Wed 4 Feb 2015
A Western Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: MINNESOTA CLAY (1964).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[5] Comments
MINNESOTA CLAY. Ultra Film, Italy/France/Spain, 1964. Orinally released as Le Justicier du Minnesota. Cameron Mitchell, Georges Riviere, Ethel Rojo, Diana MartÃn, Antonio Roso, Fernando Sancho. Director: Sergio Corbucci.
Sergio Corbucci’s Minnesota Clay has all of the great elements of a Spaghetti Western: a man wrongly imprisoned, a town held hostage, an outlaw who becomes a lawman, a corrupt Mexican general, beautiful women, and a hero with whom the audience can identify. Most importantly, it has Cameron Mitchell, an actor whose work I’ve increasingly grown to appreciate. (My earlier reviews of his The Unstoppable Man and The Last of the Vikings can be found here and here).
Mitchell portrays the eponymous title character, a man who has been wrongfully imprisoned in a U.S. Army labor prison camp. After making his escape, he seeks out the man responsible for his confinement. As it turns out, Minnesota Clay’s problem is neither his willingness to seek vengeance, nor an inability to locale his nemesis. It’s that he’s gradually losing his eyesight, a unique twist on the gunfighter-seeks-villain theme.
While Minnesota Clay may not have much in the way of memorable dialogue or the breathtaking cinematography of John Ford’s or Sergio Leone’s westerns, it nevertheless has its moments. The final fight sequence, in which our bloodied and battered hero uses his hearing, rather than his sight, to identify and kill his antagonist, is one for the ages.
February 5th, 2015 at 4:46 am
Mitchell was at one time an interesting and ambitious actor, and this one has been on my “find it” list for some time.
February 5th, 2015 at 1:22 pm
It’s easily available from Amazon, for one choice, either as a standalone or as one of a collection of several spaghetti westerns. The latter is a field I’ve never paid much attention to, but Jon makes this one sounds interesting.
February 5th, 2015 at 4:51 pm
There is no question Mitchell was a capable actor but I had difficulty with him playing a heroic role. He was typecast fairly early on as sociopathic rapist (and those were films like HELL AND HIGH WATER, THE TALL MAN, and GARDEN OF EVIL where he was one of the good guys), and it was difficult for me to transition to him as hero. Perhaps if, like Widmark, he had played more varied roles I would have felt different. But his straight good guy roles were few and far between. Even when he played a loving suburban husband he turned out to be a rapist.
The blind gunfighter is interesting. I have this on one of those multiple spaghetti western tapes and will likely watch it now. I wonder if, like Leone’s first Eastwood pic adapted from a Kurosawa film, this was taken from the Japanese movie ZATOCHHI THE BLIND SWORDSMAN, the inspiration at least?
Though the gunfighter who was losing his eyesight, nightblind, or some such had been used before a few times, likely inspired by Wild Bill Hickock’s deteriorating eyesight before his assassination in Deadwood (itself dealt with in THE WHITE BUFFALO with Charles Bronson).
I’m fairly certain one or more of the Cartwright’s was struck blind in some episode, and I think Matt Dillon was flash blinded by a gun near the eyes or a head wound at least once. It was a fairly staple plot both for hero or guest star on television.
None of which says this doesn’t handle it well or Mitchell doesn’t shine in it.
And before I get jumped, I am fine with and encourage casting actors against type, but I reserve the right to say when it doesn’t really work for me, and with Mitchell it usually doesn’t. It’s no knock against his skill as an actor. He is in fact a favorite character actor, and he did quite well in a rather soapy Christmas film about orphaned children he did with Glynnis Johns. He might work in this one, but generally for me he does not, at least not in a lead.
February 5th, 2015 at 4:53 pm
Steve, Jonathan,
I did not mean either of you would jump me, but some people take an opinion like that personally.
February 5th, 2015 at 5:13 pm
The only movie I recall seeing Cameron Mitchell in was THE UNSTOPPABLE MAN, which Jon referenced in his review, although I’m sure I’ve seen him 100s of times in old TV shows that made no impression on me at the time, and certainly don’t now.
He was the unflappable hero all the way in UNSTOPPABLE MAN, but I’d have to agree with you, David, that he has the face and demeanor of a hard-boiled villain, whether in a suit or a cowboy outfit. Which I’m sure he was in well over half of those 100s of TV shows I’m sure I saw him in.