Giuliano Carnimeo is mostly known in the spaghetti western universe for his Sartana sequels that followed in the wake of Frank Krammer's very successful original, so successful in fact that it spawned a vast number of unofficial sequels only second to Django. For They Call Him Cemetery, he takes two seasoned genre veterans and throws everything and the kitchen sink in the mix to make a damn fine, entertaining movie.
Two young greenhorns with impeccable manners arrive from Boston to see their father somewhere in the far west. Which, as they soon discover, is a lawless place, full of gun-totting and impolite people. Their father, along with every major ranch owner in the area, is being blackmailed on a regular basis by a bunch of bandits. It's up to the two youngsters to find out who's behind all the scamming, but they're not on their own.
Enter Gianni Garko as the Stranger. Garko is one of those genre actors that is probably unknown outside the spaghetti western circle, but a cult icon for fans. A regular collaborator with Carnimeo, here he practically reprises his famous Sartana role. Sure the name's different, but the gun, the look and the style all screams Sartana. Garko might be on the greenhorn's side but his antagonist, hired by the bandits to bushwack the nosy kids is none other than William Berger, another great actor and cult spaghetti western icon. Both of them are spot on in their roles and there are sparks flying in their scenes together. A big part of why They Call Him Cemetery is so successful is that it relies on the shoulders of such experienced and talented leads.
Lucky for us, the absurdly convoluted plot lines of Carnimeo's Sartana sequels are missing. Instead we get a fairly simple story, with a whodunit touch and lots of comedy, both in the form of caustic dialogues (Berger's lines about his mother are a hoot and a half) and bucketloads of slapstick. If the latter brings to mind the Trinity movies, it should be no surprise, as Enzo Barboni penned this one. There's none of the grim outlook of Corbucci's westerns to be found here. No sign of the leftist Mexican revolution trend of the late 60's either. This is a funny, badass, stylish Italo-western that concerns itself only with pure entertainment. The pacing is practically perfect, something interesting happening at every scene. There's also a great score by Bruno Nicolai, who provides nice themes for both Garko and Berger's characters. Sure there might the typical amount of unnecessary pans and fast zooms that every spaghetti boasts, but what really makes it so good is that it's crafted with genuine fascination for the old west (and the old American westerns by extension).
In that sense, it's a true spectacle in the vein of master Sergio Leone. Like the godfather of the genre used to say "it's like playing cowboys and Indians". Indeed, there's a playful quality in They Call him Cemetery that makes everything so much fun to behold. The vision of the chaotic west seen through the eyes of the two greenhorns in the first 15 minutes as they arrive in the small town is a laugh riot. Parents soothe their babies cries by giving them a bullet to chew on, old ladies demonstrate their impeccable shooting skills by chopping cacti in half, there's a huge slapstick brawl inside a saloon, people face-off in the middle of the street. Everything is tongue-in-cheek and yet done with a childlike fascination for the west that now takes the form of myth. That's where spaghetti westerns really take off. It's the old west interpreted through the eyes of impressionable Europeans. And when they succeed like They Call Him Cemetery does, it's because the people that make these movies really love their subject matter. Judging by Carnimeo's other films, I didn't think much of him. This one certainly had me reconsidering
