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Tex e il Signore degli Abissi
Tex and the Lord of the Deep
Tex und das Geheimnis der Todesgrotten / Tex und das Geheimnis der Todeshöhlen
Italy 1985
produced by Enzo Porcelli (executive) for RAI, SACIS
directed by Duccio Tessari
starring Giuliano Gemma, William Berger, Carlo Mucari, Isabel Russinova, Peter Berling, Flavio Bucci, Aldo Sambrell, José Luis de Vilallonga, Riccardo Petrazzi, Pietro Torrisi, Frank Brana, Ricardo Palacios, Giovanni L. Bonelli, Hugo Blanco, Charly Bravo
story by Giovanni L. Bonelli, screenplay by Giorgio Bonelli, Gianfranco Clerici, Marcello Coscia, Duccio Tessari, based on the comicbook by Giovanni L. Bonelli (writer), Aurelio Galeppini (artist), music by Gianni Ferrio
review by Mike Haberfelner
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The Old West: Tex Willer (Giuliano Gemma) and his two sidekicks Kit
Carson (William Berger) and Tiger Jack (Carlo Mucari) fing a bunch of
settlers dead, and soon track the trail of the baddies back to arms dealer
Bedford (Frank Brana), who seems to supply a rogue Indian tribe. But a
visit to Bedford's place ends with almost all of his gang (including
himself) shot ... and one of his gangmembers literally petrified. An
amulet found on the site though leads to a lost Aztec tribe over in
Mexico, who seem to have all kinds of magic powers at their disposal, but
need the white man's guns to ... well, kill white men faster. Somehow,
Tex manages to blow up the ammunitions depot of the Aztecs, but at the
same time, his friends are taken prisoners, and are to be tortured to
death. Of course, Tex intervenes, manages to free them and to create
enough ruckus to let the Aztecs cave cave in - unfortunately with Tex and
friends inside. But underground they find the Aztecs' demigod, the Lord of
the Deep (Riccardo Petrazzi) ... who's little more than a mad magician it
seems, and he's quickly disposed with a white man's bullet, too. But then
the Aztecs find their end in a volcano eruption while our heroes escape. To
sum it up in one word ... well, two to be precise: a major disappointment!
This could have been a fascinating blend of spaghetti Western, horror and
fantasy motives - but the elements of the different genres are never made
to quite click. This is basically thanks to a screenplay that's utterly
indecisive about in which direction to go, that refuses to play up the
horror and fantasy motives in favour of stale Western mainstays, that
refuses to decide on its main supporting characters (especially on the
villains' side), and even its titular character lacks the slightest kind
of depth, and that refuses its over-the-top proceedings even a hint of
irony. This really and truly could have been great - instead it's bad, and
not the good kind of bad, either.
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