Anime buie

Featured image

Yet another oddball from director/performer Emilio Ghione.

Just as his The Black Circle (Il circolo nero) showed an influence from Louis Feuillade, this starts like a Les Vampires-style fashionable urban criminal underclass flick. But after only 12.5 minutes of some dope early gangsta shit, the story morphs into yet another installment in Ghione's spaghetti Western series, For a Few Sheep More, documenting the untold story of the contribution of Italian immigration to Texas' early twentieth century boom in sheep ranching - with some unimpressive diva-glam by Hesperia along the way.

Biggest mystery: how did Za La Mort manage to part with his hometown's flashy shoes?

Online: Wikimedia

The flashy shoes of Za La Mort and crew
Remember: when you're handing out a beatdown, do it dressed with style
Goof: Italian streetcar in Chicago
Somewhere in early twentieth century America, there was a streetcar headed to Piazza Venezia

Related:

The Black Circle (Il circolo nero)

Peculiar piece of work this one... Starts like a Fantômas-style gentleman-thief/mysterious criminal ring flick. When Our Deadbeat Hero stiffs The Villain with a gambling debt, Deadbeat is given a choice: join The Black Circle or die. Just when he is initiated, the scene immediately switches from Italy to a Chicago wool business - for 16 seconds - then to sheep Out West - for 12.5 seconds - then back to Deadbeat and the Black Circle. Deadbeat is assigned a theft and accepts. But then he sees a picture of his Mom and punks out.

So, after only 17.5 minutes of zero action, less than halfway, The Black Circle crime story ends, and Deadbeat loses his cherished greasy hairstyle (just a bit) to go Out West, where men are men, to join the cow-boys doing whatever it is that cow-boys do with sheep, in a new spaghetti Western romance story: A Fistful of Sheep.

Clearly, footage is missing. Nonetheless, it's hard to conceive of any footage that could credibly link these two stories. Peculiar piece of work this one...