A Man Called Noon (1971)

A very mixed bag, which seems to attract similarly mixed views on the internet. Richard Crenna is pretty good as the titular character, who falls from a window, suffers amnesia, realises that he is legendary gunfighter Rubal Noon (possibly spelt differently… I didn’t watch with subtitles), before discovering that Rubal Noon is actual an alter ego of someone else. He goes to hide out in a band of outlaws to discover who tried to kill him, rescue a woman, and generally set the world to rights.

I found the plot a little hard to follow in places – there’s a few double-crossings and foregivings of double-crossings, lots of different names mentioned for characters that the viewer has only met once or twice (or never). Crenna’s world-weary demeanour seems to fit the title role quite well, and creates an interesting character (aside from the unsatisfying amnesia plot). Near the start (before the whole plot has collapsed under it’s own weight) it all seems pretty good and feels like it could be the set-up for an excellent film. Unfortunately, the latter two thirds of the film don’t really live up to it and, while it’s never terrible, are somewhat disappointing.

The film is generally stylishly shot, with lots of typical Spaghetti Western low angles and odd foregrounds. None of this camera-work is hugely inspired or original (it’s all following the standard Spaghetti Western template) but it’s clearly done by someone with an eye for what looks good. The soundtrack is similar – enjoyable but not groundbreaking. Although it aims for a Spaghetti Western feel (with the familiar Spanish locations) it was actually British financed.