Quentin Tarantino's inspiration, Django Prepare A Coffin, is Western film noir's best kept secret

The follow-up to Tarantino’s inspiration for Django Unchained is released for the first time ever in the UK.

Django became a cult classic when it was released in 1966. Directed by Sergio Corbucci it captured the imagination of every Spaghetti Western enthusiast; including one of the greatest directors, Quentin Tarantino.

The 1968 Prepare A Coffin is directed by Ferdinando Baldi and is the long lost and previously unavailable follow-up. And I for one don’t understand how this gem stayed hidden for so long or why Tarantino needed to make Django Unchained for this edgier genre of Western to come to light.

The film’s protagonist Django is played by the steal-eyed and rugged Italian actor Terence Hill – who plays the fearless, moody gunslinger to perfection. He’s up against the dusky and strapping George Eastman, another Italian with a haircut worthy of an NME cover.

The story is a basic revenge story, where the town’s hangman (Django) saves locals who are framed by a politician greedy for their land from the gallows . He assembles the condemned men into a gang for the sole purpose of seeking vengeance against the aforementioned politician who killed his wife some years before. It’s a classic tale of good against bad – with love, betrayal and friendship intertwined throughout the film.

I’m not a fan of Westerns. I don’t know what it was about them that attracted so many Italian moviemakers. How they went from La Dolce Vita, Bicycle Thieves and Baaria to an uncivilised society that brutalised black people and oppressed women. Remember this when watching Westerns, while they were cattle rustling and using spittoons, we were going through the industrial revolution, reforming medicine and building empires. We had Dickens, the Pre-Raphaelite movement and Christopher Wren.

The crude cinematography, camera work and dubbing add to the film’s raw edge. This is a corker of a film. You essentially have a gangster film based in the Wild West – it omits all the Clint Eastwood stereotypes I’ve come to expect from Westerns (although I’d happily watch a Mexican standoff between him and that wooden chair). It being based around dusty landscapes, wooden shacks, sweaty jailhouses and violent saloons doesn’t add nor take anything away from this charming film.

And for the music lovers, you may recognise the bass line that was sampled in Gnarls Barkley’s super-hit Crazy that adds a slow and mournful lament throughout the film.

First published 27/01/2013