AND GOD SAID TO CAIN...

 

It's Euro Western time again, with a 1970 Italian-German film called AND GOD SAID TO CAIN. The movie was co-written and directed by the legendary Antonio Margheriti (under his usual alias of Anthony Dawson). The big highlight in this entry is that long-time spaghetti western bad guy Klaus Kinski is not just the main character--he's also ostensibly the hero. 

Gary Hamilton (Kinski) has just been released from a prison in the American West, where he has been locked up for ten years. Hamilton returns to his home town to get revenge on the man who framed him, a now-powerful rancher named Acombar (Peter Carsten). Despite being all on his own, and up against dozens of Acombar's men, Hamilton brings an ironic end to his enemy's status as town boss. 

The story of a sullen, taciturn loner facing off against a rich, powerful man and his army of hired guns has been the basis of many Euro Western films. AND GOD SAID TO CAIN... is a step above the usual examples, due to the film making skills of Antonio Margheriti and the presence of Klaus Kinski. Margheriti infuses the story with a number of Gothic elements. Most of the film takes place on a single night, during a massive windstorm, as Hamilton flits in and out of hiding, picking off Acombar's men one by one. In between killings the lone avenger takes refuge in a series of underground caves, and throughout the evening the town church bell toils relentlessly. (Hamilton makes clever use of this bell to take out one of his enemies.) There's even some organ music included in Carlo Savina's morbid score, and, yes, there's a gorgeous woman in a nightgown. This woman, played by Marcella Michelangeli, happens to be Hamilton's former love, and she helped betray Gary, and then married Acombar and enjoyed his ill-gotten riches. 

Usually when Klaus Kinski appeared in a spaghetti western, the hero was gunning for him. This time Kinski is the one looking for his own brand of justice....but because it's Klaus, the viewer still isn't all that sure about him (it isn't until late in the film that we find out exactly how Hamilton was wronged). Kinski is perfectly suited to play someone committed to an implacable mission. Unlike many other Euro Westerns made during the same period, AND GOD SAID TO CAIN... doesn't waste time going off on bizarre tangents or contrived attempts at humor. Margheriti thankfully keeps things on point, but he does help the story along with a number of off-kilter camera angles and set-ups. 

Peter Carsten as Acombar is more like a traditional American Western villain than the usual outlandish spaghetti western main baddie. (Ironically, Klaus Kinski would have made an excellent Acombar!). The most notable performer in the supporting cast is Mario Bava favorite Luciano Pigozzi, credited under his alias Alan Collins. 

This was the very first time I had seen AND GOD SAID TO CAIN... , and I was suitably impressed. The fact that the version I saw, on the Tubi streaming platform, was a fantastic-looking uncut widescreen print, no doubt influenced my appreciation. The Tubi version had a English dub track, but the result of that wasn't too bad--besides, Klaus Kinski's penetrating gaze says more than a hundred lines of dialogue. 

Everything in AND GOD SAID TO CAIN... will be familiar to spaghetti western buffs, but the fact that it works so well is due to Antonio Margheriti (an efficient filmmaker who could handle all sorts of genres) and Klaus Kinski, who is a very different type of Euro Western leading man.