NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Arrow Blu-ray (July 2021): Arrow have transferred four Italian westerns in 1080P as part of their Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns package. The films are Massacre Time (1966,) My Name is Pecos (1966,) Bandidos (1967) and And God Said to Cain (1970.) These are on four separate dual-layered Blu-rays with high bitrates. Arrow describes the transfers as "2K restorations of all four films from the original 35mm camera negatives, with Massacre Time, My Name is Pecos and Bandidos newly restored by Arrow Films for this release." I really can't find anything bad to say about how these four films look on Blu-ray. There may be infrequent speckles and dust but grain textures are prevalent and look superlative. Colors appears true with occasional richness and no excessive embellishment. Contrast is strong. Bandidos may be the weakest, being marginally softer, but it's not a huge discrepancy and probably related to the original production. They look marvelous on my system - consistent, clean, tight, fine detail in the many close-ups (with penetrating eyes and visible skin grain), and up to Arrow's usual impressive video transfer standards.

In one of our very earliest DVD comparisons Ole had two editions of Massacre Time. It is HERE with one example included below. You can easily see the massive improvement from two previous SD-DVDs available.

NOTE: We have added 58 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-rays, Arrow use a DTS-HD Master or linear PCM mono tracks (24-bit) in the original Italian languages with English DUBs (with the appropriate titles sequence, credits seamlessly branched option.) As you might anticipate there are extensive aggressive western-related moments of gunfire and violent conflict that carry reasonable depth via the authentic mono tracks. The scores are by veteran Coriolano Gori (Werewolf Woman) for Massacre Time and My Name is Pecos. Egisto Macchi wrote the score for Bandidos and for And God Said to Cain the composer is credited as the versatile Carlo Savina - who is known for Blood Ceremony, Lisa and the Devil, Hudson River Massacre, Fangs of the Living Dead, and conducting Nino Rota's score for Fellini's I Clowns, Juliet of the Spirits and Amarcord. These sounds authentic with post-dubbing issues always noticeable but never totally distracting and something we have come to expect from this genre. Arrow offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-rays.

The Arrow Blu-rays are described as having a "plethora of brand new bonus materials". I can fact-check that as 'TRUE'. Each film has a commentary. C. Courtney Joyner (author of The Westerners: Interviews with Actors, Directors, Writers and Producers) and Henry C. Parke (True West: History of the American Frontier) do the commentary on Massacre Time. They are experts on 'Euro westerns' and discuss Massacre Time as a strong influence on Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. They are excellent discussing the director Lucio Fulci becoming more famous for his horror films, the story and screenplay by Fernando Di Leo and many of the cast and crew, including Franco Nero, George Hilton and Linda Sini etc., seeing influences on many more modern films. It's well worth the indulgence. On My Name is Pecos the commentary is by Robert Woods (star of the film!) and C. Courtney Joyner. We learn that is was shot all around Rome, Italy and the nearby desert. Woods recalls much about the production and imparts keen details and back stories. For Bandidos we get Kat Ellinger. She extols director Massimo Dallamano, who was the cinematographer for Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More and A Fistful of Dollars. She is very informative and its at Kat's usual high standard of observative analysis with a large focus on the underrated Dallamano (the Poliziotteschi Colt 38 Special Squad, and the Giallo A Black Veil for Lisa) - his only western genre directorial effort - although a key component of Leone's 60's team. For And God Said to Cain we get a commentary by critic Howard Hughes (author of Once Upon A Time in the Italian West: The Filmgoers' Guide to Spaghetti Westerns.) He discusses the film locations (solely shot in Italy), director Antonio Margheriti (Seven Deaths in a Cat's Eye, The Long Hair of Death, War of the Planets, Lightning Bolt, Wild Wild Planet, Nightmare Castle), actors Klaus Kinski, Peter Carsten and Marcella Michelangeli among others. It's a pleasure listening to such an expert in his field with biographies and filmographies of key personnel. Great job! I enjoyed the new 50-minute documentary featuring a new video interview with actor Franco Nero and an archival video interview with actor George Hilton entitled Two Men Alone written edited and directed by Federico Caddeo. There is plenty of input on the disc supplements from Italian journalist Fabio Melelli. There are new interviews with actor George Eastman, actress Lucia Modugno, a documentary with an archival interview with cinematographer Franco Villa, assistant director on Bandidos, Luigi Perelli, actor Gino Barbacane, actor Antonio Cantafora, alternate end title sequence (on Bandidos), another documentary with a new audio interview with actress Marcella Michelangeli, trailers, plus each disc has German promotional gallery of posters and title cards. The package offers an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by author and critic Howard Hughes, a fold-out double-sided poster featuring newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx and limited edition packaging with reversible sleeves featuring original artwork and a slipcover featuring newly commissioned artwork by Vranckx. Phew... talk about stacked.         

Okay... so what do we get here? There are four 60's produced 'Pasta Westerns'; three above average genre films directed by Lucio Fulci, Antonio Margheriti, Massimo Dallamano and a mid-tier effort by Maurizio Lucidi. They are fabulous examples of the genre and star hunky, steely-eyed Franco Nero, Klaus Kinski, George Hilton, Robert Woods, Enrico Maria Salerno, sexy gals like Lucia Modugno, Linda Sini, María Martín, Marcella Michelangeli etc., the films have exquisite sets, revenge themed plots and are dripping with charismatic style, inventive camera angles, extreme close-ups and many of the conventions that Spaghetti western aficionados adore including machismo shootouts, cowardly sneak attacks and chivalrous defenses of women - wrapped in gratuitous vengeful violence. These are housed on individual Arrow Blu-rays with exceptional a/v plus commentaries and hours of impressive supplements. What did we do to deserve Arrow? I look at some of their past, complete boxsets that we've covered; The Complete Sartana, Years Of Lead: Five Classic Italian Crime Thrillers 1973-1977, Female Prisoner Scorpion: The Complete Collection, Vincent Price Six Gothic Tales, The Jacques Rivette Collection, Battles Without Honor and Humanity, Kiju Yoshida: Love + Anarchism, Takashi Miike's Black Society Trilogy, Outlaw Gangster VIP: The Complete Collection, Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection and their massive The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast! They appear to be getting even better and Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying we've reviewed to date. Our strongest recommendation!

Gary Tooze