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Sella d'argento (1978)
Last Spagetti western
This 1978 release is generally considered as the last spaghetti western in the cycle commenced in 1964. The occasional entries from the eighties were simply a one off attempts to revive a genre which formally ended in 1978 but which had been in its death throes since the early seventies. This is a western for children directed by of all people Lucio Fulci with his trademark gore nowhere to be seen. Gemma who was always a heroic presence rather than an anti hero was perfectly cast for the film intended by the producers. The story has a young boy seeing his father murdered and murdering the Killer and taking his silver saddle.Growing up as a feared bounty hunter he saves the life and befriends the young nephew of the man he intends to kill for having commissioned his father's murder and from this point on the action and mild violence take a back sear to th relationship between Gemma , the kid his beautiful aunt and his partner a sympathetic crook excellently played by Geoffrey Lewis. A good but not exceptional score is aided by a catchy title theme in the De Angelis mold. Not a great film, maybe not even a great spaghetti western but very enjoyable from start to finish.
The Tamarind Seed (1974)
Sophisticated cold war romantic thriller
I watched this as a reissue around 1978 and then a few more times on television in the early 80's. I watched it again yesterday and found it to be as good as I remember it if not better. The plot open with Julie Andrews who works in a sensitive job at the Foreign office on holiday in Barbados trying to recover from the death of her husband and a subsequent love affair with a married embassy employee. During the holiday she is romanced by a Russian working at the Russian embassy in France thereby raising suspicion that the russians are trying to recruit her. The romance and spy elements are played against a background of various love affairs and relationships which all tie up nicely in one plot strand at the end. Andews may be a few years too old for the part but her acting and that of the mostly British cast is uniformly excellent, with as often happens Quayle excelling, with only Sharif's performance occasionally appearing perfunctory. Excellent script and dialogue and a brilliant John Barry score make the film linger in the memory.. The film's ideology is in the right place ( pun intended) with the script being subtly, intelligently but unmistakeably anti communist, a unique ideological stand in the leftist seventies.