![]() ![]() On the A/V front, this burn-on-demand disc can't help but succeed: White Comanche is finally presented in widescreen and, though it looks pretty rough, it's clearly better than the old VHS-grade efforts by Mill Creek and the like. Shatner", and whoever is responsible for the package design at Warner Archives is fully aware of this: it's advertised as such on the back of this new release, which aims to replace a countless number of public domain releases and multi-disc collections during the past 15 years or so. Believe it or not, there's kind of a half-decent movie under all that goofiness. Even so, the unlikely but accessible story is aided by a decent amount of suspense as it unfolds: we see Notah early on and then it's all Johnny until their showdown, giving this lightweight production enough breathing room without feeling too drawn-out. Shot in Spain on a shoestring budget and full of flat compositions, awkward reaction shots, hammy supporting performances, and twice the Shatner, there's a definite audience for movies like White Comanche and you should know right away if you're part of it. I'm only a passive fan of so-bad-they're-good movies, and White Comanche toes the line carefully between "amusing weekend matinee" and "complete train wreck", leaning towards the former by a substantial margin. And more often than not, it's a pretty durned entertaining way to spend 96 minutes. Between the occasional cases of mistaken identity, Johnny's unlikely seduction of Kelly, the attempted murder of our hero by a bounty hunter, a few head shots, and perhaps the most accurate knife throw in film history, White Comanche is a cat-and-mouse game between two opposite sides of the same coin. Eventually, the truth comes out.after a wild saloon brawl which destroys almost every table and chair in less than three minutes. The lovely Kelly (Rosanna Yanni, in her film debut) is also horrified to see Johnny: she was the lone survivor of a stagecoach attack by Notah's tribe and, naturally, blames him for the murders. Johnny arrives immediately to wait for his brother's eventual decision, much to the dismay of peace-keeping Sheriff Logan (Joseph Cotten.who was in Citizen Kane, for God's sake). brother.įour days separate the ultimatum and the inevitable showdown, which takes place in nearby Rio Hondo. Rather than pack up and leave the area for good, Johnny gives Notah an ultimatum: stop all the foolishness and settle down.or fight it out, brother vs. Johnny, more passive on the surface, is a skilled gunslinger constantly blamed for his brother's crimes. ![]() Notah is an infamous thief and murderer with an addiction to peyote, known throughout the surrounding area as a force of nature that leads Comanche war parties with reckless abandon. William Shatner, on a shooting break between the first and second seasons of Star Trek, stars as twin brothers Notah and Johnny Moon in this 1968 Spaghetti Western both men are half-white, half Comanche, and don't appear to gel with either culture. They just don't make 'em like White Comanche any more, and that's both a lament and a relief. ![]()
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