Taste of Killing

1966
Taste of Killing
5.9| 1h27m| en| More Info
Released: 06 August 1966 Released
Producted By: Hercules Cinematografica
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Lanky Fellow has a typical cynical SW like way to earn his living. He observes valuable transports of money or gold, but when they are robbed he doesn't intervene, but follows the robbers and then brings the loot back to collect the insurance. When his "job" brings him in conflict with the notorious outlaw Gus Kenneback, he has personal reasons to protect the money as Kenneback was once responsible for the death of Lanky's brother.

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Red-Barracuda This above average spaghetti western focuses on a bounty hunter who is hired by bankers in a small town to protect their cachet of gold against a predicted heist by Mexican bandits.The director here was Tonino Valerii who was assistant director to Sergio Leone in his first two classic westerns, A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For A Few Dollars More (1965). He then went it alone himself as a director making very good efforts such as Day of Anger (1967), A Taste of Killing was his debut as director and while it isn't quite as good, it is still definitely an impressive effort and better than most in its sub-genre. It benefits from a good turn from Craig Hill in the central role as the bounty hunter. He has unusual vulnerabilities such as the fact he can't read but he also has the more typical spaghetti western trait in that he is in possession of an unusual weapon, in this case a sniper rifle with telescopic sight. He is a nicely amoral central character who waits for robberies to happen and then proceeds to rob the robbers and return the money to the authorities and so bagging 10% in the process! The movie ends with a wry scene where our hero observes a gang of new bandits through his telescopic lens as they prepare to ambush the gold shipment he protected earlier on. He couldn't be happier - another 10% deal looks imminent.
Leofwine_draca A TASTE OF KILLING is a low budget and generic spaghetti western made in the wake of the success of Sergio Leone's A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. It stars the square-jawed Craig Hill as a supremely confident bounty hunter who makes a living from bumping off bank robbers until some money-men come up with a new mission for him: to stop a planned heist BEFORE it takes place.This movie is undistinguished by genre standards although there isn't really anything to dislike about it. Director Tonino Valerii would later go on to helm stylish efforts like MY NAME IS NOBODY and A REASON TO LIVE, A REASON TO DIE and it's clear he was finding his feet with this, his first movie. The familiar faces of Spanish star Fernando Sancho and George Martin (as the baddie) appear, and watch out for Chinese actor George Wang cast as a Mexican.The plot and characters are rather typical for this genre and there are few twists to keep you occupied. However, the cinematography at least makes it look good, and the various action scenes are well handled. What I particularly liked was the lead's proficiency with his sniper rifle, which leads him to take down various enemies at various points throughout the movie. It's a nice little addition to an otherwise uneven outing that's only suitable for die-hard genre fans.
FightingWesterner Bounty Killer Craig Hill follows monetary shipments and rescues the money after they're robbed. After a typical job, he gambles his ten-thousand dollar reward on a double-or-nothing proposition involving himself protecting a gold cache. Trying to take the gold is George Martin, the bandit that killed Hill's brother some time before.A good enough Italian western, this has some decent action and suspense scenes, with Hill's character pulling off some excellent rifle work. Yes, it's derivative, but still pretty solid. The climax is well handled too.Director Tonino Valerii went on to make My Name Is Nobody, one of the best spaghetti westerns ever.Here, villainous Martin looks a bit like William Shatner, if he were cast as a Klingon!
Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) Tonino Valerii's TASTE OF THE KILLING really is about as fine of a non-Leone spaghetti western as one can hope for. Craig Hill is very well suited for the role of a laconic, cynical and somewhat snarky bounty killer working one hell of a racket shadowing gold and currency shipments to and from various banks. Presuming holdups, he simply waits until one gang or another decides to make a grab for the loot, eliminates them, returns the shipment and collects a 10% commission on the return & cleans up on the inevitable bounty payments on the heads of the gang members. Beats working a day job.Things get interesting when his latest bounty gambit leads him into the town where the murderer of his brother (George Martin, unrecognizable in his makeup job) is leading the local pistolero gang who are waiting out a gold shipment they plan to hijack. Fat chance. Working with both the bank manager (Franco Ressel) and the owner of the local gold mine (Piero Lulli in a rare non-villain role), Craig Hill sets up a brilliant scam to insure his own protection of the shipment, wipe out the gang, clean up on the bounties, and follow the gold to it's next inevitable brush with another band of thieves who will inevitably have bounties on their heads, and start the whole thing all over again.The first hour or so is almost hypnotic in it's syncopation of dialog, action, cinema kinetics courtesy of genre regular Stelvio Massi, and a peppy, imaginative musical score by Nico Fidenco. If the surroundings look familiar to spaghetti western fans they should be, as the bulk of the film is set in & around Carlo Simi's leftover sets from FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, which were literally good enough for a whole bunch of movies. The screen is also populated by a familiar cast of spaghetti and genre film regulars too: Fernando Sancho, George Wang, José Canalejas, Frank Braña, José Manuel Martín.The film had also found a chance to see both of Leone's movies too, serving as a distillation of certain themes which the brilliant Valerii found useful. Hill's use of a rifle with a telescopic sight combines the finesse of Eastwood with the technically adept Van Cleef as the camera literally repeats certain shots made famous to young filmmakers the world over after Leone's first two movies had become a sensation. But this film adds some interesting twists, such as the local lawmen inflicting the standard spaghetti western sadistic torture interlude onto one of the bad guys for a change in a scene that only works to underscore the film's ambiguous morality. The only honest people in the film are the ones with something to lose, who depend upon Craig Hill's talents even though he's a cold blooded killer.To his credit Valerii tries to inject a bit of humanity into the play by having a subplot about George Martin's villain with a heart of gold who wants to start a family with his girlfriend and young son. And it's here that the script takes a bit of a misstep by muddying up the proceedings with plot, though it does make Martin's villain into a sympathetic character -- perhaps even more sympathetic than the hero, which was probably the point. Then there's the big action climax with dozens of extras riding around raising dust and shouting while people get picked off from all angles. It all gets to be a bit too much for a stretch, the film's tightly woven ball threatening to unravel. Valerii picks up the pieces nicely in time for a taut, ingeniously photographed showdown scene, the film amusingly ending where it began with Hill watching another gang set up another robbery and you can just see the dollar signs in his eyes. Nice.7/10