Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Bezenby A pre-Django Spaghetti Western from Sergio Corbucci, starring b-movie master Cameron Mitchell as a gunslinger going slowly blind, and out to revenge his wrongful imprisonment before his condition overtakes him! Cam's been in prison for eighteen years but decides to break out one day and return to his home town, where his daughter lives (she don't know he's her dad though). The town is ruled by Fox, a nasty fella who put Cam in jail in the first place and is looking for a way to rid the town of the Mexican bandit gang (led by Fernando Sancho. Fernando basically plays the same character in every film I've seen him in - the chicken leg eating, cackling, Mexican bandit leader...and that's not a complaint).Cam thinks about hooking up with Sancho to get rid of Fox but there's a Latin spanner in the works by the name of Estella and she's playing everybody for a fool. She frames Cam for stealing gold and basically leads everyone into a massive shoot out. Cam is going blind but he's also the greatest shot the town has ever seen, which makes him a bit of challenge.Perfect pacing in this film I felt, and not only a great performance from Cameron (who is prone to over acting or not acting at all), but also a complete turnaround from Georges Rivieres as the bad guy Fox. The last film I watched him in (Castle of Blood) he played a wide-eyed, innocent romantic type...in this he's a man without a soul.Cameron steals the show as the world weary gunslinger out to save his daughter before his blindness is complete. He basically has to fight his last battle using sound alone, which makes it very interesting. He sure ends up in some state by the end of the film! A quick note on Cameron Mitchell. He was the king of the b-movie, from low budget acid westerns like Ride In the Whirlwind (with Jack Nicholson), horrors like Nightmare In Wax, terrible weirdo films like Medusa, Hollywood bigshot films like the Klansman (with Lee Marvin!), mystery films like Haunts, playing a psychic so terrible the people who hired him shoot him in the South African slasher film The Demon, going up against Satan himself in The Nightmare Never Ends, being a cult leader talking crap in kung fu film Low Blow, or a park owner in Memorial Valley Massacre, one things for sure: He always looked middle aged, for some reason.

zardoz-13 Cameron Mitchell followed several other American actors to Europe in the 1960s and starred in several films, including westerns and sword & sandal sagas. "Django" director Sergio Corbucci cast him as a veteran gunslinger in "Minnesota Clay" who is losing his sight. Nevertheless, Mitchell's Clay remains as fast on the draw and as accurate ever with his six-gun. For the record, "Minnesota Clay" represented Corbucci's first oater to helm after sharing directorial credit with Albert Band on "Grand Canyon Massacre," starring virile Jim Mitchum. Unlike Corbucci's later westerns for which he is better known, including "Django," "Navajo Joe," "The Great Silence," "The Mercenary," and "Companeros," "Minnesota Clay" qualifies as a more conventional sagebrusher in the mold of traditional American model with few of the sudden, nimble reversals of a Spaghetti western. One trope that "Minnesota Clay" adheres to in the Spaghetti western formula is its high body count. Corbucci co-wrote the screenplay with sometime collaborator Adriano Bolzoni. As it turns out, Bolzoni supplied the story for Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars." Interestingly, when you compare the plots of both "A Fistful of Dollars" and "Minnesota Clay," the similarities are noticeable. The two films resemble Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's vintage samurai saga "Yojimbo." An outsider rides into a town that two separate fractions are warring to dominate. The chief difference between the two films is that Kurosawa sued Leone for copyright infringement but ignored Corbucci's western."Minnesota Clay," for the most part, resembles a standard-issue American horse opera about a gunfighter searching for redemption. Mitchell is dutifully straight-forward as the quick-draw protagonist who wants to change his life. Clay escapes from a brutal prison camp after he takes the camp's doctor hostage at gunpoint. He rides back to his hometown of Mesa Encantada to find a man, Fox (Georges Rivière of "The Longest Day"), who can clear him of the crime that landed him in the hell-hole of Drunner Prison. When our hero arrives in town, he learns that two rival factions are tangling over the town. First, a villainous American named Fox rules Mesa Encantada like a racketeer and forces the town's merchants into paying astronomical protection fees. Were this not enough, Fox serves as the town's marshal so he controls the law in Mesa Encantade with an iron fist. Nobody in town likes Fox, and everybody would love to see him deposed. Second, a slimy stereotypical Mexican bandit General Domingo Ortiz (Fernando Sancho of "Gunfight at High Noon"), who is as dimwitted as he is gullible, wants to see Fox bite the dirt. He hopes Clay will join him. In the middle of all, two women pursue different aims. First, sweet young Nancy Mulligan (Diana Martín of "Revenge of the Black Knight") who lives just outside of town. She has been told that her father died years ago. One of the movie's revelations is that her father is none other than Minnesota Clay. Corbucci stages a typical American western scene where Nancy struggles to halt a runaway team and Clay rides heroically to her rescue. Second, the treacherous Estella (Ethel Rojo of "Doomed Fort") learns that her treachery doesn't endear her to anybody. She facilitates Clay's escape from Ortiz's camp. Estella informs Ortiz that Clay not only has fled, but he also has stolen Ortiz's box of gold. Surprisingly, Estella has aligned herself with Fox and tells him that Ortiz is heading toward the Mulligan Ranch. Fox assembles his men and rides to the ranch. Meantime, Clay and company knock off high numbers of Ortiz's riders out of their saddles. Ortiz sets fire to the building that our heroes have sought as refuge. The above-average "Minnesota Clay" ranks far down on the list of Corbucci's westerns. But it was a beginning for the gifted Italian. The blind gunfighter premise is novel. Incidentally, the Mesa Encantade town set is the same location that Leone used for San Miguel in "A Fistful of Dollars." Altogether, this Corbucci western contains seeds that foreshadow some of his ideas and techniques in his later westerns.

TankGuy I am reviewing Minnesota Clay,it's my eighth spaghetti western review in the new series.Minnesota Clay is one of the very first spaghetti westerns,being released at the time of Sergio Leones dollars trilogy.This is ironic since it uses the same locations as A fistful of dollars (notice the town) and the plot is nearly the same(two rival outlaw gangs fighting each other and a lone gunslinger in the middle of it all),but this is a very entertaining cowboy picture that never fails to disappoint.The photography is brilliantly done and the shots of horses running and roaming around the country side are excellent,such shots makes this 1960s spaghetti western fell like a 1950s American B western,but that's a good thing.The acting is good and Cameron Mitchell is excellent at playing Clay,the character of Clay is similar to Clint Eastwoods man with no name and Mitchell plays Clay with brutal bitterness which is nearly the same as how Clint Eastwood plays in the dollars trilogy.There's a decent amount of action including a large shootout at a ranch which showcases a lot of kills from the main characters and there's a brilliant duel at the end in which Clay takes down the bad guys.The story does drag a little bit and the ending is quite abrupt,but still very good.I highly recommend this to any western fan,if you can ever get your hands on it,then do.Keep checking my account for more spaghetti western reviews.

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.