A Town Called Hell (1971)

User Rating:

4.7/10   

Director:

Robert Parrish

Writers:

Richard Aubrey (screenplay)
Richard Aubrey (story)

Release Date:

1972 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Drama | Western

Tagline:

They called it HELL ... They called it VIOLENT and EVIL!

Plot:

A group of Mexican revolutionaries murders a town priest and a number of his christian followers. Ten years later, a widow arrives in town intent to take revenge from her husband's killers. |

Plot Keywords:

Revenge | Revolutionary | Priest | Widow | Mexican

Cast

Telly Savalas	...	Don Carlos
Robert Shaw	...	The Priest
Stella Stevens	...	Alvira
Fernando Rey	...	Old blind man
Michael Craig	...	Paco
Martin Landau	...	The Colonel
Al Lettieri	...	La Bomba
Aldo Sambrell	...	Calebra
Dudley Sutton	...	Spectre
Paloma Cela	...	Paloma
Maribel Hidalgo	...	La Perla
Cass Martin	...	Jose
Antonio Mayans	...	Manuel
Francisco Marsó	...	Julio
John Clark	...	Quiet American

Also Known As:

A Town Called Bastard
Una ciudad llamada Bastarda (Spain)

Runtime:

95 min | Spain:97 min

Country:

Spain | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:16 (video rating) (1982) | Finland:K-16 (1996) | UK:15 (2000) | UK:X (1971) | West Germany:18 (nf) | Australia:MA | Germany:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | Norway:(Banned) (1972-2003) (cinema release)

Filming Locations:

Almería, Andalucía, Spain

Company:

Benamar-Zurbano Productions

Trivia:

Michael Craig is dubbed

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hells Bells Presents (2009)

Soundtrack:

El Águila

Incomprehensible Mess!

"A Town Called Hell" (aka "A Town Called Bastard"), a British/Spanish co-production, was made on the heels of Clint Eastwood's success in the Italian made "Man With No Name" trilogy. The template used in most of these films was to hire recognizable American actors, whose careers were largely in decline and dub their voices. This film is no exception except for the fact that they used some British actors as well.

It's difficult to summarize the plot, but here goes. The story opens with rebels or whatever, led by Robert Shaw and Marin Landau raiding a church and killing everyone inside, including the priest. Fast forward to the subject town a few years later where the Shaw character is masquerading as a priest. The mayor of the town (Telly Savalas) is a brutal leader who thinks nothing of meting out justice with his gun.

Throw into the mix a grieving widow Alvira (Stella Stevens) who is searching for her husband's killer. Add to this the fact that she rides around in a hearse lying dead like in a coffin for God knows why. After the mayor is murdered by his henchman La Bomba (Al Lettieri) the town is invaded by a federale Colonel (Landau) in search of a rebel leader (I'm sorry but the name escapes me). The Colonel takes over the town and begins summarily executing the townsfolk to force them to reveal the identity of the leader.

Even though they opened the film side by side, its difficult to tell from the dialog that the Landau and Shaw characters know each other. A blind man (Fernando Rey) claims he can identify the rebel leader by touching his face. He does so and..............................................

I'm sure the principals regretted making this film. It's just plain awful and well deserving of my dreaded "1" rating. Shaw spends most of the film fixating his trademark stare at whomever is handy. Even Landau can't salvage this film. The beautiful Ms. Stevens is totally wasted here too. Having just made Peckinpah's "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" the previous year, I found it odd that she would appear in this mess of a movie. Savalas made several of these pictures, ("Pancho Villa" and "Horror Express" come to mind) during he pre-Kojak period.Michael Craig is also in it somewhere as a character called "Paco".

Fernando Rey appeared in many of these "westerns" although he would emerge to play the villain in the two "French Connection" films. Al Lettieri would also emerge with a role in "The Godfather" (1972) and go on to other memorable roles before his untimely death in 1975.

In all fairness, the version I watched ran only 88 minutes rather than the longer running times of 95 or 97 minutes listed on IMDb, however I can't see where an extra 7 or 8 minutes would make much difference.

Avoid this one.