day of anger

There are literally hundreds of Italian westerns still waiting for release on any home video format; most of them copycat productions that haven’t aged quite as well as the films of Leone, Corbucci and Sollima (the unofficial “holy trinity” of the Spaghetti Western genre). So one must approach any new title with a certain amount of trepidation, relying on the taste of cult film labels to pick the cream of the remaining crop. And Arrow Video USA nailed it right out of the gate with their first North American Blu-ray debut, Day of Anger (1967).

Directed by Tonino Valerii, Leone’s early assistant director and co-director on 1973’s My Name is Nobody, the film falls into the “tutorship variation” narrative, with Lee Van Cleef as aging quickdraw artist Frank Talby who arrives in the small town of Clifton looking for a place to retire in comfort. But men like Talby aren’t able to hang up their guns easily, so he trains a lowly street sweeper, Scott Mary (Giuliano Gemma) to be his right hand man. By means of blackmail, threats, and intimidation the two of them manage to outwit most of the town’s corrupt power players and soon Scott is living like a king in the town where he once emptied the toilets.

But Talby’s help comes with a price, as another has-been gunslinger warns. And Scott soon begins to suspect that his days as a glorified bodyguard will end the same as it does for most men who live by the gun: badly.

On the surface, Day of Anger is no different from any other dusty gunslinger fable. Van Cleef squints and struts his way through another solid performance, doling out lessons to his eager understudy about what it takes to survive and how to stay on top. The film presents the same series of duels, double-crosses and quick deaths we’ve seen countless time before. But mid-film, it develops into something more tragic than just another predictable time-waster.

Scott Mary’s epiphany might come out of left field, but once he realizes (and the audience along with him) that the elaborate training was just a set-up, the film finds some unexpected depth, making the final showdown not unlike the classic confrontation between John Wayne and Montgomery Clift at the end of Red River. Van Cleef’s cool demeanor is used for maximum effect here. So much so that Gemma is more than a little outclassed (one could imagine a much more affecting film with someone like Tomas Milian in the role). But once Day of Anger finds it creative groove, it competes quite favorably with the best the genre has to offer.

A big name in the cult / classic home video arena outside the U.S., Arrow Video has finally entered the North American market in commanding style. Day of Anger looks terrific in hi-def, presented in its international version (English only) along with a longer Italian cut (English and Italian with subtitles). For anyone who forked over their hard-earned cash for various import releases over the years, this what you’ve been waiting for! Extras include two short interviews with Valerii and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, plus a longer (44-min) sit-down with Italian cinema expert Roberto Curti (which essentially excuses the lack of a commentary track). Trailers and a single deleted scene culled from the international version wrap things up.