They Call Me Hallelujah (1971)

a.k.a. - Testa t'ammazzo, croce... sei morto... Mi chiamano Alleluja (ITA), Man nennt mich Halleluja (GER)

George Hilton is the bounty-hunting Halleluja in this comic Spaghetti Western. German R2 DVD from the Halleluja Boxset.
 

The Film

In a Mexican border town, the officials working for Emperor Maximillian line up a number of suspects for execution, including the self proclaimed revolutionary Gen. Emiliano Ramirez, however they are saved from the army's bullets by the machine gun toting Allelujah (George Hilton). After sucessfully liberating the town of Maximillian's men, Ramirez dispatches Allelujah to intercept a coachload of the Emperor's men, carrying jewels to a gun dealer in the United States to trade for machine guns - Ramirez wants the jewels so he can buy the guns for himself. However, when the emperor's men are tricked and killed off by another gang, Halleluja has to liberate the jewel bag from them. Finding only fakes inside, head is lead into a long search to find the originals, but he is not alone in wanting them, and some people are not what they seem...

By the 1970s, Spaghetti Westerns were increasingly turning to comedy; although the genre had often been lighthearted, it was films like Lo Chiamavano Trinità (1970) that saw pure comic Westerns coming to the table, often forfeiting storyline and characterisation for cheap laughs. Fortunately They Call me Halleluja doesn't descent too far into simple slapstick territory, but does suffer from a rather mixed up storyline - the various groups of bandits spend most of the film tricking and holding each other up, with various other characters, including a Nun and a Cossack, cropping up later on to confuse matters further. It is genuinely funny throughout but unfortunately the rather piecemeal plot gets quite tedious after a while, and the film starts to drag after the hour mark. The conclusion sees a typically big gunfight, but like many genre entries, it is goes on a little too long after the climax.

Director Anthony Ascott (Giuliano Carnimeo) was one of the more talented genre directors, and shows off some very good camera work here, with point-of-view shots, interesting angles and smart use of the zoom lens, that combined with the solid production design, makes the film look superb. Occasional genre composer
Stelvio Cipriani provides a solid soundtrack.

George Hilton is best known for his Giallo films, but made twenty-one Spaghetti Westerns and in the 1970s played a variety of comedy characters. He gives a fitting performance here, considering the script, a rather absurdly cocky and always unpeterbed figure. General Ramirez is played by Spanish character actor Roberto Camardiel who played in a variety of genre films (including Django Kill... If you Live Shoot (1967)), while the mysterious Cossack is played with style by the little known American actor Charles Southwood (the titular Winchester Jack in Mario Bava's 1973 Euro-Western). There is a long list of familiar faces in the rest of the cast and good acting all round.

Needing some fine tuning on the script and editing fronts, They Call me Hallelujah remains an enjoyable genre entry, thanks to a great performance from George Hilton, and some solid direction throughout. Partly recommended to all genre fans, and certainly of interest to those who enjoy George Hilton, or the more comic Spaghetti Westerns.
 

In brief:

Anyone famous in it? George Hilton - a popular euro-cult star who starred in the early Euro-Western Tempo di Massacro (1966)
Directed by anyone interesting? Giuliano Carnimeo - better known as Anthony Ascott who directed a number of Spaghetti Westerns, including Sono Sartana, il vostro Becchino (1969) and the popular giallo The Case of the Bloody Iris (1972)
Any gore/violence? Lots of Western violence, nothing very bloody.
Any sex? No
Who is it for?
One for the fans of George Hilton, or the more comic Spaghetti Westerns.
Good soundtrack? An effective score from Stelvio Cipriani (included on the soundtrack DVD in this boxset)

The DVD

Visuals Original Aspect Ratio  - 2.35:1. Anamorphically Enhanced. Colour
The picture quality is decent with noticable grain and some print damage (a few scenes also look quite soft), but generally strong and more than watchable.
Audio Original German and Italian mono tracks, both sound strong but there are occasional moments of lower quality.
Subtitles German (for the Italian track).
English (translates the Italian) - good, with only a few minor spelling errors.
Extras The disc features:
  • 8mm print of the film - German language and running to 35 minutes - it is an interesting chance to see how films were watched before home video. The source print is, as expected, of very low quality, but no worse than some PD DVDs
  • Original Italian and German theatrical trailers, both in anamorphic widescreen. 3 minutes each.
  • A lengthy manually scrolling poster, lobby card, press booklet and stills gallery.
Note: A documentary about director Anthony Ascott including an interview with George Hilton is available on another disc in the boxset. The soundtrack to this film is available on the audio-CD included in the set.
AvailabilityDVD Title: Man nennt mich Halleluja
This disc is only available as part of the Halleluja Italo-Western Box.
Region Region 2 - PAL
Other regions? Also available on a Japanese disc with English audio, but not an anamorphic print.
Cuts? Believed to be fully uncut. Print used is Italian language.

Summary

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All text in this review written by Timothy Young - 8th July 2007.
Text from this review not to be used without authorization.

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