MINNESOTA CLAY is the second Euro Western directed by Sergio Corbucci. First released in Italy in late 1964, it stars Cameron Mitchell in the title role (by this time Mitchell had plenty of experience working on productions made in Italy and Spain).
The story is set in 1883, and Minnesota Clay, a famed gunman, is serving time in a prison labor camp near the Mexican border. Clay escapes and goes back to his hometown, looking for the men who set him up. Clay gets involved in a war between two factions trying to control the town--one group led by Mexican bandit chief Ortiz (Fernando Sancho) and the other by corrupt sheriff Fox (Georges Riviere). Clay tries to fend off both, and protect his long-lost daughter, while dealing with the fact that his eyesight is failing.
MINNESOTA CLAY was released after A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, and it has a few similarities with that game-changing classic. Both movies deal with a deadly lone gunman and two warring criminal gangs, and at one point Cameron Mitchell is captured and beaten up just like Clint Eastwood was in FISTFUL. MINNESOTA CLAY is a much more traditional western, but it does have some cold-blooded elements typical of a Sergio Corbucci film. The climatic shootout nighttime shootout, in which Clay takes advantage of the darkness and uses his hearing to defeat his foes, has a touch of the Gothic about it, a style that would be much more pronounced in future Corbucci westerns.
Cameron Mitchell's Minnesota Clay is a dour protagonist, and he isn't as intriguing as a Man With No Name or a Django. It does need to be pointed out that Clay has a lot on his mind, having just escaped from jail and gotten himself into a gang war. He also encounters the daughter that he never knew (and she in turn doesn't know who he really is). Clay's poor eyesight is an effective gimmick, and Corbucci would later use variations on this plot point, such as Django's mangled hands in DJANGO and the hero's mute status in THE GREAT SILENCE.
There are plenty of familiar Spaghetti Western faces in the supporting cast, such as Antonio Casas. Georges Riviere is a particularly slimy villain, and Fernando Sancho plays one of his many larger-than-life Mexican warlords. Every performer in the film is overshadowed by Ethel Rojo as the sexy but duplicitous Estella, who uses her devious charms on Ortiz, Fox, and Clay in order to get what she wants.
The version I watched of MINNESOTA CLAY was on the Tubi channel, and while the visual quality was decent enough, the English dub track was mediocre, with plenty of clunky dialogue and campy voice overs. The English version of this movie also ends very abruptly after the climax of the final shootout. International versions feature a coda after the shootout, which presents a more positive outcome. I was able to view the alternate ending on the internet, and personally I think the finale of the English version is much better.
I wouldn't call MINNESOTA CLAY a great Euro Western, or even one of Sergio Corbucci's better Westerns. It will probably be appreciated by those who don't like the more wild and wacky aspects of the Spaghetti Western genre.
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