Hate Thy Neighbor (1968)

HATE THY NEIGHBOR is a decent little revenge western from Ferdinando Baldi, something of an expert director in the genre. It's about your usual gunslinger type hero seeking revenge for the massacre of his family and the plot intrigues that ensue. One of the worst things about the film is the main actor, Spiros Focas, who has no charisma and evokes no sympathy in the viewer whatsoever.Thankfully a larger-than-life team of villains is much more interesting than the hero and lift the interest quite considerably. Later exploitation and video nasty stalwart George Eastman stars in an early role as a hulking brute who goes around raping and killing and the like before being brought to book. The chief villain is the incredibly slimy Malone, as played by German actor Horst Frank. Frank gives a thoroughly creepy turn in the role and the only pity is that the hero can't match the power of these bad guys. Still, there's fun to be had from snake pits and claw weapons with which slaves are made to fight, and the gun action is pretty cool too.

Along with the town undertaker, a Man follows his brother's killer (George Eastman) to Mexico, where sinister (and I mean sinister!) gringo Horst Frank forces his Mexican slaves to fight to the death using steel claws. Frank then sets his sights on Eastman's secret goldmine, holding him captive and torturing him until the justice seeking brother comes to take him away.A fairly standard revenge plot is helped along nicely by some interesting ideas, unusual developments, and some fairly graphic violence, keeping things exciting and entertaining throughout.Due to the crackpot nature of some of the film's plot elements, this seems more like a drive-in movie than a spaghetti western.Horst Frank is a lot of fun to watch as the deranged, yet urbane bad guy, while George Eastman is good and nasty too. However, the hero is too bland and cardboard. You don't really feel anything about him, one way or another.

After "Preparati la bara!", director Baldi made another movie with the same team of villains: Horst Frank as the boss and George Eastman as his right hand man. "Odia il prossimo tuo" is just a minor work, but overall enjoyable. Ken (Spiros Focas) wants to kill his brother's murderer Gary Stevens (Eastman), but Stevens seems to be protected by the powerful Malone (Frank). But when Stevens and Malone become enemies, Ken tries to get his revenge.The three most memorable scenes of the movie are: 1) at the beginning of the movie, when Ken's brother is desperately knocking on every door trying to find help while Stevens is hunting him. 2) The duel with metal claws instead of knives, quite unique. 3) Malone tortures Stevens, hanging upside down above a snake pit. Yes, it's a violent movie. It suffers a bit from Focas not being one of the familiar (anti-)heroes of the genre, but with Eastman, Frank and beautiful Nicoletta Macchiavelli, some good actors save the flick.

"Hate Thy Neighbour" combines the classic Spaghetti revenge scenario, with the regular Spaghetti "map" tale. The story centres around Ken Dakota's search for the murderer of his brother, who was killed by bandit Gary Stevens, at the behest of Mexican land owner Chris Malone, for a goldmine map. Stevens tears the map in two, and gives Malone half, spiralling into a running feud of double crosses between the two, whilst Dakota attempts to bring the men responsible for his brothers death to justice.This is a really enjoyable Spaghetti Western, albeit with the odd moment of corny dialogue. It includes some really exciting moments, such as peasants and bandits duelling with metal claws for Malone's pleasure, torture by hanging over a pit of snakes, and some very talented bandito musicianship! My experiences to date have highlighted that Director Baldi can come up with some great movies (Blindman, Viva Django) and some absolute turkeys (Get Mean and, so I've heard, Rita of the West). Hate Thy Neighbour doesn't hit the highs of Blindman by any means, but is certainly an enjoyable view, with George Eastman (as Stevens) and Horst Frank (Malone) putting in good roles, and the plot having some quality twists and turns.Not the easiest of movies to get your hands on, but certainly worth the effort if you are a fan of the Spaghetti genre.