Taste of Killing
Taste of Killing
| 06 August 1966 (USA)
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Lanky Fellow has a typical cynical SW like way to earn his living. He observes valuable transports of money or gold, but when they are robbed he doesn't intervene, but follows the robbers and then brings the loot back to collect the insurance. When his "job" brings him in conflict with the notorious outlaw Gus Kenneback, he has personal reasons to protect the money as Kenneback was once responsible for the death of Lanky's brother.

Reviews
GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.
FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
Red-Barracuda This above average spaghetti western focuses on a bounty hunter who is hired by bankers in a small town to protect their cachet of gold against a predicted heist by Mexican bandits.The director here was Tonino Valerii who was assistant director to Sergio Leone in his first two classic westerns, A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For A Few Dollars More (1965). He then went it alone himself as a director making very good efforts such as Day of Anger (1967), A Taste of Killing was his debut as director and while it isn't quite as good, it is still definitely an impressive effort and better than most in its sub-genre. It benefits from a good turn from Craig Hill in the central role as the bounty hunter. He has unusual vulnerabilities such as the fact he can't read but he also has the more typical spaghetti western trait in that he is in possession of an unusual weapon, in this case a sniper rifle with telescopic sight. He is a nicely amoral central character who waits for robberies to happen and then proceeds to rob the robbers and return the money to the authorities and so bagging 10% in the process! The movie ends with a wry scene where our hero observes a gang of new bandits through his telescopic lens as they prepare to ambush the gold shipment he protected earlier on. He couldn't be happier - another 10% deal looks imminent.
Leofwine_draca A TASTE OF KILLING is a low budget and generic spaghetti western made in the wake of the success of Sergio Leone's A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. It stars the square-jawed Craig Hill as a supremely confident bounty hunter who makes a living from bumping off bank robbers until some money-men come up with a new mission for him: to stop a planned heist BEFORE it takes place.This movie is undistinguished by genre standards although there isn't really anything to dislike about it. Director Tonino Valerii would later go on to helm stylish efforts like MY NAME IS NOBODY and A REASON TO LIVE, A REASON TO DIE and it's clear he was finding his feet with this, his first movie. The familiar faces of Spanish star Fernando Sancho and George Martin (as the baddie) appear, and watch out for Chinese actor George Wang cast as a Mexican.The plot and characters are rather typical for this genre and there are few twists to keep you occupied. However, the cinematography at least makes it look good, and the various action scenes are well handled. What I particularly liked was the lead's proficiency with his sniper rifle, which leads him to take down various enemies at various points throughout the movie. It's a nice little addition to an otherwise uneven outing that's only suitable for die-hard genre fans.
ma-cortes Spaghetti with Gazpacho Western full of noisy action , thrills , plot twists and shootouts . The movie contains typical particularities Spaghetti, as is full of fury, sadism , bloodbaths , and portentous close-ups of encrusted faces . The film blends violence , blood , tension , high body-count along with plots twists and it's fast moving and quite entertaining . This Spanish/Italian co-production results to be a very amusing Western about some roguish outlaws and a bounty hunter named Hank Fellows who attempt to rob a fortune from a safe . This fun film deals with a group of bandits (led by Fernando Sancho and Jose Canalejas) who are chasing a gold load , they then attack a military convoy and take 100.000 dollars . This Spaghetti Western concerns about robbing a valuable fortune contained into a bank stage coach and crossing from a desert to Omaha City Bank . But a dubious bounty hunter (Craig Hill) with a telescopic rifle reckoning the bandits . This is a surprisingly low-key Spaghetti Western in which diverse characters joining forces to protect the safe and others trying to rob a lot of money . The ambitious bounty hunter deals with bankers (Franco Ressell , Piero Lulli) who persuade him to accept double the reward money on his last job if he gets to insure the safe . Meanwhile , a gang led by Gus Kennebeck (Jorge Martin) who holds posters captioning ¨ Reward : Dead or alive¨ attempts to rob the Bank . Hank will prevent the threatened robbery taking place at the Omaha City Bank . Fellows seeks vengeance against Gus who long time ago killed his brother , being helped by a likable old man . There then occurs the Kennebeck son's kidnapping and he attempts to rescue him . Italian-Spanish co-production full of action , exaggerated characters, crossfire and lots of shots . The film packs violence , shootouts , high body-count and it's fast moving and quite entertaining . There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing some shoot'em up or stunts every few minutes . It's an exciting western with breathtaking showdown between the starring Craig Hill and his enemies , Jorge Martin and Fernando Sancho , among others . Furthermore , appears ordinary secondary of Spaghetti/Paella Western as Spanish players : Jose Luis Martin , Jose Canalejas , Frank Braña , Jose Marco , Lorenzo Robledo, as Italian actors : Piero Lulli , Franco Ressel , Rada Rassimov , George Wang playing a tough character as Machete and many others . Special appearance by Spaghetti idol , Fernando Sancho and Sancho Gracia film debut , who many years after would play another famous Spag :¨800 Bullets¨. Good production design creating an excellent scenario with luminous outdoors , dirty and rocky landscapes under a glimmer sun and a fine set on the Omaha town , including the Bank that is the same to ¨For a fistful of dollars more¨. Fine cinematography by Stelvio Massi , he subsequently turned filmmaker ; being filmed on location in Tabernas, Almería, Andalucía, Spain and Titanus Appia Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy (studio). Wonderful initial and ending song by Nino Fidenco who composes a marvelous and unforgettable musical score .This motion picture also titled ¨Taste of killing¨ ot ¨Per Il gusto di Uccidere¨ (original title) is well directed by Tonino Valeri who was Sergio Leone's assistant . Valeri managed to make a fluid , witty and agreeable SW . Tonino Valeri's so-so direction is well crafted, here he's less cynical and humorous and more inclined toward violence , lots of killings and too much action especially on its ending part . Valeri is an expert on Western as proved in ¨The hired gun ¨ , ¨A reason to live , a reason to die¨ with James Coburn and Telly Savalas , ¨The price of power ¨ with Giuliano Gemma and Van Heflin , ¨The day of anger ¨ with Lee van Cleef , Giuliano Gemma and his greatest success results to be ¨My name is nobody¨ , a classic Spaghetti produced by Sergio Leone with Henry Fonda and Terence Hill .
Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) Tonino Valerii's TASTE OF THE KILLING really is about as fine of a non-Leone spaghetti western as one can hope for. Craig Hill is very well suited for the role of a laconic, cynical and somewhat snarky bounty killer working one hell of a racket shadowing gold and currency shipments to and from various banks. Presuming holdups, he simply waits until one gang or another decides to make a grab for the loot, eliminates them, returns the shipment and collects a 10% commission on the return & cleans up on the inevitable bounty payments on the heads of the gang members. Beats working a day job.Things get interesting when his latest bounty gambit leads him into the town where the murderer of his brother (George Martin, unrecognizable in his makeup job) is leading the local pistolero gang who are waiting out a gold shipment they plan to hijack. Fat chance. Working with both the bank manager (Franco Ressel) and the owner of the local gold mine (Piero Lulli in a rare non-villain role), Craig Hill sets up a brilliant scam to insure his own protection of the shipment, wipe out the gang, clean up on the bounties, and follow the gold to it's next inevitable brush with another band of thieves who will inevitably have bounties on their heads, and start the whole thing all over again.The first hour or so is almost hypnotic in it's syncopation of dialog, action, cinema kinetics courtesy of genre regular Stelvio Massi, and a peppy, imaginative musical score by Nico Fidenco. If the surroundings look familiar to spaghetti western fans they should be, as the bulk of the film is set in & around Carlo Simi's leftover sets from FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, which were literally good enough for a whole bunch of movies. The screen is also populated by a familiar cast of spaghetti and genre film regulars too: Fernando Sancho, George Wang, José Canalejas, Frank Braña, José Manuel Martín.The film had also found a chance to see both of Leone's movies too, serving as a distillation of certain themes which the brilliant Valerii found useful. Hill's use of a rifle with a telescopic sight combines the finesse of Eastwood with the technically adept Van Cleef as the camera literally repeats certain shots made famous to young filmmakers the world over after Leone's first two movies had become a sensation. But this film adds some interesting twists, such as the local lawmen inflicting the standard spaghetti western sadistic torture interlude onto one of the bad guys for a change in a scene that only works to underscore the film's ambiguous morality. The only honest people in the film are the ones with something to lose, who depend upon Craig Hill's talents even though he's a cold blooded killer.To his credit Valerii tries to inject a bit of humanity into the play by having a subplot about George Martin's villain with a heart of gold who wants to start a family with his girlfriend and young son. And it's here that the script takes a bit of a misstep by muddying up the proceedings with plot, though it does make Martin's villain into a sympathetic character -- perhaps even more sympathetic than the hero, which was probably the point. Then there's the big action climax with dozens of extras riding around raising dust and shouting while people get picked off from all angles. It all gets to be a bit too much for a stretch, the film's tightly woven ball threatening to unravel. Valerii picks up the pieces nicely in time for a taut, ingeniously photographed showdown scene, the film amusingly ending where it began with Hill watching another gang set up another robbery and you can just see the dollar signs in his eyes. Nice.7/10
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