A Man Called Blade (1977)

A bounty hunter arrives in a mining town and is hired to track down the missing daughter of the town's crippled mayor and learns she has been kidnapped by the mayor's corrupt right-hand-man and a band of outlaws he is secretly working for.

Director:

Sergio Martino

Writers:

Sergio Martino, Sauro Scavolini

Stars:

Maurizio Merli, John Steiner, Sonja Jeannine

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Maurizio Merli	...	Mannaja
John Steiner	...	Valler
Sonja Jeannine	...	Deborah McGowan
Donald O'Brien	...	Burt Craven
Salvatore Puntillo	...	Johnny Johnny, Impresario
Antonio Casale	...	Dahlman (as Nino Casale)
Enzo Fiermonte	...	Government Agent
Rik Battaglia	...	Gerald Merton (as Rick Battaglia)
Aldo Rendine	...	Stagecoach Traveller
Enzo Maggio	...	Oldtimer
Sergio Tardioli	...	Saloon Barman
Sofia Lombardo	...	Lucy Merton (as Sophia Lombardo)
Philippe Leroy	...	Edward M. McGowan
Martine Brochard	...	Angela

Storyline

Arriving in the mining town Suttonville, after claiming the bounty of a outlaw known as Burt Craven, a bounty hunter named Blade (armed with a hatchet instead of a gun) is hired by the town's wheelchair bound mayor McGowan and his corrupt associate Voller to track down McGowan's daughter Debra who has gone missing. Blade is unaware that Voller kidnapped Debra and is secretly working for a group of outlaws who are looting shipment of silver from the silver mines that are run the mine owner McGregor. Caught up in Suttonville's affairs, Blade not only has Voller and the outlaws to deal with, he also goes to settle a score with McGowan (who was responsible for the death of Blade's father) and takes on Voller and his gang who are out to gun him down.

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Plot Keywords:

silver | mine | gun | bounty hunter | silver mine | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Thriller | Western

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

19 January 1979 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

A Man Called Blade

Filming Locations:

Elios Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Devon Film, Intes Corporation

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

John Steiner was afraid of horses, so Sergio Martino had him stand on wooden planks while shooting him closeup so it looked as if he were riding a horse.

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Connections

Spoofed in Big Money Rustlas (2010)

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Soundtracks

Snake
Written by Guido De Angelis & Fabrizio De Angelis
Performed by Cesare De Natale (as Dandylion)

User Reviews

Another grim classic

You've got to love a Spaghetti Western that opens like a horror film and begins with a guy losing a hand to a tomahawk. Better still, the guy losing his hand is Donald O'Brien of Zombie Holocaust and Ghosthouse, and the guy throwing the tomahawk is Maurizio Merli of Violent Naples and Fear in the City. I nearly fainted when I discovered that John Stiener of The Last Hunter and Tenebrae was in this too!

Mannaja is one of a handful of twilight era Spaghetti Westerns full of vicious violence and dark imagery filmed in the latter half of the seventies. This one is directed by Sergio Martino, the guy who brought us Torso and 2019:After the Fall of New York, and this might possibly be his best film.

Mannaja (the name of Merli's character), brings Obrien into some run down town permeated by the stink of the nearby Silver mine. After discovering he can't claim a reward for OBrien, Mannaja beats Steiner in a game of cards and lets OBrien go. Stiener's not the greatest loser in the world however, which leads to several showdowns with Mannaja (including him getting blown up at one point).

Some generous dancing ladies find a wounded Mannaja and nurse him back to health, and they all head back into town, where they meet McGovern, pious and religious owner of the silver mine, who doesn't know that right hand man Steiner is in cahoots with a local bandit. Many double crossing and switches of allegiance follows (as usual for an Italian Western).

There's many shootouts here, not all of them involving Merli's character. I've got to say I've never seen John Steiner act better than he does here, coming across as an overconfident slimeball. Rik Battaglia helps as the religious nutter and land owner McGovern, wheeling around in his wheelchair in a permanent huff. Merli holds his own as the enraged Mannaja, with the always dependable OBrien backing things up.

As this is the late seventies, the violence quota is high, what with hands being cut off, many innocent people being gunned down and one character being buried up to his neck in sand, with his eyes stitched open so the sun can burn out his corneas. Martino films just about every frame really inventively, with a lot of wide angled lens work, fog and rain adding to the atmosphere.

I'd say Keoma has the slight edge on this one as it comes across as more poetic and Shakespearean (no, really), but Mannaja is a heavyweight film that should be viewed as a classic in it's own right. Similar music from the same composers too (just try and sing along to the guy with the amazing baritone who sings "You're…alone…" – you'll have a sore throat in no time).

If you grabbed a few beers and watched this, Keoma, and Lucio Fulci's Four of the Apocalypse, you'd have a fine, fine, night in. Why these films didn't revive the genre I'll never know – instead, Martino turned his hand to cannibal films and made Mountain of the Cannibal God ("Because you never forget the taste of human flesh!").