gavin6942 Wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, Minnesota Clay seeks revenge on the man who withheld evidence at his trial. There is a problem however; he is going blind.The most notable hing bout this film is that it happens to be a spaghetti western before "Django". That title is the essential film of the genre, and more to the point, comes from the same director. People more knowledgeable than myself could probably make style comparisons.In many respects, this is the same story that we see in westerns again and again: a good guy, a bad guy, and a town caught in the middle. The twist is that our hero is going blind, and I am not sure if this has been done in any other film before or since.

Lee Eisenberg Sergio Corbucci's "Minnesota Clay" puts a spin on the spaghetti western genre. Here the protagonist (Cameron Mitchell) is losing his sight as he escapes jail and seeks revenge on the man who wronged him. There's a lot of the stuff that we expect to see in spaghetti westerns. To be certain, Corbucci went on to direct "Django", which inspired Quentin Tarantino's 2012 homage. But the important point is that the European* westerns - depicting a gritty, dismal Old West - were a rejection of the John Wayne mold (which made the Old West look immaculate and wholesome). I suspect that "Minnesota Clay" was a fun movie to make.*It wasn't just western Europe that made westerns. The Eastern Bloc also made them. An example was "The Sons of Great Bear" from East Germany.

Woodyanders Noble, shrewd, and lethal ace gunslinger Minnesota Clay (an excellent and convincing performance by Cameron Mitchell) breaks out of a federal labor camp while serving time for a crime he didn't commit. He tracks down evil corrupt sheriff Fox (nicely played with smooth oily charm by Georges Riviere), who let Clay go to jail by withholding evidence that would have exonerated him at his trial. Moreover, Clay's gotta work fast to exact revenge on Fox because his eyesight is rapidly fading. Director Sergio Corbucci, who also co-wrote the absorbing script with Jose Gutierrez Maesso, relates the engrossing story at a steady pace, maintains a fairly gritty and serious tone throughout, and stages the stirring shoot outs with real skill and aplomb. Moreover, there's no sappy sentiment or disruptive silly humor to detract from the no-nonsense revenge premise. This film further benefits from sound acting from an able cast: Mitchell impresses as a sympathetic protagonist, Riviere makes for a deliciously mean and hateful villain, plus there are commendable contributions from the luscious Ethel Rojo as the sultry, fiery, and duplicitous Estella, Diana Martin as the sweet and fetching Nancy, Antonio Roso as affable, jocular young buck Andy, the always great Fernando Sancho in one of his trademark greasy bad guy parts as vile and grubby Mexican bandit leader General Ortiz, and Antonio Casas as Clay's loyal friend Jonathan. Jose F. Aguayo's sharp widescreen cinematography offers several graceful gliding tracking shots and plenty of lovely panoramic images of the dusty landscape. Piero Piccioni supplies a moody and effective score. The big climactic confrontation with a blind Clay using his hearing to pick off Fox and his flunkies is extremely tense, gripping, and thrilling. A worthwhile movie.

bensonmum2 Wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, Minnesota Clay (Cameron Mitchell) escapes to seek revenge against the man who refused to testify at his trial. He finds that his target, Fox (Georges Riviere), has made himself sheriff of Clay's hometown. Fox and his band of thugs run the town with an iron fist and generally terrorize the citizens. To make matters worse, Clay is slowly going blind. How can Clay ever hope to get his revenge if he can't see his target? Sergio Corbucci is one of my favorite Spaghetti Western directors. If it weren't for Sergio Leone, Corbucci might be remembered as the best director the genre ever produced. Some of his movies like Django, The Great Silence, Companeros, and The Hellbenders are among my favorites. Sadly, I cannot include Minnesota Clay on this list. It's an earlier example of the genre and it shows. The movie plays more like a traditional American Western that just happens to have been filmed in Europe. It lacks a lot of the over-the-top violence that I associate with the Spaghetti Western. While there are set-pieces I enjoy (like Clay's meeting with the Mexicans or any scene with Ethel Rojo), as a whole, it never draws me in the way Corbucci's other movies do.I've always been a big fan of Cameron Mitchell. He was more than capable of giving the kind of performance that should have been perfect for one of Corbucci's Spaghetti Westerns. But like most everything else in the movie, he comes across as far too restrained. It's too bad this movie wasn't made later in the Spaghetti Western cycle. I would have really enjoyed seeing Mitchell in a Django type film.