I lunghi giorni dell’odio (1968)

Known as This Man Can’t Die and Long Day of Hate, this Italian Western stars Guy Madison, who had been the title character in the TV series The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickock, as Martin Benson, a Civil War veteran and former outlaw who is trying to clean up his act by working as an undercover agent for the U.S. Army.

He’s already helped capture and execute three members of the gang he’s snuck into — he sends the reward and guns home to his father, a man who still looks at him as a criminal — but he’s tired of this life. Yet his hard work will get his captain promoted and he’s forced to stay working.

The gang learns that Benson was the man who has done them wrong, so they find out where his family lives and murder his parents and assault his sister, leaving her mute. When his brother Daniel finds one of the gang members near death, he decides to nurse him back to health so he and his brother can get revenge.

Maybe Benson’s life isn’t going so well. That said, Rosalba Neri is his girlfriend. There are worse things, right?

Director Gianfranco Baldanello — who often worked as Frank G. Carroll — also directed Colt In the Hand of the DevilDanger!! Death Ray, Man with the Golden Winchester and Very Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind. He also wrote the giallo The Girl In Room 2A but mostly worked as an assistant director. He also co-directed The Uranium Conspiracy with future Cannon Pictures boss Menahem Golan.

This movie has more nudity than several Italian westerns put together. That’s really all it has to make it stand out, other than the two great titles.

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