Subtitles:

English (on Italian track), English (SDH on the English track) none

Extras:

Not even remotely an early spinoff of the 1966 Sergio Corbucci film, DJANGO, PREPARE A COFFIN – also known as VIVA DJANGO! – is entertaining even as it recombines elements from the original (notably Django’s wardrobe, coffins, a cemetery shootout, bullwhips, the motivation for his revenge, and of course the Gatling gun he busts just when the bad guys think they have him severely outmanned) in a rather uninspired new plot. Django (a pre-TRINITY series Terence Hill) defends obviously corrupt politician David Barry (GRAND DUEL’s Horst Frank, who never ever plays a good guy in a genre pic) against an attack, and he is paid back for his good deed with grave injuries and the murder of his wife in an ambush organized by Barry while Django is transporting a shipment of gold from a bank to the central depository in Atlanta. Five years later, Django has reestablished himself as a hangman on the other side of the country, and he’s got a lot of business what with the many innocently condemned for the string of gold hijacks organized by Barry and executed by Lucas (George Eastman, ANTHROPOPHAGUS) and his gang. Using a harness device to fake the hangings, Django is building up an army of wronged men to expose the Lucas gang and whoever is behind them. When he learns that the Mercedes (Barbara Simon) – the wife of Garcia (José Torres, DEATH RIDES A HORSE), another condemned man he has rescued – is also going to be hanged as an accomplice, Django sends his men to capture the Lucas gang during their next gold transport ambush while he rescues the woman. Garcia, however, convinces the men that they would be better off with the gold than in attaining justice; and Django soon finds himself at the mercy of Lucas and Barry who want him to lead them to men and the gold.

The smash international success of the spaghetti western Django (along with a certain Clint Eastwood series) turned out to be a major boost for the Italian film industry in the late '60s, with filmmakers scrambling to crank out enough gunslinger quickies to satisfy audience demands. Many, many films adopted the name Django in their titles, though most (including one especially bizarre cult classic) had absolutely nothing to do with the coffin-toting, black-hatted stranger played Django Prepare a Coffin by Franco Nero in the original film.

One of the few films that actually does work as a genuine sequel is Django, Prepare a Coffin, an early western star role for Terence Hill. A former supporting player in costume films and dramas, Hill had just ascended to leading man status in some German Karl May oaters and more notably starring opposite Bud Spencer in 1967 with God Forgives... I Don't! (playing a character named Cat Stevens, incredibly enough). Of course, the pair would become a major box office team two years later with My Name Is Trinity and a host of other comedic western and crime films to come.

Gary Tooze

June 11th, 2013

Released by Arrow, on Blu-ray, in the US in April 2017: