Companeros (1970)

Director: Sergio Corbucci

Starring: Franco Nero, Tomas Milian, Jack Palance, Fernando Rey

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Fate brought them together. Greed made them inseparable, and violence made them Companeros!

Plot: Arms dealer Yolaf Peterson aims to make a sale to guerrilla Mongo, but the money is locked in a bank safe, the combination known only to Professor Xantos, a prisoner of the Americans. Yolaf agrees to free Xantos, accompanied by reluctant guerrilla Basco, but a former business partner of Yolaf's- John 'The Wooden Hand', has other ideas.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? Yup yup.

#21 on A FISTFUL OF TRAILERS (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)

You can't go wrong when you pair director Corbucci with actor Nero. Throw in Milian and Palance and you've got yourself a damn good flick. COMPANEROS is lots of fun with great performances all around. Milian is particularly restrained but not completely. There's almost always room for annoyance in everything he does. I like him but not his tendency to overact. Nero is charming and playful and Palance...oh, boy. His doobie toking take on the villain has to be seen to be believed.

That just cracks me up. Go ahead. Watch it a few more times. I'm in tears. I like that Nero used is own voice for the English versions. Damn, that man's got the Euro-sexy going on. Maybe I need to get me an Italian accent...and the eyes...the stache...and the good looks. Fuck it. I need a drink. Ennio Morricone's score is, surprise, outstanding. The story moves along at a good clip, allowing lots of great moments for all of the leads, all of which leading up to an unexpected climax with a very satisfying conclusion. It's part of an Anchor Bay Spaghetti Western box set that came out about 11 years ago called, Once Upon a Time in Italy. It's out of print but you can still pick it up used on Amazon for about 35 clams. It's got five films, two of which are MUST-SEE's - this one and A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL (1966). The rest are...well, they just are. I'm going to watch KEOMA (1976) and FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE (1975) one more time before I make my final judgment. I didn't take too kindly to them ten years ago. COMPANEROS, on the other hand, remains an enjoyable classic of the genre.