The Wild and the Dirty & Chaco

Wild East Productions releases a Euro Western double bill with vengeance as its main theme. Up first is 'THE WILD AND THE DIRTY' which is the US title of 'JOHNNY HAMLET' -1968 , Director Enzo G. Castellari's visually stunning take on Shakespeare's play and which this version has the Italian title ' QUELLA SPORCA STORIA NEL WEST'. Andrea Giordana aka Chip Gorman stars as the main character withUS actor Gilbert Roland playing his sidekick Horatio in the hero department and the great Horst Frank and Manuel Serrano playing the villains of the piece. The beautiful actress Gabriela Grimaldi plays Ophelia and Francoise Prevost plays Johnny's tragic mother. The script by Euro Western titan Sergio Corbucci blends the bard's ideas perfectly as the tragedy plays out with the beautiful photographic images by Angelo Flippini and a majestic music score by Francesco De Masi peppering the mix. Wild East presents the film in a gorgeous restored 2.35 widescreen print dubbed in English. The second feature plays down the intensity as we have Director Gino Mangini's 'CHACO' aka "BASTARD, GO AND KILL' aka 'BASTARDO, VAMOS A MATAR'- 1971, a lighthearted farce with Writer, Director, Actor George Eastman aka Luigi Montefiori as a Mexican framed for the murder of his family. Along for the ride is a bounty hunter played by Lincoln Tate who helps him with his revenge plot. It never quite clicks as the script co-scripted by Director Sergio Garrone comes across as a mixed bag of seriousness and slapstick highjinks. The music score by Carlo Rusticelli is a retread of themes from his other films and even the photography by the great Aristide Massaccesi aka Joe D'Amato can't save this one. It is presented in a nice 1.85 transfer dubbed in English. Wild East includes their usually welcome extras of Picture Galleries , U.S/German and Italian trailers for 'THE WILD AND THE DIRTY" and alternate credits for 'CHACO'. The highlight is a 23 minute interview with Director Enzo G. Castellari who discusses his career, the making of 'JOHNNY HAMLET' and some great stories about working with actors Franco Nero, Chuck Connors and Charles Bronson. This release is a great buy for Euro Western enthusiasts and 'JOHNNY HAMLET' finally gets it's due as one of the great Italian Westerns.

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