Day of Anger (1967)

DAY OF ANGER stars two of the spaghetti genre's superstars. Lee Van Cleef is the fast gunslinger, Giuliano Gemma is the young man, son of a prostitute, made fun of and treated shamelessly by the town that is taken under the wing of the older, more experienced man. Scott Mary(his mother's name) is tutored in the use of a short gun, he seems to have a natural talent, and he and Van Cleef take over the town.Van Cleef is righting old wrongs, but he goes to far with the only man who ever treated the young man decently and it causes a confrontation between the pair in the finale of the film. Day of anger was voted by spaghetti western database as number 14 in the top 20 spaghetti westerns and number 7 by Tarantino in his top 20 favourite spaghetti westerns.

Day of Anger (1967) is considered a top 20 by most fans and critics. I definitely agree this is a great SW movie with good music and acting by Lee Van Cleef, and Gemma. The story is great about a simple man with dreams to have respect and to own his own colt, but unfortunately Scott Mary (Gemma) is treated like dirt by the townspeople of Clifton and verbally and physically abused and it is a revenge style theme about a man name Talby (Van Cleef), who gets out of jail and goes to collect 50,000 from Wild Jack, who in return was lied and double crossed by some of the good old folks of Clifton so Talby goes to collect and helps mentor Scott, who becomes a side kick. It all changes when Talby kills someone close to Scott and then he gets a reality check and faces off with his mentor. Movie is overall fast paced with good action and story.

Giuliano Gemma gets no respect in "Day of Anger", but this film might be getting too much respect in the "spaghetti western" sweepstakes. The performances by Lee Van Cleef and Giuliano Gemma are fine, but the film is very choppy, with little or no character development of anybody else. Sure there are lots of closeups, and some familiar faces from the "Dollar Trilogy", but the script is pretty simple. Van Cleef teaches Gemma the tricks of the gunfighter trade, then once he gains respect, it eventually leads to conflict. Although "Day of Anger" is good, it certainly is no threat to "The Big Gundown", which is often considered the best of the non-Leone "spaghetti westerns". - MERK

Tonino Valerii's "I Giorni Dell'Ira" aka. "Day Of Anger" is an excellent Spaghetti Western with great actors and one of the genre's best Non-Moricone scores. Furthermore, "Day Of Anger" contains some of the most remarkable lines in Spaghetti Western dialogue.Scott (Giuliano Gemma), the illegitimate son of a prostitute, lives as an outcast of society in a town called Clifton, where he is responsible for the garbage removal. The only people who treat him like a human being are the prostitutes from the local bordello, a vagabond, and an old stableman and former Sheriff called Murph, who taught him how to draw a gun fast. One day, however, a mysterious gunman called Frank Talby (the great Lee Van Cleef) comes to town, and begins to teach Scott some self-respect. Scott, who now calls himself Scott Mary (because his Mother's first name was Mary), follows Talby, who leaves town after shooting a man in self-defense and getting acquitted at court. But Talby, who teaches Scott one lesson after another for his life as a gunslinger, still got unfinished business with the "good" people of Clifton. And Scott Mary, who is given a gun by Talby, is just too happy to follow Talby back to Clifton and demand the respect he deserves from the people who oppressed him for years.The acting in "Day Of Anger" is excellent, Lee Van Cleef is brilliant as always, Giuliano Gemma is great too. The supporting actors are also very good, I specially liked Al Mulock as an outlaw, and Benito Steffanelli as a hired killer. The excellent score by Riz Ortolani is one of the genre's best non-Morricone soundtracks, the cinematography is also great. The dialogue is superb, lines like the ten lessons taught by Talby (one of them is the title of this review) are unforgettable film history."Day Of Anger", an excellent and particularly moving Spaghetti Western, is a must-see for us fans of the genre, but also highly recommended to everybody else. 9 out of 10! Great!