"Actor: Benito Stefanelli"

• For A Few Dollars More | DVD | (07/02/2000) from £10.20   |  Saving you £5.79 (56.76%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Clint Eastwood had proven so successful in his first foray into European Westerns with A Fistful Of Dollars that a follow up sequel was inevitable. Superbly scripted by Luciano Vincenzoni featuring an unforgettable alliance between ruthless gun-slingers Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef. For A Few Dollars More tells the tale of a ruthless quest to track down the notorious bandit El Indio played by Gian Maria Volonte. The film is also noted for its array of weaponry a veritable arsenal of rifles that became so operatic and Ennio Morricone's atmospheric score keeps the tension taut as the action moves from Jail breaks and hold ups to spectacular gun battles.

• A Fistful Of Dollars | DVD | (09/08/2005) from £8.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (128.76%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This is the movie that launched the spaghetti Western and catapulted Clint Eastwood to stardom. Before director Sergio Leone picked him out, Clint had played only a few bit parts in features plus his role as Rowdy Yates in the TV Western series Rawhide. Leone cast him for his stillness and physical presence, famously remarking that when Michelangelo was asked what he had seen in a particular block of marble, he said Moses, but that what he, Leone, saw in Eastwood was just that, a block of marble. Leone also claimed that it was he who gave the character his trademark cigar and poncho, though Eastwood has said he brought his own wardrobe to Italy. Whoever takes credit, A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari in Italian) was an extraordinary success when launched in Italy in 1964. Eastwood had to wait longer for it to be a hit in the USA. The film was based on Kurosawa's 1961 samurai picture Yojimbo, but Leone had forgotten to clear the copyright. Eventually a deal was done, but A Fistful of Dollars was not released in the USA until 1967. It scored an equally resounding success, as did its sequels in the Dollar Trilogy, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The advertising campaign promoted Eastwood's character, laconic, amoral, dangerous, as The Man with No Name (though in the film he's clearly referred to as Joe), and audiences loved the film's refreshing new take on the Western genre. Gone are the pieties about making the streets safe for women and children (women are virtually absent from the Trilogy). Instead it's every man for himself. Striking too was a new emphasis on violence, with stylised, almost balletic gunfights and baroque touches such as Eastwood's armoured breastplate. The popularity of the Dollars films had a marked influence on the Hollywood Western, for example Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, but its most enduring legacy is Clint Eastwood himself, still in action at the age of 70. --Edward Buscombe

• For a Few Dollars More | Blu Ray | (31/05/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Pit and the Pendulum (1990) | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £9.99   |  Saving you £-4.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A grand inquisitor leads a religious campaign of torture and violence. A woman becomes caught up in the madness when he becomes smitten by her beauty.

• FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1967) - FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1967) (1 Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (22/05/2018) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Pit And The Pendulum | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £14.49   |  Saving you £-8.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  In this twisted quest to save souls Grand Inquisitor Torquemada (Lance Henriksen - Aliens Near Dark) leads a bloody reign of terror torturing and killing in the name of religion. His evil knows no boundaries. Caught in this insane cruelty is Maria (Rona De Ricci) whose beauty leads Torquemada into temptation and brutal atonement.Imprisoned Maria and her husband Antonio (Jonathan Fuller) are befriended by Esmerelda (Frances Bay) a confessed witch. Together they struggle to save themselves from the sinister Torquemada and his machine of ultimate pain and torture - THE PIT & THE PENDULUM.Featuring Oliver Reed as the Cardinal and Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator) in a darkly comic performance as the scribe.A bizarre descent into hell form the creator of Re-Animator.Featuring Oliver Reed as the Cardinal and Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator) in a darkly comic performance as the scribe.A BIZZARE DESCENT INTO HELL FROM THE CREATOR OF RE-ANIMATOR...

• W Django! | DVD | (26/09/2005) from £8.93   |  Saving you £0.05 (0.84%)   |  RRP £5.99

  If Corbucci's 'Django' (1966) is a cult in the United States - especially for its title track covered by many - this sequel is not as well known but it adds its own contribution to the Spaghetti Western genre for its incredible ensemble of stereotypes beginning with Django as the avenger and his Mexican Carranza sidekick and ending with the dirty rotten bandits. Here Django tries to avenge his wife's death caused by the usual gang of outlaws. Will he succeed? What do you think? Get this cult masterpiece for a popcorn filled night of trash dementia.