Django Kills Silently (AKA Django Kills Softly, Bill il taciturno)

Dir: Massimo Pupillo (credited as Max Hunter)

1967

***

Django Kills Silently, or Django Kills Softly if you'd prefer, is the 16th Django film to be made and the 15th of the unofficial sequels. There are 40+ Django films and I'd bet good money that more will be made in the future but it is safe to say that Django Kills Silently, or Django Kills Softly if you'd prefer, is about as average as the character's films get. George Eastman's Django however is far from average, he is by far the tallest the cult spaghetti western character has ever been. Eastman's (real name Luigi Montefiori) height led to quite a few problems in his early acting career and I'm not sure it does this version of Django any favours either, as it can be quite distracting at times. With all due respect, no one can match Franco Nero's Django, every other attempt just hasn't worked as well. Give me a George Eastman Italian horror over his Django films any day of the week. Django Kills Silently, or Django Kills Softly if you'd prefer, is pretty forgettable for the best part, with only a couple of standout scenes worth remembering. The climax is nothing new but it is satisfying, it's just a shame that it holds back such greatness until the very end. However, it's pretty fast-paced and snappy, it doesn't drag like some westerns can and it's satisfactorily violent. I think it is probably best to regard it as its own spaghetti western, rather than part of the Django series. Nearly every spaghetti western in the late 60s and early 70s stuck 'Django' in the title hoping to gain more recognition but it never really fooled anyone. Seasoned spaghetti western fans will see a lot of charm in it and would have seen so many terrible films that it will average out somewhat but for most there is little to no interest to be had here. I appreciate the rawness of the film and I think some of the performances are pretty good and I like the natural sounding dialogue but by and large it's forgettable.