Kill the Wickeds (1967)

This proved to be an unexpected highlight of a Spaghetti Western. It's something of a mixed bag—as many of the lower budget Spaghetti Westerns are—but it tells an interesting story and tries to do something different (which makes it interesting), and on the whole succeeds.

The story concerns four outlaws (including their alluring female companion) how rob a stage coach. One of the outlaws is left for dead (although doesn't die, leaving him open for an "unexpected" return later) while the other three escape with the loot and take refuge in a ghost town. There they find an eccentric old woman, who's stayed on in the town hoping for a return to better days. They are then joined by a drifter, and a recent widow who he's picked up in the desert. The outlaws are obviously suspicious of the outsiders and their intentions towards the stolen gold, so take them hostage.

Along the way there's some surprisingly violent torture, a bathtub scene (for Shelley, the lady outlaw), some tight leather trousers (for Shelley, again), and a cat-fight (between Shelley and the widow). There's an amount of tension, mistrust and double-crossing (as is to be expected). The main message of the plot concerns the corrupting power of gold (at least that's what I infer from the title song) and (spoiler alert) it's telling that the old survivors are the drifter—who claims to be interested in money, but shows no real signs of it in practice—and the widow—who doesn't take any interest in the gold. (end of spoilers!)

None of the actors are particularly famous, even in a Spaghetti Western sense, but they largely do a decent job. From the point of view of the gentleman viewer, Maria Silva (who plays Shelley) is particularly effective. In my mind only Daniela Igliozzi as the widow is a little weak, although that's possibly just because the character is slightly ill-defined (and as with all Spaghetti Westerns, this could also be the dubbing).

However, as is to be expected from a low-budget Spaghetti Western, there are definite weaknesses. The plot—while unique—is stretched a bit thin, so at times it feels like they're stalling for time slightly (i.e. riding around while the title them plays). The film also looks cheap in places – it opens with a crane shot that seems to "miss" and end up looking at people's feet before correcting itself, and some of the locations are obvious Italian sand-pits, for example. In contrast, the ghost town looks excellent, and other choices of locations are effective. For example the slightly snowy foothills with "mountains" in the background appealed to me.

The film is apparently notable that the script was remade as "Matalo" a few years later.

The Koch Media DVD (part of the their Italowestern-Enzyklopädie No 2) can't readily be faulted. An alternative DVD from Wild East exists, but I have no personal comment.

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