"Die Hölle von Manitoba" or "Glory City", and there are many more German-language and English-language titles for this film, is a West German 90-minute movie from 1965, so this one had its 50th anniversary last year already. The two stars in here are both familiar faces as this film came out when Pierre Brice and Lex Barker starred in the Winnetou / old Shatterhand franchise. This film here is also a western, but has nothing to do with Karl May. The writers who adapted the novel are Spanish and that's why it is also a Spanish co-production. The original writer as well as the director Sheldon Reynolds are American. As a whole, I would say that this was a pretty generic western film. Nothing about it stands really out, even if I must say that Barker is as charismatic as always and Brice is probably giving a better performance than in the Winnetou films. However, the story is just very stereotypical and offers little that is not entirely forgettable. A lot of the film has to do with friendship. The relationship between the two protagonists is one of the better aspects of the movie. On the downside though, the antagonist(s) and most of the plot are entirely forgettable. The ending also feels like style over substance. And just like the Winnetou films, this film here also lacks shade completely in terms of the characters. They are either all good or downright evil. I do not recommend the watch, except you are a real die-hard western fan. Thumbs down from me. Oh yeah, final note: It's a color movie, not to be taken for granted half a century ago, but Barker/Brice weren't doing black-and-white films, at least not at this point.

In Glory , ¨the fastest growing city in the West , only the fastest guns square off in¨ , as population pay to see a man kill gunfighters . Today, founder's day they'll pay to see a man kill another man . There appears former rancher Clint Brenner (Lex Barker) and the younger Reese (Pierre Brice) , his equal in skill at gun-fighting to participate in ¨Brenner versus Deakes¨ duel . Both of them help farmer Seth Grande (George Rigaud) free the locals of Manitoba town Glory City from land baron Jack Villaine's (Gerard Tichy) and his hoodlums (Antonio Molino Rojo, Aldo Sambrell) who rule a kingdom of terror. Needing money , both of whom arrange a showdown for paid entrance and the winner take all . They're got to face a gunfight once more to live up to their legend once more to win just once more time and more money . The two gunmen get a friendship on the job but ignore they'll be pitted as adversaries in the town's founder's day popular duel by last-minute blind substitution . The excitement starts at the duel when the hands point straight up . They've nothing like'em together in a duel but in the heat and hate of the small town nothing can tear'em apart . Thus, a little town square will become the scenario of the most spectacular duel ever attempted . Two men who faced many guns together , now face each other . In Glory You Either Ended Up In The Money.. Or In The Ground! Who will survive and what will be left of them? .

Die Weiße Hölle Von Manitoba or Sfida a Glory City is a Paella/Schnitzel Western produced by Miguel Echarri and Artur Brauner , it concerns upon a gun-battle pits among two individualist characters . It is an average story with excessive dialog and in Tortilla Western sub-genre style , but the movie follows more the US models than Spaghetti wake . As it results to be a familiar film , with no much violence , exception some brief shootouts . It's a serious German/Spanish Western with particular character studio about two gunslingers become friends, but also seeking money and unable to avoid their reputation and the duel-challenges . The film was starred by two intimate actors , Pierre Brice , famous Winnitou , and his endearing partner Old Shatterhand /Lex Barker , both of whom unforgettable starring of German Karl May series . The lion's share of the acting meat deservedly goes to George Rigaud and Gerard Ticy , the good guy and bad guy respectively . Many other familiar faces from Chorizo/Spaghetti , there appears ordinary secondaries in Spanish/Italian Western such as Aldo Sambrell , Carlos Casaravilla , Luis Barboo , Santiago Ontañon , Angel Del Pozo and Victor Israel , among others . Furthermore , three secondary players from Leone's A fistful of dollars as Marianne Koch , Wolfgang Lukschy and Antonio Molino Rojo . Acceptable cinematography by Federico G. Laraya , filmed on location in Almeria , Andalucía, and Balcázar western village, Barcelona, Cataluña , Spain . Atmospheric musical score by Angel Arteaga following American style more than Morricone sounds . The motion picture was middlingly directed by Sheldon Reynolds . He produced and directed some episodes about Sherlock Holmes , as he acquired a license to produce and direct adaptations of the Sherlock stories, and successfully formed a consortium which acquired the rights at auction. Reynolds also filmed some thriller as ¨Assignment kill¨ , ¨Carnival's killer¨ and ¨Foreign intrigue¨ . ¨A place called Glory¨ resulted to be his only and mediocre Western .

The thing that intrigued me about this movie was the character of Clint Brenner and Lex Barker's portrayal of him. Of course there are the usual Western clichés like a range war, the loner coming to town, one man facing a whole gang of hired guns or even the gunslinger fight at the end. Though this one has a nice twist, in that it is an annual prize fight leaving one contestant dead held by the obviously sensationalist, voyeuristic and bloodthirsty population of the town of Glory.

Back to Clint Brenner, one of the gunslingers: He is the essential loner who in a rather funny dialogue verbatim expresses that he chooses not to get involved with other people. Nevertheless he is no sociopath, he has got humour and he gets along with people, he even helps them if it cannot be avoided. What might be a deficit, the fact that it is never explained how and why he got to dislike human company, (there are some hints though) is rather an advantage because the focus is now on how opens up again. In the end there is one, maybe two or three relationships he has got. Two scenes are really outstanding in this context. The first is when the wounded Jade tries to ask him to abandon the fight and Lex Barker's facial expression, especially his eyes, grows suddenly very hard and unforgiving when only the moment before he was very soft. His whole demeanor is saying that he won't discuss this with anybody. The second scene is him lying on the bed just before the fight staring at the ceiling and giving the impression that he is pretty well aware of the fact, that this whole business will boil down on either him killing somebody or him being killed, with every implication this might hold. I also love how this is contrasted with Reese', his opponents, preparations. He is almost carelessly easy and light-hearted about it.