Boot Hill (1969)

Victims of oppressive town boss Honey are offered help by an unusual alliance of gunmen and circus performers.

Director:

Giuseppe Colizzi

Writers:

Giuseppe Colizzi (subject and screenplay), Giuseppe Colizzi (screenplay)

Stars:

Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Woody Strode

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Terence Hill	...	Cat Stevens
Bud Spencer	...	Arch Hutch Bessy
Woody Strode	...	Thomas (as Woody Stroode)
Eduardo Ciannelli	...	Judge Boone (as Edward Ciannelli)
George Eastman	...	Baby Doll (as Luca Montefiori)
Glauco Onorato	...	Finch
Alberto Dell'Acqua	...	Hans - Acrobat
Nazzareno Zamperla	...	Franz - Acrobat (as Neno Zamperla)
Victor Buono	...	Honey Fisher
Lionel Stander	...	Mamy
Leslie Bailey	...	John
Maurizio Manetti	...	Joe
Dante Cleri	...	Fisher's Lawyer
Antonio De Martino	...	Midget
Adriano Cornelli	...	Midget

Storyline

Honey Fisher has become a powerful man in this small Western town that has grown up around gold-prospecting fields. Fisher and his gang have managed, through swindling, murder, and terror, to gain leases on the important gold-yielding land in the area. A state commissioner comes to town to review the leases, which are crucial to Fisher's power. Cat Stevens and Hutch Bessy join forces with circus performers and townsfolk led by Stevens' friend Finch to fight against Fisher and his henchmen.

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Plot Keywords:

reference to tombstone arizona | italo western | boss | 19th century | street shootout | 

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Taglines:

Those Trinity Boys Are Back! And As Wild As Ever

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Genres:

Comedy | Western

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

20 December 1969 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Boot Hill: Trinity Rides Again

Filming Locations:

Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

San Marco, Cronocinematografica S.p.a., B.R.C. Produzione S.r.l.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor) (as Technicolor®)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

English language version has the on screen title of 'Boots Hill' despite that not being the intended title. It was also submitted and classified to the BBFC in the UK under this title in 1987 for video release, but has since been classified under it's true title.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Mami: And now ladies and gentleman our most publicized attraction: The Flying Men.

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits: Together once again Terence Hill Bud Spencer two likeable rogues in La Collina Degli Stivali.

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Alternate Versions

There exist three different German versions of this film

• original 1970 version, based on the export version
• re-dubbed ("funny") version, released at the end of the 70s, based on the export version
• East German version, released with a new dubbing in 1983, based on the original Italian version

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Connections

Follows Ace High (1968)

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Soundtracks

Sotto La Panca
Composed by Riz Ortolani and Giuseppe Colizzi (as G. Colizzi)
Cinevox Record

User Reviews

Underrated Western with a circus theme

Boot Hill is such a different film to the popular ‘Trinity' films amongst which it was lumped, presumably by the American distributors keen to attract the same appreciative audience, that it often disappoints those who are expecting more of the same. In fact it stands well as a serious Western in own right, perhaps not at the very front rank of the genre, but an above average Spaghetti outing, both in direction and casting.

Director Colizzi conceived the film as the third in the loose trilogy which features Hill as Cat Stevens (the other two films being Dio perdona... Io no!/ God Forgives – I Don't! (1968) and I Quattro dell'Ave Maria, / Revenge at El Paso (1968). In this movie Hill, Spencer, and Stander are all excellent with none of the jokey humour which made the official Trinity films so distinctive and, for this viewer anyway, a little forced. Strode is outstanding and makes one wish that Hollywood had made more of his talents as muscular leading man. Too often one associates him with his mute, opening appearance in Once Upon a Time in the West, or in Ford's stagey Sargeant Rutledge, and forgets how easily he can carry the action for more than one scene. His later encounter with Stevens, while Hill hides out (‘I don't like to thank a man too many times') is one of the best scenes in the film. Although race is not an issue in the film, the American trailer makes play in that ‘two colours' are fighting against one threat, and the austere pairing of Hill and Strode – noticeably seen in single shot at the climax of the film – is electrifying.

The biggest weakness of writer-director Colizzi's film lays in the middle section, when the chronology is rather truncated, although even here the growing rapport between Stevens and Thomas is effectively conveyed by way of compensation. One would have appreciated seeing more of the dissolution of the circus, the debilitating effects of the murder of the acrobat on the troupe.. Meanwhile,the late introduction of Hutch (the essential other half to the expected Trinity pairing) gives plenty of time for an on-screen bond to form and, once the new group re-encounter the show, a real sense of mission has been formed. Such difficulties are partly the problem of a script which attempts too readily to combine showbusiness and showdowns in equal measure. The fault lines in Boot Hill are perhaps best described by the music, which ranges from Bullitt-like suspense riffs, through to a sentimental ‘circus' tune to a third, decidedly ‘epic' theme for the friendship of Stevens and his black comrade.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Boot Hill is Colizzi's inventive use of cross cutting between circus and gunfight, editing between ring and revolver as it were. The most notable example of this occurs at the beginning, when Stevens is stalked outside of the performance tent. By interweaving the dangers of the high wire with more immediate dangers faced outside, Collizi achieves a timing and balance which, in a sense, is as impressive as those inside the big top. Life - at least as shown in Boot Hill – thereby becomes kind of dangerous act of its own, and Colizzi heightens this sense through his shaping of his visual materials. Some critics have compared the acts in Boot Hill to the kind of medieval pageant served up for warlords centuries ago – especially when the troupe perform in front of head villain Honey (a surprisingly underwritten part for Victor Buono); I prefer to see it as a heightening of the tension inheirent in Western action, a different play on the skilful rituals involved.

Interesting comparisons might be made between this film and others where circus play intrudes into otherwise conservative genres (Vampire Circus springs to mind as a similar example) creating an interesting hybrid. Cukor's Heller in Pink Tights – highly rated by French Critics, less well liked at home - would make an interesting double bill with Colizzi's production, which is in need of some reassessment.