La resa dei conti (1966)

Director:

Sergio Sollima

Writers:

Sergio Donati (writer)
Sergio Sollima (writer)

Release Date:

29 November 1966 (Spain)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

Keep your eye on the man everyone watches!

Plot:

Unofficial lawman John Corbett hunts down Cuchillo Sanchez, a Mexican peasant accused of raping and killing a 12-year-old girl.

Plot Keywords:

Mexican | Child Murder | Spaghetti Western | Mexican Border | Monk

Cast

Lee Van Cleef	...	Jonathan 'Colorado' Corbett
Tomas Milian	...	Manuel 'Cuchillo' Sanchez
Luisa Rivelli	...	Prostitute of Willow Creek City
Fernando Sancho	...	Capt. Segura
Nieves Navarro	...	The widow
Roberto Camardiel	...	Jellicol, sheriff of San Antonio (as Robert Camardiel)
Tom Felleghy	...	Father of Chet Miller
Walter Barnes	...	Brokston
Gérard Herter	...	Baron von Schulenberg
Lanfranco Ceccarelli	...	Jack (as Lanfranco Ceccarelli)
María Granada	...	Rosita, Cuchillo's wife
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Silvana Bacci	...	Mexican prostitute
Calisto Calisti	...	Mr. Linch, Brokston's secretary
Pietro Ceccarelli
Antonio Molino Rojo	...	Widow's ranchero (as Molino Rojo)
Herman Reynoso	...	Mormon leader
José Torres	...	Paco Molinas

Also Known As:

Account Rendered
El halcón y la presa (Spain)
La presa (Spain) (working title)
The Big Gundown (USA)

Runtime:

Germany:80 min | Italy:105 min | Spain:107 min | UK:84 min | Germany:105 min

Country:

Spain | Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:AA (1970) (cut) | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1968) | Germany:12 (DVD rating) | West Germany:16 (nf) | Iceland:16 | USA:R (re-rating) (1968) | France:-12 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Produzioni Europee Associati (PEA)

Quotes:

Jonathan Corbett: [after discovering that he has been tricked by Cuchillo into thinking he was bit by a snake] If you don't kill me right now... it'll be the last mistake you ever make.
Cuchillo Sanchez: But to kill you is a big mistake. If I kill you, they'll just send another man after me who's much smarter, MUCH.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 5 (1998) (V)

Excellent "Spaghetti" Western

This is absolutely one of the best so-called spaghetti westerns ever, after Sergio Leone's films of course, and it rates very highly among all westerns. Unlike many other non-Sergio Leone westerns, the cinematography, camera-work, etc., are all very good and some scenes are very artistic and even worthy of Leone himself.

Lee van Cleef is excellent as the pseudo-lawman/bounty hunter with integrity who believes in "justice" and "progress" for society.

Ennio Morricone, as usual, provides a great score for the film. The song is rousing, while the music for the chase scenes is excellent. Morricone also does a folk-music/square dance version of the theme for the wedding party, which is a neat touch.

The story is interesting and well-developed, as well. In its full-length version, it is in fact somewhat deep, with van Cleef's Corbett being a fairly complex character who undergoes a significant character development in the course of the film. In the abridged American version, unfortunately, he is shown as simply bounty hunter who mercilessly kills all before him in cold blood, who never bats an eye at his job, making his character two-dimensional and making the end more flat, more perfunctory, and less convincing or meaningful. In the full-length version, though, he cares about justice, gives outlaws a choice (and a chance), and there is significant development on how he becomes so obsessed with finding Cuchillo that he crosses the boundary between justice and personal obsession. He then re-examines himself and the events in which he finds himself to come to a significant realisation near the end.