Something's rotten in the state of Texas

Recently - well, okay, quite some time ago now that I think I about it - I picked up a German DVD of the spaghetti western QUELLA SPORCA STORIA NEL WEST. I've no idea why the Germans love their spaghetti westerns so much, but they must do because they release a hell of a lot more there than they do here in the UK.

I've mentioned before that spaghetti western storylines only ever fall into one of three categories - they're about greed, revenge or both. This one concerns both. There's something a little more interesting than usual about this particular storyline though.

The hero of the film (Andrea Giordana) returns home one day after a lengthy period of absence to discover that his dad is dead and his mother has married his uncle. If that sounds a little familiar, you should also know that the hero's name is Hamilton; his girlfriend ends up dead in a river; he lives on a ranch named Ellsinore; and yes, at one point, he does end up having a chat with a gravedigger. And did I mention that the film was released under the title JOHNNY HAMLET?

Yes, that's right, in case you'd forgotten when I mentioned it previously; it's the story of old Bill Shakespeare's Hamlet, but as a spaghetti western. Admit it, you're sold already.

The idea for the movie came from Sergio Corbucci, possibly the only director to rival Leone for the impact he had on Italian westerns, having directed the classics DJANGO, THE GREAT SILENCE, COMPANEROS and THE HELLBENDERS (among others). However, while there are some Corbucci-style touches (a nasty injury at the end of the film reflects the mean-spirited flavour of most of Corbucci's efforts), the film was directed by another legend of cult Italian cinema, Enzo Castellari.

While there were a lot of hacks specialising in genre cinema in Italy in the 60s and 70s, Castellari was not one of them. Despite often working with limited budgets, his passion and talent for visuals always elevated his efforts, whether he was working in westerns, crime thrillers or even my beloved post-apocalyptic MAD MAX rip-offs. JOHNNY HAMLET is no different, and serves Castellari with plenty of opportunity to make his mark on the story.

The film's lighting, sets, location work and cinematography are all first rate, and one of Castellari's most striking scenes sees a swirling camera twist its way around our hero as he delivers a Shakespeare-style soliloquy in an underground graveyard. Touches like this, combined with Castellari's brilliance at squeezing impressive action set pieces out of minimal budgets make JOHNNY HAMLET a film to remember.

The idea of remaking classic works as spaghetti westerns wasn't exclusive to this production - Leone's A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS was a shameless rip-off of Kurosawa's YOJIMBO, the story of Carmen supplied the inspiration for MAN, PRIDE AND VENGEANCE and, in one of the oddest ideas, the assassination of JFK was retold as a western in THE PRICE OF POWER. JOHNNY HAMLET remains one of the finest examples though, and one of the most faithful to its source. And, just in case you missed it, there's a "subtle" nod to the source material when a travelling band of actors turn up in town performing Hamlet.

The only aspect of the story where this film steers slightly away from the original play is with the finale. The whole "the play is the thing" idea is brushed aside, at least literally, and instead the bad guy is dispatched in a more traditional way - the good old-fashioned shoot-out.

On closer inspection however, it's possibly not as far from Shakespeare's vision as it might appear. As Johnny lures his uncle to his fate using a trail of gold dust, the villain is undone by greed in much the same way as Hamlet's uncle was undone by his own guilt. I hope I've not spoiled the ending for you - I'm assuming most of you were probably forced to read the play at school anyway. But heck, I bet you never surfed into the Freakpit today expecting me to be talking about Shakespeare though, did you?

Sure, the purists might argue that this isn't faithful to Hamlet or that it's a bastardisation of the great bard's work, or something like that. Nonsense. The only reason Hamlet didn't play out like this is because William Shakespeare (overrated by the way) was unfortunately born too early to have seen a spaghetti western.

If he had seen them, I'm sure Bill would admit that having a couple of sweaty men staring at each other sternly then shooting it out to the death is a far better ending than some nonsense about poisoning each other. JOHNNY HAMLET is Shakespeare as I'm sure the bard intended it to be seen!