A Town Called Hell (1971)
"A Town Called Bastard" (original title)

This offbeat film starts with a violent attack a town by a revolutionaries group,they murder a priest and his Christian followers.Later the leader(Robert Shaw) appears like a boozy-addicted priest in the town called Bastarda .There arrive in a hearse, a beautiful woman named Alvira(Stella Stevens)suited in black and lying into a coffin,the carriage is driven by a strange deaf-mute gunfighter named Espectro(Dudley Shutton).The widower attempts the revenge from her husband's murderer named Aguila and offers to Carlos(Telly Savalas),a violent ruler,a reward if he hand over her the killer.Then the town is invaded by the Mexican army ruled by a cruel colonel(Martin Landau),he also intent to encounter Aguila and threatens to hang and shoot all inhabitants unless he's delivered.Meanwhile is narrated a rare flashback with Paco(Michael Craig) in a sequences of dance hall and catching music,he's pursued by the revolutionary character(Robet Shaw),posteriorly become priest.

The film contains action Western,shootouts,tortures,disturbing characters and lots of violence with strong hanging.It's developed on impressive sets ,an enormous and old ruined fortress-town.Good performance by Robert Shaw as priest with a dark past,Martin Landau as a cruel colonel,a mysterious Stella Stevens with a strange flashback like a vampire dreamed by the priest and Telly Savalas as a cynic and violent characterization promptly finished for execution by one of his own henchmen(Al Lettieri).The movie gets usual Spaghetti Western elements as greedy antiheroes,violent facing with revenger personages,quick Zooms and excessive close-up.Besides appear in secondary roles habitual Italian western,thus,Fernando Rey as the old blind man, Aldo Sambrell(Sergio Leone's ordinary),Tito Garcia,Cris Huerta,Antonio Mayans,among others .Inclusively the starring Telly Savalas,though in a short role, played various spaghetti(Pancho Villa,A reason to live a reason to die,Land raiders,Criminal story of an outlaw couple).Colorful cinematography by Manuel Berenguer,he's a habitual cameraman of US productions filmed in Spain(King of kings,Son of gunfighter,Pyro,Krakatoa).Music score by Waldo Rios,he made fine soundtrack(Murders in Rue Morgue,Bad man's river,Island of damned)until his early dead,but he committed suicide.The motion picture is regularly(contains some flaws and gaps)directed by Robert Parrish.He was an Academy Award winning ,film editor,won an Academy Award for ¨Body and soul(1947) and directed numerous films of all genres, Sci-Fi(Doppelganger),Western(Saddle the wind,The wonderful county),action comedy(Casino Royale) and warlike(his main success: Purple plain with Gregory Peck).