Content: Shortly after the Civil War Jonas Morrison (Joseph Cotton) and his three sons Nat (Angel Arranda), Jeff (Gino Pernice) and Ben (Julian Mateos) aren’t used to do things by halves: As they attack a cash transport for the US Army, they kill the complete escort. After that the boys kill their two paid assistants square with. They place the booty in a coffin, to bring it to Mexico, carmouflaged as a conviction of a soldier killed in action. In Mexico former Colonel Morrison plans to build up a new army to let the defeated South rise again. To fool the numerous Yankee patrols and civil search parties, the have a false pass. Furthermore the Morrisons have engaged the barmaid Kitty (Maria Martín), to play the mourning widow. But things don’t work out swimmingly: Kitty wants to run away with the loot and is slaughtered by neurotic Jeff. So a new woman is needed. Charming Ben picks up the gambler Claire (Norma Bengell) in a saloon nearby. Norma takes Kitty’s place after the Morrisons have brought her to heel by dollars and the menace of violence. But the problems hold on: the search parties of army and sheriff (José Nieto) are even of minor importance, and Claire likes to pay the violent nationalists back.
| The Gunslinger says: Like in „The Tramplers“, scripted by Antonini and Liberatore too, “I Crudeli” describes the destruction of a family by fanaticism and headiness of a dominant father figure. But whereas we have in the first film anyhow something like a family, there’s nothing like that in the latter: The influence of Jonas has already created a sick community, before its final collapse. Nat and Jeff are completely kinky personalities, only fixated on their own advantage, what means the (ab)use of women (Jeff) or dough (Nat). Besides them we have young Ben, who is only a half brother, who has conserved conscience and a certain refractoriness against the father, despite he is to weak to accomplish both.
Unlike “The Tramplers” money plays an important role. There are some nice ironical aspects, i.e. when the dough receives a memorial service and later on is buried with military honours, although the “dead man” is actually meant.
Atmospherically Corbucci has converged the US-Western again, after he has set a “SW landmark” the year before with “Django”. Thanks to the skilled camera work by Barboni and the decent score by Morricone, which feature a nice trumpet theme and obligatory choirs, the SW context remains intact. The actors do a good job: Joseph Cotten once again brings his „patriarch – tough in the outside, two-fisted at the heart”, and Pernice, Aranda and Mateos deliver sophisticated performances.
| Rating: $$$$
| Bodycount: ca. 45 Gringos, 15 Mexicanos, 1 woman
| Explicit Brutalities: - The Morrisons and their two accomplices kill the whole escort of the cash transport, obviously having fun to do it
- Jeff chokes Kitty very hard, before killing her with a bayonet
- Nat kills an unsuspecting , blind veteran (Julio Peña), who could blow their cover by some old photos
| Luv': Kitty tries her luck by Jonas for several times, but he brushes her off brutally
Claire seems to like Ben
All in all with some courtesy: 2/10
| Gore: 2/10
| Trailer: by mart5
|
| OT:
I Crudeli
AT:
Los Despiadados (SP)
Hellbenders (USA)
Year: I/SP 1967
D: Sergio Corbucci
S: Alfredo Antonini (“Albert Band”), Ugo Liberatore, José Gutiérrez Maesso
C: Enzo Barboni
M: Ennio Morricone (“Leo Nichols”)
with: Joseph Cotten, Julian Mateos, Norma Bengell, Gino Pernice, Angel Arranda
 | Joseph Cotten saves his brain box
|  | You're talking to me? Julian Mateos, Gino Pernice and
Angel Arranda
|  | Same gentleman (Julian Mateos), not quite the same lady.
Here Maria Martin, ...
|  | ... there Norma Bengeli
|  | Darkness favours secret dealings
|  | Al Mulock doesn't give a shit on anything
|  | | Law and Order |
|
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