Hate Thy Neighbor
Hate Thy Neighbor
| 26 July 1968 (USA)
Hate Thy Neighbor Trailers

Ken Dakota's search for the murderer of his brother, killed by bandit Gary Stevens, at the behest of land owner Chris Malone. Dakota attempts to bring the men responsible for his brothers death to justice.

Reviews
Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.
Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Bezenby Sure, the lead hero guy here is a bit bland and not given much to do, but thankfully the two bad guys here - George Eastman and Horst Frank, save the film! Maybe director Ferdinando Baldi knew this, as he seems to focus more on Eastman than anyone else. That, and there's a them tune seemingly sung by a pre-op transvestite whose hormone supplements have gone wrong.26 foot tall Eastman plays Gary Stevens, and when we first meet him, he's riding into town following a guy called Dakota, who owns half a map that leads to a gold mine. After no one in town will help Dakota, and grinning Stevens guns him and his wife down (he doesn't spot their son, however). A local undertaker saves the son and takes him to Dakota's brother, who is also called Dakota.This, more alive Dakota, starts things off by giving local sheriff Franco Fantasia a good kicking for not helping his brother, but it's really Stevens he's after. Things get a bit complicated as Stevens actually works for evil Horst Frank, and Frank wants that map, but also doesn't want to give Stevens his share - cue double crossings! The good thing about Frank is that he likes to force people to fight each other using huge metal claws. Why I don't know, but it looks cool and it's not something you see often in these films. That's another thing this film has going for it - claw fighting. And explosions.While it's mostly a kind of run of the mill Spaghetti Western director Baldi throws in enough weirdness to grab your attention (claw fighting!) so it kind of stands out that way. Plus, Baldi also made Warbus so he ain't no fool. Eastman is good as the goofy, laughing Stevens and Horst Frank has a stare that could pierce metal. Needed a better leading man, though.
Leofwine_draca HATE THY NEIGHBOR is a decent little revenge western from Ferdinando Baldi, something of an expert director in the genre. It's about your usual gunslinger type hero seeking revenge for the massacre of his family and the plot intrigues that ensue. One of the worst things about the film is the main actor, Spiros Focas, who has no charisma and evokes no sympathy in the viewer whatsoever.Thankfully a larger-than-life team of villains is much more interesting than the hero and lift the interest quite considerably. Later exploitation and video nasty stalwart George Eastman stars in an early role as a hulking brute who goes around raping and killing and the like before being brought to book. The chief villain is the incredibly slimy Malone, as played by German actor Horst Frank. Frank gives a thoroughly creepy turn in the role and the only pity is that the hero can't match the power of these bad guys. Still, there's fun to be had from snake pits and claw weapons with which slaves are made to fight, and the gun action is pretty cool too.
marc-366 "Hate Thy Neighbour" combines the classic Spaghetti revenge scenario, with the regular Spaghetti "map" tale. The story centres around Ken Dakota's search for the murderer of his brother, who was killed by bandit Gary Stevens, at the behest of Mexican land owner Chris Malone, for a goldmine map. Stevens tears the map in two, and gives Malone half, spiralling into a running feud of double crosses between the two, whilst Dakota attempts to bring the men responsible for his brothers death to justice.This is a really enjoyable Spaghetti Western, albeit with the odd moment of corny dialogue. It includes some really exciting moments, such as peasants and bandits duelling with metal claws for Malone's pleasure, torture by hanging over a pit of snakes, and some very talented bandito musicianship! My experiences to date have highlighted that Director Baldi can come up with some great movies (Blindman, Viva Django) and some absolute turkeys (Get Mean and, so I've heard, Rita of the West). Hate Thy Neighbour doesn't hit the highs of Blindman by any means, but is certainly an enjoyable view, with George Eastman (as Stevens) and Horst Frank (Malone) putting in good roles, and the plot having some quality twists and turns.Not the easiest of movies to get your hands on, but certainly worth the effort if you are a fan of the Spaghetti genre.
Artemis-9 In the long line of spaguetti westerns, this has a double right to belong to the genre: it is a product 'made in Italy', and it has enough ketchup blood on the 'pasta'. Besides a few shootings, the highlights that may make this rather unique is the 'classic' addition of iron-claws used in two duels to the death: one between two Mexican slaves for their masters pleasure; and one between two 'gringo' bandits for possession of a tract of land, and a woman. Either the filming, or the video copying, are so bad as to diminish greatly the original intended gore effect.