Today we kill, tomorrow we die (4 Stars)

This film with the dramatic title is an Italian western made in 1968. I don't know whether it's correct to call it a spaghetti western. It's made in Italy, but it doesn't have the same feeling as the typical spaghetti westerns, which take place in the sweltering heat of the desert. The final shootout of this film takes place in a forest, which is very untypical for the genre.

One other thing that's unusual about this film is that the screenplay was written by Dario Argento. I thought he was only responsible for horror films. I stand corrected.

The film begins with Bill Kiowa (Brett Halsey) being released from prison after a five year sentence. He wants to get revenge on his previous partner James Elfego (Tatsuya Nakadai). When Bill got married he decided to quit crime and go straight. James didn't accept this. He shot his wife and framed him for a large robbery. Now all that Bill wants is to get revenge.

Bill has money that he left stashed with his father. He uses it to hire four men to challenge James, who is now in Nevada. Probably the only one of the four mercenaries you'll recognise is Bud Spencer. Unlike the others, he doesn't like to wear a hat.

Bud Spencer doesn't play the main role in "Today we kill" – I have to shorten the title – but he still gets a lot of screen time. It's not a comedy role, but when he gets involved in fist fights the action is exaggerated.

Brett Halsey was born in 1933 and appeared in his first film, "The Man from Alamo", in 1953. After ten years of playing small roles in Hollywood films he tried his luck in Italy, where he immediately became a big star. Eventually he returned to the USA and appeared mostly in television series, but he'll always be best known for the westerns he made in Italy.

Tatsuya Nakadai was a strange choice to play the villain, James Elfego. He's Japanese, and at the time he appeared in the film he could speak neither English nor Italian. He's still active today, making several films a year.

In the film itself no reference is made to James Elfego's ethnicity. If anything, his name sounds Mexican. However, he repeatedly goes into action with a machete, showing off his Japanese fighting skills.

"Today we kill" has been released on DVD in America, but is now out of print. It's available on Blu-ray in Germany, but only in Italian and German.