Sanscrosiap-Corona Film-KG Divina Film, 1967) Italian-German
coproduction. Prod: Enrico Chrosciky, Alfonso Sansone; Director: Tonino
Valerii; Scr: Ernesto Gastaldi, Tonino Valerii, Renzo Genta; Original
Novel: Ron Barker "Der Tod Ritt Dienstags"; Photography: Enzo
Serafin; Music: Riz Ortolani; Prod Supervisor: Nicolo Pomilia; Prod
Manager: Nino Milano; Film Editor: Franco Fraticelli; Art Dir: Piero
Filippone; in Technicolor and Techniscope
Cast: Lee Van Cleef (Frank Talby), Giuliano Gemma (Scott Mary), Walter
Rilla (Murph), Christa Linder (Gwen), Yvonne Sansone (Vivian), Ennio Balbo
(killer), Lukas Ammann (judge), Andrea Bosic (Eileen), Pepe Calvo (Bill),
Giorgio Gariullo (Turner), Al Mulock (Wild Jack)
Notes: this spaghetti Western has been released in various versions, including one cut from 109 minutes to 78 minutes! My review is based on the West Coast Entertainment video (1995), which runs approximately 90 minutes. Perhaps Christa Linder's role was longer in the full version, since she only appears in two scenes in this one. Early in the movie, she greets Scott through the window of the brothel where she works, but is reprimanded by the madame who says "If you show it, you can't sell it." Later, dressed in saloon-girl lingerie, she comes into the bar to warn Scott that gunmen are waiting for him outside. Their relationship is friendly in these two scenes, but is not developed at all, and more Linder footage could very well have been trimmed for U.S. release.
Scott is a young man who does menial jobs (including collecting human waste from bedpans and slopjars!) in a Western town. He is befriended by gunfighter Frank Talby, who stops off in town for a time; Talby kills a man in a gunfight, and Scott testifies that it was a case of self-defense. Talby is acquitted and departs, while Scott is beaten up for his trouble. He follows the gunman and eventually is accepted as the older man's apprentice.
Talby is trying to recover money owed him by Wild Jack, but the outlaw says he was swindled out of the loot by various men in Scott's town, including the banker, judge, and saloonkeeper. Talby kills Wild Hack and uses his knowledge of the other men's criminal activities to take over the town. Murph, an older man who works in the livery stable and had been Scott's friend, warns Scott that Talby is just using him, but Scott refuses to listen.
However, when Murph--who has been named sheriff--is treacherously murdered by Talby, Scott vows revenge. Using Doc Holliday's pistol--left to him by Murph--Scott wipes out Talby's henchmen and guns down his former mentor in a duel.
Days of Anger is a well-made spaghetti Western, albeit one with a rather limited scope (most of the action takes place in the same town). The action sequences are decent, especially a horseback "duel" between Talby and a hired killer--they ride at each other full-speed, as they load muzzle-loading rifles (Talby wins, of course).
Review posted 24 February 2004.