A Long Ride from Hell (Vivo per la tua Morte)
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More famous for playing the muscle bound Greek hero Hercules, Steve Reeves final film before he retired was A Long Ride From Hell, Apparently according to the world wide web of lies and half un-truths Reeves was originally offered the man with no name role before Clint, but scoffed at the idea that the Italians could make a western.DOHHH. Also rumour has it ,he was offered James Bond role for Dr No,but turned it down due to not being offered enough money, whether it was true or not, both franchises would of been extremely different to say the least.((do not blame me if these facts are not true ,society is to blame). A Long Ride from Hell which for its German DVD release has been given the Django moniker, no doubt done to jump on the Django Unchained band wagon a few years ago, where it seemed every spaghetti western pot boiler was re-released and given the name Django. The plot is as light weight as a paper house, some guff about Reeves cattle being stolen,so him and his younger brother Ivan Scratuglia as Roy Sturges,go looking for the thieves, then get accused of being mixed up with a train robbery,and get sentenced and sent to Yuma State Penitentiary. Yeah you guessed it Reeves escapes prison and sets out to get revenge on those who have wronged him. For me i am so use to a seeing a certain style of film making, whether it be Leone or Sergio Corbucci,that anything else pales into comparison, and while its work man like direction from Camillo Bazzoni is pretty good, he has none of the style or flare of any of the previous spaghetti westerns, in fact it is so generic looking it could of been filmed any where.Steve Reeves who obviously looks ripped when he takes his shirt off,as he does in the rock breaking scene, is no Eastwood or Franco Nero,but he can do the quiet squinting into the middle distance while looking mean and moody as good as anyone else. Its a shame Reeves retired from film making after this,as he does have some noticeable screen presence but I don't think he was suited to the western genre,maybe a spy perhaps??