Un hombre llamado Noon (1973)

Director:

Peter Collinson

Writers:

Scott Finch (screenplay)
Louis L'Amour (novel)

Release Date:

6 August 1973 (Sweden)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

They Buried The Wrong Man. He Won't Make The Same Mistake.

Plot Keywords:

Spaghetti Western | Based On Novel

Cast

Richard Crenna	...	Noon
Stephen Boyd	...	Rimes
Rosanna Schiaffino	...	Fan Davidge
Farley Granger	...	Judge Niland
Patty Shepard	...	Peg Cullane
Ángel del Pozo	...	Ben Janish (as Angel del Pozo)
Howard Ross	...	Bayles
Aldo Sambrell	...	Kissling
José Jaspe	...	Henneker (as Jose Jaspe)
Charly Bravo	...	Lang (as Charlie Bravo)
Ricardo Palacios	...	Brakeman
Fernando Hilbeck	...	Ford
José Canalejas	...	Cherry (as Jose Canalejas)
Julián Ugarte	...	Christobal (as Julian Ugarte)
Barta Barri	...	Mexican

Also Known As:

The Man Called Noon (Philippines: English title) (UK) (USA)
Lo chiamavano Mezzogiorno (Italy)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

Spain | Italy | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:16 (video rating) | West Germany:16 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Colmenar, Madrid, Spain

Company:

Euan Lloyd Productions

Quotes:

Noon: Are you coming?
Rimes: Yeah, I figure you might need me...if only to put a marker on your grave.

Watchably Awful Western

There's a thin line between good style and bad style, and this film lands squarely on the wrong side of that line. The director knows a few camera tricks, such as filming scenes from severely low angles with a cowboy boot or wagon wheel dominating the frame (copied from countless other spaghetti westerns) but he has no feel or flow.

Oddball cast. Richard Crenna, not exactly the most physical of actors, is hilariously unbelievable as a tough man of action. Your guess is as good as mine as to how he wins all those fist fights. And he's either bionic or a cousin of Bruce Willis' character in "Unbreakable", because he survives a couple nasty falls and countless flurries of gunfire with nary a scratch. In fact, the villains in this movie have to be the worst shots in the history of film. The more I think about it, I'm not sure who or what they were aiming at but it couldn't have been Crenna.

There's Stephen Boyd, about a decade past his prime, drawling and mumbling his way through a turn as some sort of a slippery opportunist, the Han Solo role. Actually not a bad performance. And also Farley Granger, 20 years or so removed from his fling with matinee idol stardom. He's a more interesting looking actor at this point with graying hair and richer voice, but he comes off as all kinds of ridiculous in the big dumb, senseless finale. Hard to tell if his acting is much improved with such a poor script.

It's also got an inappropriately exuberant music score, bad stunt doubling, a confusing plot with too many names you never can attach to faces, and some gratuitous violence that might have been offensive if it hadn't been so nonsensical. Despite all that, at least it DOES make an attempt to stylize the material and give it a little pizazz. That's more than some films do.