Joe, der Galgenvogel (1 Star)

My regular readers know that I'm a big fan of Terence Hill, so you must be wondering why I've rated this film so badly. It's not Terence Hill's fault. His acting is superb. Blame it on the Germans.

Let me explain. In 1966 a spaghetti western was made called "Django", starring Franco Nero. It was a big box office success, so a sequel was planned. Franco Nero was unavailable because he was busy with another film. Rather than delay the film, the studios looked for another actor with a similar appearance. In 1968 the sequel was made, "Django, prepare a coffin", with Terence Hill as Django.

"Django, prepare a coffin" was Terence Hill's first western, but the studios recognised that the role of a gunslinger suited him. Franco Nero returned for the following Django sequels, so other films had to be found for Terence Hill. He made two western comedies with Bud Spencer, "They call me Trinity" (1970) and "Trinity is still my name" (1971). That was it. He made many more films with Bud Spencer, but they weren't westerns.

That's where the Germans stepped in. In 1979 they needed to put another spaghetti western with Terence Hill and Bud Spencer in the cinemas, but there weren't any. So some clever person had an idea. "Django, prepare a coffin" was re-dubbed into German, but the new dubbing wasn't a translation, it was a rewriting of the story. Django was renamed Joe in the new version. There's a lot more comedy in the conversations. There are frequent references to Bud Spencer's character, Bambino, in the dialogue. One of the actors in the film had also appeared in the second Trinity film, so an attempt was made to link him, claiming he was the same character in both films. At points where Django stands brooding in the original version, the new version has long voiceovers explaining what's happening. So many details of the story have been twisted and changed by the new German dialogue.

This version of the film is only available in German, for obvious reasons. If you buy it in England or America, you'll get the good version, which I've watched twice in the past. "Joe, der Galgenvogel" is a crime against cinema.