Anthony
Steffen stars as Joe Clifford, an actor in the Wild West who inherits a
goldmine from his deceased grandfather. When
he goes to collect, Joe finds his grandfather’s close friend is now in control
of the mine. It doesn’t take a brain
surgeon to figure out what happened and against the odds, Joe sets out to get
revenge and reclaim the family goldmine. What the bad guys don’t realize is that not
only is Joe a skilled actor, he’s also a heck of a crack shot and has a knack
for worming his way out of tight situations.
Despite
the unassuming title, A Man Called Joe Clifford is a little bit better than it
has to be at nearly every turn. Usually
with Spaghetti Westerns, we just want some mindless violence, a cool antihero,
and a badass theme song. You get all
that with Joe Clifford, and then some.
The
cool opening scene perfectly sets the tone.
Joe performs Hamlet in front of a crowd before blowing away a bunch of
guys. It’s especially funny because he
starts out with, “To be or not to be” before the awesome Spaghetti Western
theme cuts in and drowns out the rest of the soliloquy. This was probably done to save dubbing
expenses (or maybe not bore the audience with a lot of Shakespeare before
getting down to the action), but it sure is cool.
Steffen
is plenty cool as the calculating Clifford.
I particularly liked his use of theater costumes and make-up to disguise
himself in order to get the drop on the bad guys. The final act is where Joe really endears
himself to the audience when he uses an assortment of dirty tricks and booby
traps that would make Wile E. Coyote proud to turn himself into a one-man army.
If
you aren’t already a fan of Spaghetti Westerns, I can’t say A Man Called Joe
Clifford will convert you. For someone
like me who’s sat through dozens of bad ones, I can appreciate one that colors
outside the lines a bit. Because of
that, it’s worth getting to know A Man Called Joe Clifford.
AKA: Apocalypse Joe. AKA: A
Man Called Apocalypse Joe.
No comments:
Post a Comment