Movie Review: The Grand Duel

The Grand Duel (Il grande duello) a.k.a The Big Showdown a.k.a Storm Rider a.k.a Hell's Fighters 

Mount Street Film, Corona Filmproduktion, Terra-Filmkunst, Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie (SNC)Italy, West Germany, France, 1972. 

This movie can be found in Ten Thousand Ways to Die The Spaghetti Western Collection 12 Movie Pack by Mill Creek Entertainment. 

Murderer has escaped from jail and bounty hunters are after him. Bighorse's (Jess Hahn) stagecoach is stopped at road block. The passengers are snobbish undertaker Borghese (Gastone Pescucci), brothel keeper Madame Oro (Elvira Cortese) and her girl Anita (Alessandra Cardini), pretty Elisabeth (Dominique Darel) and a man with a black hat.  The last passenger coolly emerges from the stagecoach. It is Sheriff Clayton (Lee Van Cleef) who first humiliates the bounty hunters and then goes to have a drink and some cake. 

Bighorse and Madame Oro

Sheriff Clayton

Philipp Wermeer

The fugitive Philipp Wermeer (Alberto Dentice as Peter O'Brien) tries to escape jumping like an acrobat. He ends up in front of Clayton. Clayton asks Phillipp to surrender and then shoots him. The bounty hunters try to kill Clayton but Phillip is not dead! Phillipp escapes. Clayton the lets Phillipp to board the stagecoach. 

Philipp entertains the passengers

Elisabeth

They stop in Silver Bell station where innkeeper with toothache (Hans Terofal) welcomes them, he is quite funny character. Philipp is accused of killing Patriarch Saxon (Horst Frank). Patriarch was an evil man and hated by everyone. Philipp suspects that Saxon killed his father to get his silver mine. Also Clayton lost his Sheriff's star for defending Philipp. Clayton knows who the real murderer is. 

Silver Bell

Silver Bell innkeeper

Borghese, Madame Oro and Anita

Three sons of Saxon are ruling Saxon City like despots. First is sadistic Adam (Klaus Grünberg). Eli (Marc Mazza) is the new Sheriff. Third is power-hungry David (Horst Frank) who is smartest of the brothers. Clayton tries to find out who framed him. Also Clayton wants to get the real killer. Also Eli begins to have doubts about the official story. Still he wants Clayton killed.

Adam

Eli

David and his wife (Anna Maria Gherardi)

 The Saxon brothers become more brutal and Adam's bride Elisabeth begins to defend Philipp. Finally the story culminates in the title event.

Philipp and Clayton negotiate

The music by Luis Bacalov and Sergio Bardotti is great. This version is presented in wide screen format. The characters are colourful and Lee Van Cleef is cool as ever. Of the three brothers Klaus Grünberg character is the most memorable as scarf-wearing psycho. The story is quite complicated with mystery elements. The first half is lighter with some comedic reliefs, but the story gets much darker in Saxon City, with some brutal massacres. Giancarlo Santi the assistant director of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," does a good work for making a Leone style western. This is one of the better later Spaghetti westerns.

Listen the epic theme here:

Rating: Very good

Starring: Lee Van Cleef, Alberto Dentice (as Peter O'Brien), Jess Hahn, Horst Frank, Klaus Grünberg, Antonio Casale, Marc Mazza, Dominique Darel, Alessandra Cardini, Gastone Pescucci, Elvira Cortese, Anna Maria Gherardi, Hans Terofal, Salvatore Baccaro, Remo Capitani, Memè Perlini, Piergiorgio Plebani, Giancarlo Badessi, Luigi Antonio Guerra, Maria Teresa Piaggio, Vittorio Sancisi, Franco Balducci, Giovanni Filidoro, Giovanni Cianfriglia, Michelangelo Mastroni, Angelo Susani, Gianni Di Segni, Clemente Cipriano, Luigi Masironi, Mimmo Rizzo, Giorgio Trestini, Furio Meniconi, Luigi Scavran, Bob Clark, Franco Fantasia, Ottorino Polentini 

Director: Giancarlo Santi