ONE DAMNED DAY AT DAWN... DJANGO MET SARTANA

aka Quel Maledetto Giorno D'Inverno, Django E Sartana
1970
Italy
Director: Miles Deem [Demofilio Fidani]
Script: Demofilio Fidani, M.R. Vitelli Valenza [Maria Rosa Valenza]
Music: Coriolano Gori
Photography: Franco Villa
Cast: Hunt Powers (Django), Stet Carson [Fabio Testi] (Jack Ronson / Sartana), Dean Stratford [Dino Strano] (Bud Willer), Dennis Colt [Benito Pacifico] (Sanchez), Simone Blondell [Simonetta Vitelli], Lucky McMurray [Luciano Conti], Robert Danish [Roberto Danesi] (Sanchez's man), Dan Reese [Attilio Dottesio] (Bill), Joel Moore (Dolores), Michael Brank [Michele Branca], Celso Faria (Frank Cutler), Mariella Palmich, Franco Pasquetto, Pietro Torrisi (the giant), Antonio Basile

Young Ronson (Fabio Testi) arrives in Black City as the new sheriff ("Welcome to Black City son, welcome to hell!", "Hmmm, sounds kinda colourful!"). He finds, however, that it is under the subjugation of town boss Bud Wheeler (Dean Stratford) and his bandit buddy Sanchez (Dennis Colt). Meanwhile, a weird looking Django (Hunt Powers) is lurking around, ostensibly looking for revenge against the murderers of his wife's brother.

Hunt Powers in One Damned Day at Dawn...

Nothing much happens for the next hour or so. Wheeler humiliates Ronson by calling him a mummy's boy (jeez, these frontier guys were tough), Django has another beer. We are shown a lengthy flashback - which you don't realise is a flashback until it is long finished. Wheeler and Ronson have an arm wrestle (whoa boys!). Finally the sheriff and town boss arranges a dawn showdown, but Django is determined to be the one who delivers the final bullet.

We have found ourselves, my friends, in the wonderful world of Demofilio Fidani. Widely regarded as the Ed Wood of spaghetti westerns, he brings a kind of unique genius to all of his masterpieces. His is a world where people jump six feet in the air when they are shot before spasming wildly on the floor. Where characters utter lines such as "It's mighty cold out there... maybe some hot lead will warm you up", where we are treated to overhead shots of four sombreros conversing animatedly. No, his films aren't good, but they're like a hygienically challenged friend that you find yourself strangely fascinated by. Compulsive in their very wrong handedness, they begin to challenge the assumptions of the viewer by simultaneously underplaying and overstating the conventions of the genre.

Dennis Colt in One Damned Day at Dawn...

You want examples? Well, what about the scene in which Wheeler murders the Culter (yes 'Culter') brothers, the act for which Django is seeking retribution. This is a direct replay of Lee Van Cleef's introductory sequence in The Goof the Bad and the Ugly, even utilising the same dialogue! But it's just wrong! Or what about the use of exaggerated sound effects during 'tense' moments heightened - unfortunately - to the point of ridiculousness.

Stylistically, the main dependence is upon static camerawork, with zoom shots used plentifully. The editing of that familiarly odd fashion that insists everything must be abrupt, with the music being cut of mid flow as the sequences change. On the other hand, some of the photography isn't half bad, with the preposterously dilapidated sets and ever-present dusty atmosphere being strangely effective. It all looks as though it is about to collapse about the protagonists at the merest shudder. It is interesting to note that the script was co-written by the set designer and that Fidani himself made his name in the same occupation.

On the acting front, all the director's regular accomplices are assembled under their increasingly improbable pseudonyms. Dennis Colt ? Lucky McMurray ? Oh c'mon. Hunt Powers and Fabio Testi are both pretty good, even if the later looks a tad confused and the former looks frankly abnormal. Dean Stratford (aka Dino Strano) was a regular villain in the grottier end of the spaghetti spectrum, including the horrific On the Third Day Arrived the Crow, which is probably the worst of it's type that I have seen. Disorientatingly, he looks not dissimilar to Phil Mitchell, scion of Eastenders. Only in a Demofilio Fidani film.

Matt B