The last disc of Ten Thousand Ways To Die - The Spaghetti Western Collection has 4 more movies and no matter how you add it up the dozen movies on the set don't have anywhere near 10,000 ways to die. Mostly they just get shot. Oh well. It's what is to be expected from Mill Creek Entertainment. The quality of these films is good to poor. MCE isn't a company known for the quality of their products. There's just a lot of stuff in each set. At least this set has only four movies per disc, the discs are single layer and dual sided, there are 2 movies per side. Single layer discs give two movies more bytes, as opposed to putting 4 movies on a dual layer disc which has about a gigabyte less space than the single layer dual sided disc. Some of their current offerings have 5 movies on a dual layer disc. Mind you I still buy these DVD sets when I see them on clearance. It's often the only way to get some of these films.
Beyond The Law 1968 Turns out I had seen this one too. Back in 2010 I had watched a MCE set of Italian Westerns and this was one of 4 or 5 films in this set that were on that set. Mill Creek sure does re-issue the same films often. Lee Van Cleef is a gunslinger that wants to go straight. He gets a job as a sheriff in a town. His old gang thinks they can use him as a cover for their criminal activities but that won't work out for them so well. Lionel Stander, Gordon Mitchell and Bud Spenser co-star. Best film on the disc but barely above average.
The Great Adventure 1975 Jack Palance and Joan Collins are the big stars in this one. They aren't the main characters, it's that kid and his dog. He gets orphaned and him and his sister hook up with a couple of nice trappers. They wind up in a town where Jack runs the saloon, and lords over the town, and Joan is a dance hall girl. Things get worse before Jack lies in the dirt, a slug in him. It's got a poor script and nothing much else is better. Not worth watching once. They have the film on YouTube but they are asking $1.99 to see it. I didn't pay that for the whole 12 movie set and I couldn't recommend anyone bother with this film.
His Name Was King 1971 Klaus Kinski is a bounty hunter. He kills a guy and the guy's brother kills Klaus's brother and rapes the sister-in-law. Klaus goes on a revenge trip but winds up getting used by a government agent to catch another crooked guy. It's only so-so.
Jesse And Lester 1972 Jesse is a crook and Lester is a Mormon. Estranged half brothers they are drawn together because of an inheritance. It's the worst looking film in the bunch. The transfer is probably from an old tape. Mill Creek doesn't much care, it's bulk before quality. Besides the poor quality of the film there's a so-so script. Not one worth bothering with.
All done with that set now, not a great set, certainly not for more than a couple of bucks. It's nice that the Italians liked the American Western so much that they continued to make them after Hollywood cut back production on their own oaters, it's just too bad that the Italians were so poor at it. Not every film is as poor as many of these are, there are some great Italian Westerns. Some films had better budgets and better film makers at the helm. Clint Eastwood's Dollar series is worth seeing and Once Upon A Time In The West is out and out brilliant. You can't go wrong with the original Django and the Trinity films, with Terrance Hill and Bud Spenser, are worth a look. After that, your guess is as good as mine.
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