Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I watched this spaghetti western under the title A MAN CALLED JOE CLIFFORD although the title APOCALYPSE JOE is much more exciting. It's a regular vehicle for western star Anthony Steffen, who certainly looked the part of a heroic gunslinger as much as Franco Nero did if not more so. This one has a plot involving Steffen inheriting a mine only to discover that it's controlled by the usual gang of corrupt and vicious types who use murder to keep opposition at bay.The twist with this western is that Steffen plays a somewhat unconventional hero with aspirations of grandeur; he'd rather be a Shakespearean actor on the stage than a fighter! This leads him to dress up and fool his enemy on occasion, although it's notable that this sub-plot is dispensed with entirely for the climax, a traditional large-scale gunfight around the town in which the bullets fly, the enemy is endlessly gunned down, and the flames billow.

Spanish/Italian co-production dealing with a traveling actor with his roulette and gunslinger named Joe Clifford (Anthony Steffen) , kills enemies exclaiming : ¨To be or not to be¨ . At the beginning he is imprisoned , when is freed by his aunt , Joe aware that has inherited a gold mine from his uncle . Returning to claim the mine , he finds town boss named Berg (Eduardo Fajardo) , his uncle's killer , controls it instead . Clifford sets out in pursuit the murderers . At the end takes place a long shootout at the little town in which Clifford is only helped by the barber . Then Clifford tells he goes to London for a meeting with Shakespeare .This Paella/Spaghetti Western is filled with action , thrills , horse ridding , brawls at the Saloon and crossfire . This is an acceptable Spaghetti starred by Antonio De Teffe , under pseudonym Anthony Steffen ; he steals the show as a gunman relishing his secret identity dressed in Shakesperean actor , or disguising as a priest or posing as a woman ; executing thespian skills , bounds and leaps , twists and climbs and throughly enjoys himself . Anthony Steffen in his ordinary role as a gunfighter who seeks vengeance against his eternal enemy , Eduardo Fajardo , and his hoodlums as the bouncing Fernando Bilbao . As Steffen freeing the town from nasties led by Eduardo Fajardo , using both gunning down and shrewdness . Both of whom starred as deadly contenders a lot of Western .The picture is well starred by Anthony Steffen-Antonio De Teffe- , he began playing secondary roles into typical examples of popular Italian films of the late 50s as sword and sandal epics, comedies, adventures and was with spaghetti westerns that renamed achieved worldwide stardom. His acting is often accused of being wooden, but in many manners is ideally suited to playing the steely-faced gunslinger synonymous with the genre . His others successes include well liked features as Seven Dollars to Kill, The last Mohican¨, ¨Train for Durango¨, ¨Gentleman Jo¨ , ¨Four dollars for Django¨, ¨Shango¨, ¨Arizona colt¨, ¨Apocalypse Joe¨ and several others. He was still enjoyable in other genres, specially Giallos as the successful The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave¨, ¨Death in Haiti¨ or The ¨Crimes of the Black Cat¨, a good example of Giallo where he played a blind pianist - one of his roles he most liked- , and ¨Killer Fish¨ . Being a Spanish/Italian co-production in the movie appears usual support actors such as : Mary Paz Pondal , Miguel Del Castillo and Fernando Bilbao as a bearded hunk , among others .This Western takes elements about ¨Hamlet¨and ¨Macbeth¨ . Other Spaghetti freely based on famous novel by Shakespeare is ¨The Fury of Johnny Kid¨ by Gianni Puccini with Peter Lee Lawrence and Cristina Galbo from ¨Romeo and Giuletta¨ . Other Spaghetti based on known and classic novels , are the following : ¨Johnny Hamlet¨(1968) by Enzo G Castellari ; ¨The return of Ringo¨ by Duccio Tessari inspired on the ¨Odyssey¨, ¨John Il Bastardo¨(1967) based on books from Zorrilla and Moliere ; and ¨Anche Nel West Céra Una Volta Dio ¨ (1968)by Marino Girolami¨based on ¨Island of treasure¨ by Robert Stevenson. The motion picture is produced by Eduardo Manzanos Brochero who started producing ¨Il Coyote¨ and ¨The Jiusticia De Coyote¨ by Joaquin Romero Marchent with Abel Salazar and Gloria Marin . After that , he produced with his company Copercines ¨Vengeance of Zorro¨ and ¨L'Ombra di Zorro¨ (1962) by Joaquin Marchent with Frank Latimore . Eduardo Manzanos built a Western town in Hoyo De Manzanares (Madrid) with sets by Cubero and Jose Luis Galicia , today sadly disappeared , called ¨Golden City¨ where filmed several Western as Welcome Padre Murray , Brandy , various Zorros and this one . He produced various films for Marchent brothers as Joaquin Romero Marchent : ¨Cabalgando Hacia Muerte¨ , ¨Three good men¨; and Rafael Marchent : ¨Quien Grita vengeance¨, ¨Two crosses in Danger Pass¨ ; and for Italian directors as ¨Sabor Odio¨ by Umberto Lenzi¨and ¨Winchester 1 between 1000¨ by Primo Zeglio .

Smart and lethal traveling actor and gunman Joe Clifford (a fine and credible performance by Anthony Steffen) inherits a gold mine from his uncle. Ruthless town boss Berg (splendidly played to he snarling hateful hilt by Eduardo Fajardo) controls said mine. When Joe finds out that Berg killed his uncle, he decides it's time for some major payback. Director Leopoldo Savona, who also co-wrote the clever and involving script with Eduardo Manzanos Brochero, does a solid and straightforward job with the sturdy material: the snappy pace rarely lets up for minute, the tone is fairly serious, yet playful, the thrilling shoot-outs are handled with rip-snorting flair, and there are nice moments of inspired dark humor sprinkled throughout. This film further benefits from sound acting by an able cast, with stand-out contributions from the lovely Mary Paz Pondal as sultry saloon gal Rita, Fernando Cerrulli as amiable rascally drunk Doc Klan, Giulio Baraghini as the corrupt Sheriff Floyd, and Fernando Bilbao as fierce behemoth Bodo. The large scale climactic confrontation between Joe and the townspeople versus Berg and his goons totally smokes in no uncertain terms: This extremely exciting and impressively epic set piece takes up the whole last third of the picture and really delivers the stirring goods like nobody's business. Julio Ortas' handsome widescreen cinematography gives the film a pleasing crisp look. Bruno Nicola provides a spirited and harmonic orchestral score. Highly recommended.

In the world of the Italian western we have the lofty pinnacle reached by Sergio Leone, the lower plateaus managed by Sergio Corbucci, a few other efforts (Trinity series, works by Solima) that share that space and a multitude of films piled into a dark valley of wretchedness. True exploitation films, the average Italian western manages to touch all the required genre identifiers (lone hero, nasty villain, absurd gunfights, saloon scene, etc.) without any sense of pacing or originality. When a film comes along that actually tries something different, it seems like a ray of wonderful sunlight has suddenly entered the dark valley.The idea of a gunfighter who would rather be a Shakepearean actor is interesting but the idea is never taken very far. Antonio Steffan is not a wide-ranging actor and it's really obvious whenever he is in a disguise (about four times in the whole film!). The film opens with a great scene where Clifford is performing Hamlet's famous soliloquy and he suddenly shoots four men with a gun hidden in the prop skull! Unfortunately nothing tops that image for the rest of the film. We never find out why he shot the men as the film moves on to a stock story about a stolen gold mine deed.Great title (although the name "Apocalypse Joe" is meaningless), good score and decent photography help the film along. The pacing is slow at times and the final extended gunfight is juvenile, like a bunch of kids playing in the park.Better then most Italian westerns so if you are a fan this is a good one to find. For the average movie person, it promises more then it can deliver.