THE GRAND DUEL is a typical entry in the spagwest genre. With a script by Ernesto Gastaldi, Italy's hardest-working scriptwriter of the period, and direction from Giancarlo Santi, who worked as assistant director on THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, it has brilliant credentials behind it as well as a cast of some of the genre's heaviest hitters. It could have quite easily been a classic and parts of it are – the haunting music and theme that plays repeatedly throughout the movie manages to out-do Morricone and is possibly my favourite spaghetti western score; Tarantino must have liked it too, because he used it in KILL BILL. However, THE GRAND DUEL loses something because of its focus on outrageous comedy and the kind of bumbling antics that Bud Spencer became associated with. If it had stayed deadly serious throughout, I imagine that this would be a much revered film today.

Instead it's merely a quite good western, sometimes very good, sometimes awful. The stunt team is certainly spot on, although I could have done without the see-saw bit at the beginning where a guy is propelled into the air like something out of a cartoon. The action scenes are well handled and the final duel even manages to approach the ending of THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY in terms of quality, with superb accompanying music and decent camera-work. Essentially, though, what makes this more than watchable is the leading presence of Lee Van Cleef, appearing exactly the same as he did in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE and giving another stern performance with his acting for the most part in his eyes – hands down Van Cleef is my favourite spagwest actor and he hasn't disappointed me yet.

Van Cleef is given some good support, especially from the likes of regular German bad guy Horst Frank and newcomer Peter O'Brien, who only acted in this one film before disappearing off the face of the earth (he looks uncannily like Ray Lovelock in THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE). The big and bloated Jess Hahn is also around for comic relief, although he's so badly dubbed that I dreaded him popping up on screen, while Klaus Grunberg has a ball as a homosexual villain and Marc Mazza's bald head steals much of the film. Also present is Dominique Darel, a very attractive leading lady who died at the tender age of 28, six years after this film was released. Italian cinema lost a true beauty with her passing.

There's a great DVD set put out by St. Clair Vision that offers nine films, appropriately titled "Spaghetti Westerns", and fairly oozing garlic oil and marinara. If you're only familiar with the Clint Eastwood 'Man With No Name' films, you'll be intrigued and entertained by the offerings here, among them "The Grand Duel". Lee Van Cleef stars doing what he does best, as a calm lawman on the outside with a seething vengeance on the inside. His character is a former marshal, but you're never really sure about that until he produces a star, and even then it's questionable.

The only other Western I can think of that offers a homosexual character is "Little Big Man", and in that picture it was an Indian. Here, one of the Saxon Brothers is an overtly limp wristed, white suited desperado with a silk scarf for added effect. The fact that he's a ruthless gunman is almost beside the fact, his pock marked face is worthy of a seamy horror flick.

The three Saxon Brothers are out to avenge the death of their father, and numerous flashback sequences that offer the darkened outline of the killer point to only one person, and yet when Sheriff Clayton (Van Cleef) reveals it was himself, it almost comes as a surprise. The Saxon's had fingered rival Philip Wermeer (Peter O'Brien) for the murder of the Patriarch; Wermeer's own father in turn had been murdered over his ownership of a silver claim. Early in the story, it appears that Clayton's quarry is Wermeer, until they team up following the apparent killing of Wermeer by bounty hunters - neat twist!

If you're used to the Eastwood style of the genre, you might find the circus type acrobatics of "The Grand Duel" to be somewhat off base, but it seems to be standard fare in some of the other films on the collection I mentioned earlier. Here it's Philip who entertains with some improbable flying maneuvers, but it does make for highly innovative action sequences.

Also pretty clever was the game of checkers at the Saxon City saloon. Played with glasses of whiskey, it seemed to me that the winner would be the guy who got drunk first; after all, you had to down your shot after jumping the opposition.

I would swear I'd heard portions of the musical score in another film, it's so provocative you find yourself actually anticipating some it. There's a definite Ennio Marricone influence, though here it's provided by Sergio Bardotti and Luis Bacalov. Quite definitely another reason to tune in.

"The Grand Duel" is definitely one to sample, coming out near the end of the Eurowest cycle. Be prepared for marshals in business suits and the not so subtle portrayal of a gay bad guy, but also keep an eye out for the new patriarch David Saxon sporting the same dimple in the middle of his chin as the portrait of his father hanging on a wall. If that weren't enough, I'd say the bartender at the Saxon saloon was one gay caballero too!

A grizzled ex-sheriff (Lee vanCleef) helps a man framed for murder to confront the powerful trio of brothers who want him dead.

There is a bit of history for the people involved. The film was directed by Giancarlo Santi, who had previously worked as Sergio Leone's assistant director on "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and "Once Upon a Time in the West". So that's good. Also, the film's music was composed by future Academy Award winner Luis Enríquez Bacalov; the title score was later used in Quentin Tarantino's film "Kill Bill: Volume 1".

As far as spaghetti westerns go, it is decent. Not great, not terrible. Probably not very memorable. Personally, I really like Lee VanCleef, and I think his presence is the film's saving grace. As with many Italian films, the dubbing is cheesy and it is strange to hear VanCleef dubbed when he obviously speaks English. But that's the fun of these films.