Minnesota Clay (1965)

In my mind Sergio Corbucci's films can be divided into two-and-a-bit categories: the lone hero - possibly injured or disabled - against the world category (this film, Django, Navajo Joe and most notably The Great Silence); the revolutionary westerns (The Mercenary, Companeros); and the ones I haven't seen (Massacre at The Grand Canyon, Ringo And His Golden Pistol, The Hellbenders, The Specialist, etc.). Minnesota Clay is an important first step in the injured hero against the world strand. The main character, named Minnesota Clay is an ageing gunfighter who escapes from a forced labour camp and sets out to try to capture the man who framed him/refused to testify in his favour, Fox, who happens to be corruptly running a town. Clay is slowly going blind - a process accelerated by the action of the film - sort of prefiguring Django's broken hands and Silence's burnt hands and muteness.

The character of Clay is generally excellent - a drifter who left his wife and daughter to pursue his career as a gunfighter and is now returning to right past wrong, but who also realises that he's on his last legs. His daughter and her love interest are less effective and seem flat, at best. The film does not seem particularly admired among spaghetti Western fans, probably because it could almost play as a (quality) 1950s American Western B-Movie, with such standard tropes as the hero ordering milk in a saloon (although it's because of his ulcers, another sign of his poor health) and no notable spaghetti western music. Hardy's Encyclopaedia of Westerns also rates it reasonably poorly [although typically Spaghetti Westerns do not do well there]. A couple of aspects of the film are typically Italian, notably the way the villains rule the town - by riding around firing their guns into the air - and the horde of Mexican banditos led by Fernando Sancho. The final gunfight - a last stand by Clay as he fights his enemies only by sound, using the night-time to his advantage - is particularly well done.

The ending is worth noting briefly. There appear to be two versions: either ending with Clay dead in the street with his daughter, or an epilogue (in Italian) where he is reprieved and rides off into the distance. The unhappy ending works better in my mind - it doesn't make sense that he'd survive the final fight - however the happy ending does resolve the daughter's romantic subplot and her admirer's ride to fetch the army, both of which are left hanging without it. This tends to suggest that the happy ending was at least partially intended.

The version I saw was on Youtube, and was generally OK. It was probably taken from the American DVD.