Picked up Koch's latest three spaghett western releases which, as usual, have German and Italian audio but with the non-advertised, "hidden" English subtitles. (Is this a licensing thing or something?)

KILLER KID
Anthony Steffen finds himself mixed up with a band of Mexican revolutionaries (the film is dedicated to the people of Mexico!) and, following some rather melancholy opening title music, the film settles into the usual tale of violence and double-crosses. Steffen's as good as ever as the hero, with spaghetti regular Fernando Sancho at his OTT best as the villain of the piece. Lots of people get shot and blown up (there are a couple of great flying dummies, one of which involves the concept of suicide bombing being introduced to the wild west) and overall it's a satisfactory entry in the genre.

The anamorphic transfer is lovely and the extras include a trailer, a photo gallery and some home movie footage of Steffen (with English subtitles) courtesy of Wild East.

SEVEN DOLLARS TO KILL
Steffen and Sancho are pitted against each other once again in a typical revenge tale that is given some extra tragic elements by the addition of Steffen's son having been kidnapped and raised by the villain. Alberto Cardone directs, Francesco DiMasi provides a terrific score and all in all it's another enjoyable spaghetti that follows Steffen on his quest to rid the west of all murderers in the hope that he'll get lucky and resolve his own personal vendetta in the process. The final showdown takes place in driving rain for a change, which is appropriate since it features the most abruptly downbeat ending outside of a Corbucci movie.

Some bits are grainier than others and a few shots seem out of focus, but this is most likely the source rather than transfer, which is otherwise very good. There are a couple of trailers and a photo gallery but sadly the 40-minute DeMasi documentary (with interviews from lots of Eurocult veterans) has no subs.

THE BIG GUNDOWN
Haven't watched this one yet, but I am assuming it's a re-release of the disc that already featured in Koch's Sollima box set (which I don't own). It's the full 105 minute version though, rather than the butchered US release.

Note: on the same day, Koch also released Confessions of a Chief of Police, but there are apparently no English options on this disc. The interview with Nero on the extras is in English though.

Interesting to see it depicted as a desparate but heroic act. Anyway, I enjoyed Killer Kid when I saw it on a murky VHS years ago, and it gets a lot better with this presentation. If you imagine they probably didn't have a tenth of the budget they burn for 30 second TV ads today, this looks absolutely stunning. Nice camera work and the comparatively rare occasion of a story-driven SW, as opposed to action-driven, make this one stand out for me. The music is growing on me, too.

Interesting - I wonder if this is the same DeMasi documentary as the one included on Neo Publishing's French NEW YORK RIPPER 2-discer some time back? I remember it being pretty good (although there were no English subs, the French subs helped me make sense of the rapidfire Italian talking heads).