User Reviews

This is a very entertaining SW from Giovanni Fago and the prolific western and horror screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi. Fago had collaborated with Gastaldi before on Vengeance Is Mine (1967) and the next year would direct the Tomas Milian vehicle O Cagnaciero!, which points back to the influence on the SW of the Brazilian film Black God White Devil (1964).

A buddy film, the light slapstick of the first half of the film plays well as the rather effeminate gunfighter Johnny King (George Hilton) runs through a number of dangerous situations with a sarcastic grin, fighting off land speculators, sleeping with the sheriff's flame, participating in a barroom fight in drag, in a knock-down drag-out fight in a jail cell, escaping from jail and then concocting an absurd but successful plan to rob a bank. During all this he meets Meredith (played by Paolo Gozlino), a rough but incompetent bandit who meets with surprising success when matched with the clever King.

The comedy darkens, though, when King returns to town after the bank heist to find his former guardian Pastor Steve killed by the land speculators. Then ensues the plot for revenge, which involves absurd methods of murder and torture and a final gunfight reminiscent of the finale to Taste For Killing. King gives up ruffles for black (he had trained in seminary, he claimed at one point) and begins quoting passages from the Bible.

Gerard Hertar is his usual sinister best as the sharp shooting Ernest Ward. He would play a similar role in the riotous Adios Sabata (1970). In the world of the SW, wealthy landowners indulge in the Sadean pleasures of target practice at live targets, almost always human. Besides Adios Sabata and Full House For The Devil, you find similar scenes in Django and The Fighting Fist Of Shanghai Joe.

The film follows the usual SW plot of an arrogant character that takes on more than he can handle, is humbled (beaten, shot, burnt, hung, crucified) before he either changes certain elements of his character or learns the secret (the iron plate in Fistful Of Dollars) necessary to ultimately succeed. Ernesto Gastaldi isolated this basic storyline in most of his westerns and used to again in this film.

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"To Hell and Back" is an average Western being proceeded in Spaghetti style more than American . It's a disconcerting film with all the ingredients as action , brawls , crossfire , hot pursuits , the typical confrontation between good guys against bad guys and resulting to be entertaining but in low quality . Including violent shoot'em up , tortures as well as brawls and fights with plenty of bounds , leaps and kick-ass . Fast-draw Johnny King (George Hilton) , a brave gunfighter , sets out to revenge the death of his mentor and friend , after he has been killed for his land by the three Ward Brothers . As the tough gunslinger called King arrives in a little town , he seeks justice and vengeance and becomes involved in an intrigue that deals with several murders . King is detained accused for killing and he is locked in prison where he meets Meredith ; both of whom escape and subsequently to carry out a bank robbery . The rebellious drifter King helped by his partner Meredith (as Paul Stevensor Paolo Gozlino) attempt to find out the real culprit on the Pastor Steve's (Pietro Tordi) murder . Then , a new sheriff is appointed and there occurs a string of killings , shootouts and gun-plays . After causing some trouble for the Wards (Paul Muller , Gerard Herter) , Johnny faces a new opponent , his outlaw friend , Meredith . Meanwhile , King saves the beautiful damsel in distress called Liz (Claudie Lange) and falls for her . At the end , it happens the predictable gun-down between king and enemies in Sergio Leone style .

An exciting western that packs a story full of violence , amazing close-ups , thrills , fights , killings , horse pursuits , middling realization , ordinary zooms , and so-so interpretations abound and at the final happens the ultimate moving confrontation . The picture starts in comical and ironical style , in Terence Hill/Bud Spencer's similar ways , including the ordinary punches , kick-asses , and slaps ; however , a bit later on , it changes and turns into a violent and dark yarn . Acceptable action sequences with rousing gun-play , spectacular shootouts , poor scenarios and glimmer go riding throughout mountains and cliffs from Almeria , Spain . The picture allows for periods of humor and comic relief , and calm in which to establish characters punctuated by viscerally exciting bursts of action . It stars the Spaghetti thespian Goerge Hilton who was born on July 16, 1934 in Montevideo, Uruguay as Jorge Hill Acosta y Lara and was the first actor to battle wits as a Police Inspector against Sadistik in the photo novels as the intrepid Inspector Grant . He starred several Giallos as ¨Day of the maniac¨, ¨The next victim¨, ¨The scorpion's tail¨ , ¨Blade the ripper¨ and , especially Spaghetti as ¨Guns for dollars¨, ¨Bullet for Sandoval¨ , ¨Dead for a dollar¨, ¨The ruthless four¨, ¨Sartana's here trade your pistol for a coffin¨ , and ¨Any gun can play¨. His pal turns out to be Paolo Gozlino or Paul Stevens who also performed a lot of Pasta western . Co-stars Claudie Lange and brief appearance Krista Nell , two Eurotrash actress , usual in sexy comedies . Other secondaries and familiar faces from Spaghetti Western are the followings : Carlo Gaddi , Paul Muller , Goffredo Unger and Gerard Herter , of course.

Atmospheric cinematography by Antonio Borghesi in Eastmancolor , Cromoscope , being necessary a perfect remastering because of the film-copy is washed-out. Shot on location in Almeria , Spain , as usual , and in Elios and Cinecitta studios . Good musical score Composed by Nico Fidenco , including catching songs at the beginning and ending sung by Edda Dell'Orso and Orchestra conducted by Gianni Dell'Orso and Choir conducted by Nora Orlandi . This ¨Uno di più all'inferno" (original title) or "Full House for the Devil" ¨(USA title) or "One More to Hell" was regularly directed by Giovanni Fago under pseudonym Sidney Lean . He directed all kinds of genres as a crime flick titled "Kidnap" , Drama as "On the Beach Beyond the Pier" and Spaghetti as ¨O' Cangaceiro¨ and ¨Per 100.000 Dollari T'Ammazzo¨ .

I had hopes for this movie, given my love of spaghetti westerns and the fact that George Hilton was the star. But at the end, I kind of felt let down. There are some good things here and there - for example, the opening sequence is kind of original, and the climax has some cool touches. But in between that opening and ending, I found the movie kind of boring at times. The basic plot has a number of familiar characters and plot turns, but I could have lived with that had they been treated with energy and displayed in an original manner. But the treatment is kind of strange, with some broad comic touches that don't really fit with the rougher sections, and the story turning to a major detour for a long time after things have been set up. Other problems include that the main villain isn't given enough screen time, not enough action to liven things up, and poor photography. Not the worst spaghetti western I've seen, but even genre fans would be better off not seeking it out.

Gérard Herter wants to buy Pietro Tordi's land and he sends his brother (Paul Muller) out to harass him. But rambunctious gunslinger George Hilton protects Tordi and drives them away. So they use local marshal Aldo Cecconi to frame Hilton for murder and chuck him in jail. There he meets bandit Paolo Gozlino and they escape together.

Hilton teams up with Gozlino to rob a bank, but while he's off doing that, Tordi is murdered. Hilton returns and causes trouble for Herter, so he hires a gunslinger to take care of him ... Gozlino.

This is pretty cool spaghetti western. It's a bit looses and ramshackle, but all the various parts of it are fun and some parts are pretty wonderful:

Hilton insists that the bank robbery must be done without shooting anyone, so they smuggle him inside the bank inside a chest of guns so he can emerge at night and rob the place.

Herter's gimmick is that he's very good with a scoped rifle (he's introduced shooting watermelon's off the heads of Mexicans), so he ties Hilton to a big man-shaped target and keeps shooting it, making it spin round and round. Herter's death is ... magnificent.