the 70's, this is more than worth checking out...between this and "Four..." it's obvious the guy was up to something interesting and cool with his westerns during this time period, it's just too bad he didn't have a better sense of pacing and focus and evidently wasn't aware that you save your best tricks for the end of the movie, not the beginning.