SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Ameriatch One of the best films i have seen

GetPapa Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Red-Barracuda Many spaghetti westerns had absurd gimmicks that made them memorable while at the same time subverting the iconography of their traditional American counterparts. Perhaps most famously there was Django and his coffin, in Black Killer we have Klaus Kinski's lawyer with his guns disguised as books! Like a lot of the spaghetti western gimmicks it's simultaneously completely silly and very cool. On the whole though, its business as usual spaghetti western style in this movie. We have a lawless town called, perhaps unsurprisingly, Tombstone which is terrorised by a gang of Mexican bandits called somewhat improbably the O'Hara gang. A mysterious drifter called Burt who is adept with a fire-arm comes into town and is made new sheriff by the fearful locals. The bandits subsequently kill his brother and rape his sister-in-law, an Indian called Sarah. Burt and Sarah band together, with the help of Kinski's lawyer to get revenge.To be honest, the story-telling is a little confused and messy in this one. And it can appear a lot more convoluted than it really should do. But it ultimately is a pretty straightforward violent western. The sexual violence is fairly unpleasant, while one of the unfortunate early sheriffs is shot several times and then killed with a knife. It was good to see the character of Sarah get in on the retribution though – a female Indian with deadly skills with a bow and arrow made for a pleasant contrast to the typical taciturn gunfighter anti-hero she teams up with. Kinski is good as always as the lawyer who we can only assume the film is named after. He is in a rare good(ish) guy role in this one. He is dubbed with a silly English accent though it has to be said which is quite distracting. All-in-all though, this is a pretty entertaining spaghetti western.

Coventry Man, if I wouldn't be a 100% heterosexual (and if he wouldn't be dead for more than 15 years already), I swear I would instantly send a love-letter to Klaus Kinski to state that he is the greatest and absolute coolest icon of European cult-cinema who ever lived! Kinski was an amazing actor! His on screen charisma has yet to be equaled, his bright blue eyes and grimaces were almost naturally petrifying and somehow he always managed to make even the crappiest movies worthwhile viewing. He appeared in many Spaghetti Westerns, some of which are widely acclaimed masterpieces by now ("The Great Silence", "Bullet for the General"...) and others still are very obscure and nearly impossible to trace down, like "Black Killer". This ultra-low budget gem can hardly be called a masterpiece, but it's nevertheless a tremendously fun and action-packed gunslinger adventure. The title doesn't refer to a cowboy with a dark skin color, but to Mr. Kinski himself, and he doesn't even play the lead role. That's how proud the creators must have been for being able to cast the Klaus Kinski, ha! Klaus plays a mysterious and freaky lawyer, entirely dressed in black and always carrying around books that contain guns instead of knowledge, and he's temporarily hanging around in the little town of Tombstone. The remote town is under the constant siege of terror of the five Mexican O'Hara brothers, who killed no less than NINE Sheriffs in only a couple of weeks time. The local authorities assign lone traveler Burt Collins as the new Sheriff, but the murderous O'Hara clan immediately kill his brother and rape his Indian sister-in-law. Collins teams up with the awkward lawyer to terminate the reign of the O'Hara's once and for all. The plot of "Black Killer" is a little too confusing and convoluted for its own good sometimes, but director Croccolo easily forces you to look past the script's incoherence and focus on the outrageous sequences of explicit violence as well as the awesomely ingenious gimmicks. The lawyer's method of killing people is original, to say the least, and the O'Hara brothers too come up with inventive ways to viciously entertain themselves. The gunfights and executions are quite nasty, and particularly the rape-scene is unsettling to watch, as it seems to last for several whole minutes. Tiziana Dini provides the film with an overload of gratuitous – but welcome – nudity, while the rest of the cast delivers more than adequate acting performances Daniele Patucchi's musical score is very enchanting and the filming locations are overall convincing. There's a very pointless and totally implausible plot-twist near the end, which perfectly summarizes the overall awkwardness of this unconventional Spaghetti Western. In conclusion, "Black Killer" certainly lacks the quality and competence to rank among Italy's best Westerns, but there's more than enough stuff to recommend if you're an open-minded admirer of the genre. And, for the record, Kinski is a cinematic deity!

The_Void I'm a big fan of Spaghetti Westerns, but unfortunately; Black Killer really isn't one of the best. The thing that I like best about this type of film is the entertainment value; and that is where Black Killer unfortunately falls down. The film is likely to be a target for many because of the fact that it stars the great Klaus Kinski, and indeed the actor the helped to make The Great Silence such a pleasure puts in a decent performance amidst a somewhat tedious movie. The plot is all over the place, but seems to have something to do with Kinski's lawyer character (complete with gun concealing books) and a band of Mexicans. The atmosphere is gritty, and the film features a handful of fairly nasty scenes; although it's not nearly as action packed as some of the other Spaghetti Westerns released around the same time. You cant really expect coherency from seventies Spaghetti Westerns, of course, and it really wouldn't be a problem if director Carlo Croccolo had managed to make the action entertaining and the characters interesting; but unfortunately this didn't happen. The title refers to the fact that Kinski dresses in black and goes around killing people; but even this theme has been done better in other films (e.g. The Grand Dual). Overall, someone may get some enjoyment out of this; but in a genre populated by entertaining films; I can't recommend seeing this one.

spider89119 This spaghetti western has a very good music score and a great performance by Klaus Kinski as a strange lawyer who kills with books that have guns inside of them. He's really a natural for the role. His look and mannerisms fit the character perfectly.Not only does this western have Kinski, it also has a family of Mexican thugs named O'Hara! There's definitely nothing like a good old Italian western.This is one of those movies that will have you scratching your head a lot if you try to make perfect sense of everything that happens. It's best not to think about it too hard. Just sit back and enjoy it for what it is. It's got style, action, violence, weirdness, and an interesting though somewhat vague storyline.All in all, it's pretty good stuff for the spaghetti western fan.