Such a frustrating disappointment

Sorry, this movie sucks

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

There are some really terrific ideas in this violent movie that, if executed clearly, could have elevated it from Spaghetti-western blandness into something special. Unfortunately, A TOWN CALLED HELL is one of the worst edited movies imaginable! Scenes start and end abruptly, characters leave for long stretches, the performances (and accents) of the actors are pretty inconsistent, etc.Robert Shaw is a Mexican(!) revolutionary who, after taking part in wiping out a village, stays on to become a priest(!)...ten years later the village is being run by "mayor" Telly Salavas. Stella Stevens arrives looking for revenge on the man who killed her husband. Colonel Martin Landau arrives looking for Shaw. They all yell at each other A LOT and they all shoot each other A LOT. Fernando Rey is in it too (as a blind man). The performances aren't bad, but they are mightily uneven. Savalas has an accent sometimes as does Landau (who is really grating here). Shaw and Rey prove that they are incapable of really embarrassing themselves and Stevens looks pretty foxy (if a bit out of place amongst the sweaty filth).

This star-studded British/Spanish co-production looks great, what you can see of it. I have three versions, two VHS, one DVD, and all are terribly cropped, so badly that it looks as if buildings are having conversations with each other. Few films suffer as badly from pan and scan as this one, as director Robert Parrish seems to have been so enamored with the widescreen process that he tended to use both sides of the screen at once, neglecting the middle. Another user comments that we see the entire inhabitants of a church massacred at the beginning; not in any of the copies I have. There are some abrupt cuts of peasants firing their rifles, one Mexican officer is shot, Shaw and Landau celebrating, and that's it. We never find out why Shaw has become a priest (if he really is), we never find out what happens to Don Carlos (Savalas) although I suspect he was called home to star in Kojak, as his departure seems arbitrary. And there is a strange flashback sequence where Michael Craig (Mysterious Island) is dancing around in a bowler hat and bad suit in the great old English music hall tradition to the 1960 hit BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS, not sung by Johnny Horton here but with some lyrics I've never heard before. On the plus side, the location is great, a huge old ruined fortress with Escher-style stairs leading nowhere, some nice scenery-chewing by Robert Shaw, and good performances by Stevens, Landau, Lettieri, and Telly Savalas as Telly Savalas. I didn't really like this film, but I haven't exactly seen it. I will seek the widescreen version and make my decision then.

This movie is a triumph of the spirit, if by "triumph of the spirit" you mean "I have no idea what's actually going on with this movie." However, it creates obsessions. Have you ever seen that movie "SIEGE" where a group of Nazis called "new order" take over a gay bar? Neither have I though I would have liked to.My first exposure to this amazing piece of cinematography came shrink-wrapped from a junk store in New Hampshire next to blood and semen-stained ALF sheets and a shrunken goats head. Back then it was known as "SIEGE," and with a plot like SIEGE's, who would not want to see it? Expecting fascist gay bar follies, and being stoned, I was taken aback to find Telly Savalas ruling the screen. . . ruling the town, really.This movie has no plot. Strike that, it has 17 plots, all of which last for two minutes. If you do the math though, I think the actual movie is longer than that. Due to the fact that the opening screen clearly said "SIEGE," the electrifying introduction of this movie, which I understand has Mexicans, is lost forever in the sands of time. Telly Savalas is clearly the mayor of a town called Bastard, and frankly, it's about friggin time. He's crucified five minutes later. He's replaced by a Mexican who find's Telly Savalas' barechested, muscle-bound shoes too !LIVE! to fill. I can't remember if the Mexican dude is bumped off, but a general comes in five minutes later. I'm pretty sure the general is also a Mexican.A woman rides in on a hearse. There is also a priest.My mind explodes.If you want E*X*C*I*T*E*M*E*N*T, "Speed 2" can't touch "A Town Called Bastard" with Ernest Borgnine's weenis at the end of a ten foot pole. Period. I love when somebody writes the word period after a sentence they want to emphasize. It really doubles up the finality of it all. Period.p.s. the guy from jaws is in this movie.

"A Town Called Hell" is a wonderful western that takes place in Mexico, circa 1905. Telly Savalas plays a memorable role as a villain looking for a mysterious man named "Augila". There is some good footage of hanging people. Telly Savalas's death scene is hilarious as it is brilliant. Martin Landau plays a jewish/mexican colonel who gets to wear a funny-looking brown mexican uniform, but no beanie. Robert Shaw, known for his classic performance as Quint in "Jaws", plays a priest.... or is he? Stella Stevens, a has-been, plays a blond prostitute. There are some good action scenes and Johnny Horton's "The Battle Of New Orleans" can be heard in the soundtrack in a flashback scene at a mexican dance party. A man hiding underneath a deck tries to obtain a fallen coin above with a stick. A satired attack on a church opens up the film. Everything in it is fabulous. This is a hard to find film, along with 2 other mexican western classics, "Blood and Guns" and "Villa Rides". See it, you'll laugh yourself silly.