cinema history class: the masked thief (1971)

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Session: Masked Men, Both Good and Evil (week 3)
Movie: The Masked Thief (1971)
Directed by Mario Bianchi

Plot:

A masked thief is robbing people. Meanwhile, the local sheriff looks suspiciously like a rapist. Spaghetti ensues.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

Ethan had it right when he noted that this seemed strongly influenced by giallos. The costuming, the prevalence of knives as weapons, the masked killer, the slow-motion death scene -- all of those elements are giallo elements. And I suppose he would have liked this a lot less than he did if not for those elements. For me, I was missing what I like best about spaghetti westerns -- the ambiguous hero who isn;t really a good guy.

Actually, As the first action sequence was getting set up, I thought we were going to have that conflicted, ambiguous hero. The setup reminded me of the opening of 1966's Django. In that ealier film, the hero comes upon a scene of criminals whipping a woman. He watches briefly before intervening, rescuing her. The opening here looked similar. a stagecoach is being robbed, and the action is being watched by a mysterious black-clad figure. He grins maniacally as he watches the events unfold. Then, when he's seen enough he gets involved. For a moment I thought he was going to kill the thieves, saving the stage passengers. But instead he shoots one of the passengers, proving to be partnered with the thieves.

While that scene surprised me, it got things off to a great start. Craig Hill did a great job in a dual role, playing twins who had taken very different paths in life. As Cassidy, he was wonderfully manic, which was a sharp contrast to his serious demeanor when he was Sheriff Hill. He was wonderful with the little affectations that differentiated the two, though it also helped him that the two had different voice actors dubbing their dialog.

I do have to note one thing that really annoyed me about this movie, though. Four years pass between the aforementioned robbery and the subsequent events. When we jump from scene to scene, there is nothing done to indicate that passage of time. We have to kind of just figure it out from some of the dialog that came later. Keith noted that this, being a spaghetti western, it's possible that the time issue was handled better in the original script than in the final English dub. Still and all, it irked me.

The Masked Thief is a fun movie, made more enjoyable by the Craig Hill -- who was much more charismatic than the leading men in the prior two films. Still and all, not one of my favorites.

Other Interesting Tidbits:

The Masked Thief is better known by another title: In the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Colt. In many ways I like the longer title better, as it's less generic. The problem with it is that it really has nothing to do with the actual movie.

Ratings

Me: 8.25

Bob-O: 9

Dave: 9.3

Ethan: 8

Joe 9.5

Cats: No cats. But lots of horses.