The Masked Thief (1971) Poster

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4/10
Very average Spaghetti/Paella Western shot in Spain with two usual genre stars : Craig Hill and Frank Braña
ma-cortes13 November 2018
This Chorizo/Pasta Western is a Spanish/Italian co-production that packs a great deal of zooms , crossfire , thrills , action , go riding , brawls , lots of shots and gun-play . There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing shoot'em up or stunts every few minutes and filmed in spectacular scenarios from Seseña , Manzanares del Real , Madrid , Spain . This is the tale of twins ; one a good sheriff , Bill Nolan (Craig Hill) , the other a nasty bandit and rapist , Mace Cassidy (Craig Hill) . Earlier some outlaws dressed up as saloon girls pull off a stagecoach assault , they murder a witness , and take possession of all the cash , while Mace Cassidy rapes a beautiful girl (Agata Lys) . Four years after in a little town called Okland takes place the annual Halloween celebration, there a traveling salesman (Francisco Sanz) and his daughter (Agata Lys) finger the Marshal as the boss of a band that long time ago attacked a stagecoach, raped his daughter, and killed a passenger . Along the way the upright and innocent sheriff has to resolve a bank robbery , multiple murders , and face off a mysterious masked murderer as well as prove his innoccence , discovering the true guilty of the various grisly killings .

This is a Paella/Spaghetti western with thrills, action, fights , a lot of murders and shootouts . Badly directed by Mario Bianchi, he is a sort of Italian Ed Wood, similarly to Demofilo Fidani or Miles Deem . It is a moving blending of Pepperone Western and suspense elements , along with murders in Giallo style . Italian/Spanish production filmed in Madrid surroundings , full of familiar faces , assaults , exaggerated characters , gun-down , red herrings , lots of shots and fights . The film packs action , shootouts , drama , treason , high body-count ; however , being slow-moving but slightly entertaining and approaching increasingly the Giallo style , and keeping some details that make it special in this particular Spaghetti sub-genre . Starring Craig Hill in a double role as an extremely baddie bandit , and , as a happily married lawman who attempts to find out a heist and strange killings . Craig is passable , he ravages the screen , he jumps , and bounds , hits and runs ; besides , delivering punches , slaps and kick-ass . Worthwhile watching for a demonstration of the confrontation between Craig Hill and his ominous enemies , the greedy masked man , a ruthless brother who is the evil twin and the real culprit , and his heinous hired hands , including some looks that say it all , adding a twisted ending . So-so performances for the whole casting .The notorious Spaghetti/Paella actor , the American Craig Hill is so-so in his usual tough role , here playing a ruthless outlaw , and a two-fisted , relentless sheriff . But his character as a villain cutthroat is exaggerately performed , as he plays as a cruel avenger , a violent rapist who seeks a bloody vendetta against his brother , an ordinary plot in Spaghetti/Paella Western . It stars this tarnished actor ,Craig Hill who played a lot of Spaghetti , his first Western was ¨Hands of a Gunfighter" or ¨Ocaso de un Pistolero¨ , he went on playing : "Seven Pistols for a Massacre" , "Rick and John¨ , ¨Conquerors of the West¨ , ¨Bounty hunter¨ , "I Want Him Dead" , "Fifteen Scaffolds for the Killer" , "Three Crosses of Death" , ¨Bury Them Deep¨ , and this "I want him dead¨ .Furthermore, here appears usual Italian/Spanish Western support actors , a largely secondary cast filled with familiar faces , all of them ordinary in Chorizo western . As Craig Hill is supported by a secondary cast who is frankly decent , thanks to the appearance of important secondaries from Spaghetti/Tortilla or Paella Western , these are the following ones : Frank Braña , Francisco Sanz ,Jesús Tordesillas , Maria Vico and brief appearance of Agata Lys , though she is credited top-billed . It contains an intriguing as well as catching musical score by Piero Piccioni , Spaghetti's ordinary ,though some prints appears as composer Gianni Ferrio . And an evocative and adequate cinematography by Emilio Foriscot , shot in Seseña , Colmenar Viejo , Manzanares Del Real , Madrid and Roman studios .

The motion picture was regularly directed by Mario Bianchi , often using pseudonyms as Renzo Spaziani and Frank Bronston . Mario , son of director Roberto B Montero , was an Italian craftsman , writing and directing ; working from the 70s in all kind of genres and B movies until the late 90s . Most of them starred by Richard Harrison , Frank Braña or Robert Woods . Bianchi directed some Westerns and acceptable action movies , such as : ¨1974 Più Forte Sorelle , ¨1973 Fast hand¨ , ¨1971 Masked thief¨ . And made thrillers as ¨1979 Napoli Storia d'amore and vendetta¨ , ¨1978 Napoli... i 5 Della Squadra Speciale¨ , ¨1978 Provincia Violenta¨ , ¨1977 La Banda Vallanzasca¨ and ¨Hai Sbagliato... Dovevi Uccidermi Subito!" or "Creeping Death" or "Kill the Poker Player". Mario subsequently directed soft-core and hard-core films until his retirement . This is an Italian/Spanish made Western that came to the big screen when the top time of the genre was falling .
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5/10
A far out premise undone by a cheapjack production
melvelvit-18 September 2014
A traveling salesman, in Okland for the annual Halloween celebration, fingers the sheriff as the leader of a gang that dressed up as saloon girls to hijack a stagecoach, rape his daughter, and kill a man four years earlier. The happily married lawman is innocent, of course -his evil twin's the real culprit- but that's not Okland's only cause for alarm because a masked murderer (looking like Claude Rains in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA) plans to rob a local bank during the traditional masquerade on All Hallow's Eve...

IN THE NAME OF...yada, yada, yada is pretty much a cheapjack production, unexceptional at best, with one too many day-for-night shots and contrary to any internet buzz, there's no "giallo influence" despite a couple of POV stabbings done to conceal the killer's identity. With his thick blond mane and green eyes, craggy Craig Hill (on the far side of 40 at the time) was still a handsome man and he differentiates the twins by alternating between quiet resolve and maniacal mustache-twirling.

Sexy Ágata Lys as the ravished daughter is fourth-billed in the credits but on my DVD-R cover art she's top billed over Craig. The movie poster is obviously from a late-70s re-release after Ágata became a European pop star and the titular enigma in LA NUEVA MARILYN (1976) with nude layouts in men's magazines all over the world. And why not- when MM's early movies were re-released, she was also top-billed over the real stars in poster art, including ones for THE ASPHALT JUNGLE and ALL ABOUT EVE. Marilyn Monroe was big in the mid- 1970s; the same year Ms. Lys was invoking the iconic love goddess, one-time TV sexpot Misty Rowe was doing the same in Hollywood's GOODBYE NORMA JEAN (1976) and in 1975's TOMMY, Monroe's cult status finally achieved the inevitable.
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4/10
Great title
BandSAboutMovies28 January 2024
Warning: Spoilers
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Colt is a much better title than the American one, The Masked Thief. It's an Italian Western with giallo moments directed by one of my favorite scummy dudes Mario Bianchi using the name Frank Bronston.

Sheriff Bill Nolan (Craig Hill) is investigating a masked killer who kills with a long knife. When Toni Pickford (Agata Lys) survives being assaulted by a similar masked man and his gang of criminals, she remembers his face and claims that Bill is behind the crime. Years later, another man is killed by the gang and claims that it's Bill. The truth? Nolan has an outlaw twin brother, Mace Casidy (also played by Craig Hill).

The giallo portions feel added at the last moment, like the POV opening and the masked killer. That said, the idea of a giallo knife maniac in the Italian West is a good one, as is the idea that people in town aren't sure if they can trust the man who is the law any more. None of these thoughts really play out as this movie flies through 77 minutes of running time.

Bianchi would make another giallo-ish Western, Creeping Death, as well as a truly aberrant run of movies. Seriously, if you want to wallow in the darkest muck of Italian exploitation, seek out his movies like La ***** di Satana, Strip Nude for Your Killer, Nightmare In Venice and The Murder Secret before using the names Martin White, David Bird, Nicholas Moore and Tony ****** in the adult world.
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