La vendetta è un piatto che si serve freddo

"La Vendetta È Un Piatto Che Si Serve Freddo" aka "Three Amens For Satan" is a rather tough Spaghetti Western, that certainly has its qualities, but lacks in many departments. On the one hand the movie could maybe have been a lot better with a higher budget, on the other hand there are a lot of excellent low-budget Spaghetti Westerns, way better than this.

After witnessing the brutal murder of his entire family by Native Americans as a child, Jeremiah Bridger becomes a merciless Indian-killer and scalp hunter. After saving the life of a beautiful Native American girl named Tune, however, the lone and silent gunman slowly reconsiders his hatred. He starts to doubt his former persuasion, that it was really Indians, who killed his family, and soon has to find out that a greedy and unscrupulous landowner usually blames Native Americans for his own crimes.

"Three Amens For Satan" is not really a bad movie, but it's not really good either. As a big fan of Spaghetti Westerns I personally kinda liked it, although it's definitely one of the worse movies of the genre. The acting differs throughout the movie, Kinski, who plays a villainous and racist journalist, is great as always, though his part is quite small. I also found Leonard Mann to be quite good as the silent and lonely avenger. Some of the characters in this film, however, are a little annoying. The movie is not at all one of the humorous Spaghetti Westerns (no dark humor either), the character of Doc, Jeremiah's savior and buddy, who was only added to make the movie a little 'funnier', is very exaggerated, and therefore a bit annoying. Furthermore, Tune, the Indian girl, keeps talking in very stereotypical Indian wisdoms, not to mention she talks about herself in the third person throughout the whole movie.

"Three Amens For Satan" is certainly not a very good movie, but, apart from its several weaknesses, and the doubtable part of the plot, in which a racist Indian-killer suddenly changes entirely, and becomes kind of a hero and Indian-savior, the movie is certainly enjoyable.

This is a very cheap and rough looking movie, even for a Euro-Western. What makes it worth catching is that it doesn't follow the usual plot of most Spaghetti Westerns, i.e. it doesn't feature the American Civil War or the Mexican Revolution as it's backdrop.

Jim(called Jeremiah in the version I saw) is the only survivor of an attack by Native Americans on his homestead. His entire family are killed, and he grows up to be a hate-filled Indian killer. This changes when he saves an Indian girl from a humiliating 'tar-and-feathering' in the local town. We later find out that it was evil property developers who organised the raid on his homestead and made it look like Indians did it. Jim/Jeremiah takes his revenge.

This has an excellent sub-Morricone guitar driven score, but is ultimately let down by it's cheap look.

And a word of caution; avoid the DVD version that's around at the moment. It claims to be widescreen but is horribly cropped and renders certain scenes nonsensical. 4/10.

Acceptable Spaghetti dealing with usual theme : a relentless revenge . La vendetta è un Piatto Che Si serve Freddo" (Italy original title) or "Death's Dealer" (USA title) deals with a small boy named Jim Bridger saw his father (Enzo Fiermonte) killed by Indians . Years later Jim (Leonard Mann) has grown up to be an outlaw and is killing Indians whenever he can. Many years later, he aware how to shoot as he kills any Indian he meets for blind vendetta . He seeks vengeance and carries out a cruel slaughter . As Bridger pulls off his vengeance by means of a cruel manner , scalping and selling long hairs , as he executes a massacre and atrocity , he proceeds a single-handedly revenge , and kills each Indian involved on his way . He is relentless in his vendetta , deadly in his violence . When Jim find out the true executioner of the grisly killings occurs the predictable battle of wits . The conflict is simple , one between avenger Jim Bridger against also relentless killers such as the baron land Perkins (Ivan Rassimov) and editor Prescott (Klaus Kinski) never hesitating to kill.

It's an exciting western titled "Vengeance Trail¨ with breathtaking showdown between the protagonist Leonard Mann and the enemies Ivan Rassimov , Klaus Kinski and hoodlums . Both of them are fine, they ravage the screen , kill , betray , hit and run , and ultimately takes places a final surprise . This thrilling western titled "Three Amens for Satan" or "Vengeance Is a Dish Served Cold" (USA title) contains a story full of violence , good dramatic pace and slick direction though packs some flaws . Enjoyable Spaghetti Western ; it follows the Sergio Leone wake , including close-up , zooms , choreographic duels and no being proceeded in American style . The film packs action , shootouts , drama , high body-count and it's fast moving and quite entertaining . It's a moving western with spectacular outdoors and breathtaking confrontation among heartless protagonists , Leonard Mann , and his nasty nemesis and slimy , menacing underlings . Decent action sequences with rousing crossfire and spectacularly bloody shootouts at the end . Charismatic performance for whole casting . The notorious Spaghetti actor , Leonard Mann , is good in his usual tough as well as silent role, he starred 3 decent Spahetti : ¨Gunmen of Ave Maria¨, ¨Ciakmull¨ and this one . His contender played by Ivan Rassimov starred some Western as "Don't Wait, Django... Shoot!" , ¨Cjamango¨ , but subsequently played Cannibal movies . Fantastic performance by the always great Klaus Kinski here in his ordinary role as a villain and in a cruelly baddie character as an ambitious editor . There appears as habitual secondaries in Italian Western such as Steffen Zacharias who acted in classic "They Call Me Trinity" , Enzo Fiermonte and Pietro Torrisi who as Peter McCoy played in the 80s several sword and witchery movies .

The musician Piero Umiliani composes an attractive soundtrack , well conducted , this turns out to be one of the most memorable parts of the movie , as it's plenty of enjoyable sounds and haunting musical background and with agreeable leitmotif , including catching songs and ballads sung by Monica Miguel . Nice cinematography by Angelo Lotti , including good sets, filmed on locations in Rome, Lazio, Italy and Elios studios . The motion picture was decently directed by Pasquale Squitieri , under pseudonym William Redford , though contains some gaps and flaws. Pasquale was longtime companion of actress Claudia Cardinale , who usually played his films , and father of Claudia their daughter . He is a writer and director, especially known for Atto Di Dolore (1990), Russicum (1988) and Mussolini's lover (1984). He also made another Western titled 1970 ¨Django dares Sartana¨ as William Redford and wrote/ directed a lot of movies dealing with Italian Mafia such as 1988 Russicum , 1985 "Il Pentito" or "The Repenter , 1978 L'arma , 1978 Corleone , 1977 Il Prefetto di Ferro , 1975 El Ambicioso or "The Climber" , 1974 I Guappi , 1972 Camorra ; many of them starred by his wife Claudia Cardinale and notorious Spaghetti actor Giuliano Gemma .

"Death's Dealer," another Western that had potential, but was wrecked by slapstick comedy. In this case the project was absolutely trashed by really dumb, unfunny slapstick humor. Actor Leonard Mann, who did a few Westerns during this period, has great screen presence, and he is good here, as a man who has been deceived into thinking a pack of Indians murdered his parents when he was a boy. It turns out that greedy, white men massacred his family, over a property dispute. Then...cue the sidekick buddy and the endless set pieces of inane stupidity, that completely sinks the production. As soon as the movie begins to get good, the momentum is quickly destroyed by more comedy. Of course humor can work..if it's well- written, and actually "funny," such as in films like "Ben & Charlie," a Western that is successful in it's comic attempts.

It seems like the creators of "Death's Dealer" couldn't decide if they wanted to make a serious film, or a light comedy/action/Western. The end result is a disappointment. And it was almost painful to see the Great Klaus Kinski in such a flop, although he is barely on screen. Skip this one and seek out "Forgotten Pistolero," another film with Leonard Mann in the lead role. Now this is a truly excellent movie, with an intricate tale of revenge and family drama, as well as some impressive action sequences...and no comedy. And for Kinski fans, look no further than "The Great Silence,' which is a true masterpiece of the genre..