django the bastard the chairmain who saw her die

It's hard to keep a good Django down...or even a dead one, for that matter. Director Sergio Garrone's 1969 film might not be a direct sequel to the Franco Nero classic, but it's still better than almost anything else the character's name has been slapped onto, including Tarantino's re-imagining. Drifting into town like a vengeful spirit, which he just might be, Django (Anthony Steffen) hunts down the men responsible for abandoning their posts during a military attack.

The opening sequence, shot with the stylized atmosphere of a horror film, sets expectations high. And even if the rest of Garrone's film can't match it, Django the Bastard is still well above the spaghetti western curve. Steffen's deadpan performance (he also co-wrote the script) is perfect here and manages to never spoil the surprise his character's supernatural origin. In that respect, the film is an obvious influence on Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter...all it's missing is a little red paint.

Synapse Films' Blu-ray release is derived from a new 2K scan from original 35mm negative elements and it looks terrific. Extras include an audio commentary from film historian Troy Howarth who gives his all to track down info on this rather unheralded gem.

In 1969, there was a new fella wearing James Bond's tux for the first time. But Ian Fleming's creation had been spoofed and emulated for years already, just waiting for someone take on the mantle of superspy supreme. Although The Chairman has higher ambitions than simply introducing Gregory Peck as a "thinking man's" 007, you can bet the producers wouldn't have been disappointed if that's how things had turned out either!

Sent into communist China to recover a rare enzyme with the potential to feed the world, what scientist John Hathaway doesn't know is that he's been outfitted with an explosive device in his skull to be used if the mission goes awry. That sets up a couple of suspenseful scenes that elevate director J. Lee Thompson's film into something more than the In Like Flint series, which took a much lighter approach to international espionage. But for every moment The Chairman seems to be taking things seriously, it sabotages itself with shoehorned dialogue (Gregory Peck shouldn't be asked to pull of '60s slang) and obvious corny Bond-isms. Nobody does it better...indeed.

Twilight Time's 3000-copy limited edition Blu-ray presents the film very well with an isolated music track, audio commentary, alternate "racy" scene from the international version, trailer and a mini-film version that chops up the highlights.