''Boot Hill'' ( it, La collina degli stivali) is a 1969

Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

film starring

Terence Hill Terence Hill (born Mario Girotti; 29 March 1939) is an Italian actor, film director, screenwriter and producer. He began his career as a child actor and gained international fame for starring roles in action and comedy films, many with longtim ...

and

Bud Spencer Carlo Pedersoli (31 October 1929 – 27 June 2016), known professionally as Bud Spencer, was an Italian actor, professional swimmer and water polo player. He was known for action-comedy and Spaghetti Western roles with his long-time film partn ...

. ''Boot Hill'' was the last film in a trilogy that started with '' God Forgives... I Don't!'' (1967), followed by ''

Ace High Allied Command Europe Highband, better known as ACE High, was a fixed service NATO radiocommunication and early warning system dating back to 1956. After extensive testing ACE High was accepted by NATO to become operational in 1964/1965. The fr ...

'' (1968). The film was re-released as ''Trinity Rides Again''.

Plot

One night in the

Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

, a man named Cat tries to ride out of a town and is ambushed by a large number of men. He is wounded, but manages to lure them away and hides in a wagon belonging to a circus company. Outside town the wagons are searched by men who are shot by Cat and the trapeze artist Thomas, who is a former gunfighter. Cat leaves the company as soon as he can travel. The same night men arrive and search the wagons during the show and discover traces of him. To retaliate they shoot down Thomas’ partner Joe during their performance. Thomas finds Cat and nurses him back to health saying that he needs him as "bait for my trap". Cat takes him to Hutch, who lives in a house together with another big man, who is called Baby Doll and is a mute. Hutch receives Cat with hostility. Cat explains that Sharp, a friend of Hutch who is a prospector, needs help to stop mining boss Fisher from taking his claim, and that Cat had won the deed to the claim in a rigged poker game to be able to take it out of town (that is why he was attacked in the beginning). Hutch reluctantly agrees to come along, together with Baby Doll. They find the remnants of the circus with its manager Mami, refit it, and gather the artists. At the mining town a county commissioner arrives to review the claims, but the miners are afraid to talk to him – except for the McGavin family, but they are besieged in their home and eventually destroyed with dynamite by the large outlaw band of Finch, who co-operates with Fisher. However, at night a message is delivered to the commissioner in his room by a dwarf from the circus. In the morning the circus arrives, and the commissioner convinces Fisher to invite everybody to the show. At the circus show they perform pantomimes about the threat to the miners and the killing of the McGavins. The miners find guns under their seats, while Fisher's men find feathers. There is a fight and Fisher's men are killed. The four go out to face the might of the Finch gang in a nightly fight. They get help from the circus people (including dwarves and can-can dancers), and eventually the miners also join in and the gang is wiped out. Fisher shoots Mami in the back. Cat appears and says it means the gallows for Fisher unless he wants to try his luck with the gun. Fisher lays his down, and Mami says that makes him the real clown. At the end Cat and Hutch ride away together, while Baby Doll, who has started talking, stays with one of the can-can dancers at the circus.

Cast

as Cat Stevens *

as Hutch Bessy *

Woody Strode Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode (July 25, 1914 – December 31, 1994) was an American athlete and actor. He was a decathlete and football star who was one of the first Black American players in the National Football League in the postwar era. Aft ...

as Thomas *

George Eastman George Eastman (July 12, 1854March 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Kodak, Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. He was a major philanthropist, establishing the ...

as Baby Doll *

Eduardo Ciannelli Eduardo Ciannelli (30 August 1888 – 8 October 1969), was an Italian baritone and character actor with a long career in American films, mostly playing gangsters and criminals. He was sometimes credited as Edward Ciannelli. Early life Ciannelli ...

as Boone *

Glauco Onorato Glauco Onorato (7 December 1936 – 31 December 2009) was an Italian actor and voice actor. As an actor and dubber popular with audiences throughout Italy, he was renowned for voicing over nearly all of Bud Spencer's roles as Spencer had a thick ...

as Finch *

Alberto Dell'Acqua Alberto Dell'Acqua (born 14 March 1938) is an Italian actor and stuntman. He appeared in more than forty films since 1955 mostly Italian Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerg ...

as Sam (storekeeper) *

Nazzareno Zamperla Nazzareno Zamperla (25 April 1937 – 19 March 2020) was an Italian actor and stuntman. Career Born in Treviso into a circus family, Zamperla came to Rome in 1949 and worked primarily in the 1950s and 1960s as a stunt performer. His focus was on ...

as Charlie (Finch's goon) *

Victor Buono Victor Charles Buono (February 3, 1938January 1, 1982) was an American actor, comic, and briefly a recording artist. He was known for playing the villain King Tut in the television series '' Batman'' (1966–1968) and musician Edwin Flagg in '' ...

as Honey Fisher *

Lionel Stander Lionel Jay Stander (January 11, 1908 – November 30, 1994) was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television. He is best remembered for his role as majordomo Max on the 1980s mystery television series ''Hart to Hart''. Early ...

as Mami

Release

''Boot Hill'' was first released in 1969. Wild East Productions released the 92-minute international version on an out-of-print limited edition DVD in 2003. In September 2015, the film was re-released as a double-bill with ''

Django the Bastard ''Django the Bastard'' ( it, Django il bastardo) is a 1969 Italian gothic horror Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Garrone who co-wrote the film with the star Anthony Steffen. In 1974 Herman Cohen released an edited American version of t ...

'' from RetroVision Entertainment, LLC. It features both Italian and English audio.

Reception

From retrospective reviews, in his investigation of narrative structures in

films, Bert Fridlund writes that all the Colizzi westerns present clever variations on several different kinds of partnerships encountered in other films inspired by ''

For a Few Dollars More ''For a Few Dollars More'' ( it, Per qualche dollaro in più) is a 1965 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone. It stars Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef as bounty hunters and Gian Maria Volonté as the primary villain. German actor K ...

''. Also, the pervading protagonists Cat and Hutch are differentiated by a set of physical and personal characteristics that reappear in the even more commercially successful ''

They Call Me Trinity ''They Call Me Trinity'' ( it, Lo chiamavano Trinità...) is a 1970 Italian Spaghetti Western comedy film written and directed by Enzo Barboni (under the pseudonym of E.B. Clucher) and produced by Italo Zingarelli. The film stars Terence Hill and ...

'' and ''

Trinity Is Still My Name ''Trinity Is Still My Name'' ( it, ...continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità, lit. "...they kept calling him Trinity") is a 1971 Italian Spaghetti Western comedy film directed by Enzo Barboni. Starring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer, it is a sequel ...

''.Fridlund, Bert: ''The Spaghetti Western. A Thematic Analysis''. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company Inc., 2006, pp. 199-203, 246-47.

References

Sources

* *

External links

* {{Giuseppe Colizzi 1969 films Commedia all'italiana Circus films 1960s Western (genre) comedy films 1960s Italian-language films English-language Italian films Terence Hill and Bud Spencer Films directed by Giuseppe Colizzi Films scored by Carlo Rustichelli Spaghetti Western films Films shot in Almería 1969 comedy films 1960s Italian films