Spag Western Essay #5: The Third Hand of the Devil
Sergio Sollima. The elusive 3rd Sergio of the triumvirate of Great Sergios Who Directed Westerns in Italy Between 1966 and 1977…
Only made three westerns. WHAT you are crying out, but Corbucci made… but Leone made… Oh, wait, Leone only made five as a director, + one as a producer. Corbucci was easily the most prolific, churning out at least 9 between ‘65 and ‘72…
So why is Sollima often mentioned in the same breath as Corbucci and Leone? I don’t know.
His movies are the hardest to come by, unfortunately. Leone’s are, obviously, the first Spag Westerns that come to mind for many people, hell: I talked with a guy the other day who didn’t even know that the “Dollars” movies weren’t “Hollywood” Westerns, so maybe they are just the first westerns that come to mind for some people. Lord knows the theme songs are iconic enough. Leone’s films have always been widely available for home viewing, Corbucci was considered an exploitation director and a b-level talent during his time has achieved a cult reputation, and his films have been embraced by film historians.
But Sollima has always been more of an enigma for this viewer, simply because his movies are harder to come across. I’ve only seen one in full, which (ironically) is probably the first Spaghetti Western that my wife really noticed & enjoyed- and fell a little in crush with Spag star Tomas Milian during- Corri, Uomo, Corri, also known as “Run Man Run”. Milian plays Cuchillo, a shrewd peasant who really just wants to be left alone to chase after his 30 or so girlfriends he keeps stashed in various towns, but gets caught up in bounties and revolutions and all the usual stuff. Cuchillo was one of the rare spag western characters who actually showed up more than once (and played by the same actor, unlike Sabata or Sartana), since Sollima’s Corri, Uomo, Corri was actually the second Cuchillo story- the first was the vastly influential La Resa de Conti, released in the US as “The Big Gundown”…
The Cuchillo stories were actually pretty unique for the spag westerns, Cuchillo would be wanted for a crime he didn’t commit and chased by a bounty hunter (first the ubiquitous Lee Van Cleaf, second would be Donald O’Brian, who greatly resembles the Marvel Comics Sabretooth in western drag), ultimately they team up to take on the real bad guy. Not Shakespeare, to be sure, but who wants All Shakespeare All The Time? People who get the Shakespeare channel, not people who watch Spag Westerns.
The movie of Sollima’s that resonates the most with the serious aficionado of the genre is ’67s Faccia a Faccia, “Face to Face”, starring (even more ubiquitous to the genre than Lee Van Cleaf) Milian and the truly awesome Gian Maria Volonte- the villains in the first two “Dollars” movies.
“Faccia” has one of my absolute favorite plots for a Spag Western: a college professor (Volonte) travels west for his health and is captured by a group of outlaws, led by a barbaric killer (Milian). He displays his value to the gang, and ends up befriending the leader- as the two men journey together, the Outlaw begins to reevaluate his life due to the intellectual’s influence, and the Professor begins to embrace the savage life of a wanted man, becoming more ruthless than the Outlaw…
Sollima’s trio of films has been released on DVD, something I really need to pick up.