A Town Called Hell (1971)

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:

La batalla de Nueva Orleans

But seriously...

This star-studded British/Spanish co-production looks great, what you can see of it. I have three versions, two VHS, one DVD, and all are terribly cropped, so badly that it looks as if buildings are having conversations with each other. Few films suffer as badly from pan and scan as this one, as director Robert Parrish seems to have been so enamored with the widescreen process that he tended to use both sides of the screen at once, neglecting the middle. Another user comments that we see the entire inhabitants of a church massacred at the beginning; not in any of the copies I have. There are some abrupt cuts of peasants firing their rifles, one Mexican officer is shot, Shaw and Landau celebrating, and that's it. We never find out why Shaw has become a priest (if he really is), we never find out what happens to Don Carlos (Savalas) although I suspect he was called home to star in Kojak, as his departure seems arbitrary. And there is a strange flashback sequence where Michael Craig (Mysterious Island) is dancing around in a bowler hat and bad suit in the great old English music hall tradition to the 1960 hit BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS, not sung by Johnny Horton here but with some lyrics I've never heard before. On the plus side, the location is great, a huge old ruined fortress with Escher-style stairs leading nowhere, some nice scenery-chewing by Robert Shaw, and good performances by Stevens, Landau, Lettieri, and Telly Savalas as Telly Savalas. I didn't really like this film, but I haven't exactly seen it. I will seek the widescreen version and make my decision then.