Cemetery Without Crosses is a spaghetti western probably most famous for being co-written by Dario Argento. In fact, he worked on the screenplay to this one shortly before directing his seminal debut thriller The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and after co-writing the classic Once Upon a Time in the West. It would only be fair to say that this one doesn't match up to either of those, although it's a solid enough Euro western all the same.
Its plot line is typical enough for a spaghetti western. An enigmatic loner called Manuel infiltrates a bandit gang in order to get revenge on behalf of a beautiful widow whose husband they murdered. Whilst the story-line is fairly standard, the lack of dialogue certainly isn't. It isn't immediately obvious but there really is hardly any of it. Mostly, the plot is told by imagery. This is sometimes done really well, although it does distance us a bit from the characters, making it a little hard to truly emphasise with them. There are some interesting details though, such as the fact that Manuel lives alone in a ghost town. This setting is a good one and adds an element of the slightly surreal to proceedings. There is also a somewhat atypical scene at the bandit gang's dinner table, which plays on audience expectations. Basically, what seems like a very tense moment suddenly turns into a moment of bizarre comedy.
The film stars Michèle Mercier who will be familiar to some for her performance in 'The Telephone' segment of Mario Bava's excellent horror omnibus Black Sabbath. But this is not really an actor's film. The dialogue is too sparse and the characterisations too vague. It's more an interesting example of visual story-telling. It also has a very downbeat ending, which was something de rigueur in the late sixties. It fits this story well enough though.
Its plot line is typical enough for a spaghetti western. An enigmatic loner called Manuel infiltrates a bandit gang in order to get revenge on behalf of a beautiful widow whose husband they murdered. Whilst the story-line is fairly standard, the lack of dialogue certainly isn't. It isn't immediately obvious but there really is hardly any of it. Mostly, the plot is told by imagery. This is sometimes done really well, although it does distance us a bit from the characters, making it a little hard to truly emphasise with them. There are some interesting details though, such as the fact that Manuel lives alone in a ghost town. This setting is a good one and adds an element of the slightly surreal to proceedings. There is also a somewhat atypical scene at the bandit gang's dinner table, which plays on audience expectations. Basically, what seems like a very tense moment suddenly turns into a moment of bizarre comedy.
The film stars Michèle Mercier who will be familiar to some for her performance in 'The Telephone' segment of Mario Bava's excellent horror omnibus Black Sabbath. But this is not really an actor's film. The dialogue is too sparse and the characterisations too vague. It's more an interesting example of visual story-telling. It also has a very downbeat ending, which was something de rigueur in the late sixties. It fits this story well enough though.