Mannaja
Tags: murder, western, violence, flashback, revenge, sadist

Plot synopsis:
Bounty hunter Blade and his prisoner Burt Craven, a small time crook arrive in the mining town Suttonville, so Blade can hand over Craven to the local marshal and collect the reward money for Craven's capture. After Blade goes to the local saloon to speak with Theo Valler, right hand man of the town's crippled mayor Ed McGowan whom owns the local gold mines, about finding a place in town to sleep for the night, only to shoot and wound Valler's men whom attempt to kill him, when Valler loses a card game to Blade. Blade releases Craven and offers his services to McGowan. Blade observes a carriage containing shipment of gold from McGowan's mines being attacked and raided by a gang of outlaws led by Dolman. After Valler sets a trap on Blade, which Blade is injured in a rockfall. Blade manages to kill Valler's men whom have come to kill him and Blade is nursed back to health by traveling impresario Johnny-Johnny. McGowan is forced to take Blade up his offer, when Dolman and his gang ambush and attack the stagecoach which Valler and McGowan's daughter Deborah were passengers and McGowan learns Dolman and his gang are working for Valler and Valler is holding Deborah for ransom in exchange for gold. McGowan accepts Blade's help and agrees on the condition that Johnny-Johhny sets up his own saloon in town and McGowan soon learns there is nothing else Blade wants for him - revenge. Blade wants to kill McGowan whom was responsible for the death of Blade's father Gerald Merton, whom was killed when a tree collapsed on top of him, which McGowan claims was accidental. After McGowan justifies his actions and convinces Blade that he is not the one Blade should kill and that they should kill their common enemy Valler. Blade rides off to meet with Valler and arrives with the gold. But, Blade engages Valler, Dolman and the gang in a shootout. But, Deborah stops Blade from shooting Valler and Deborah reveals that Valler and herself are lovers and they set up the ransom and Valler wants to take control of McGowan's mines. But, Voller is furious when he learns that Blade replaced the gold with rocks. In Suttonville, Dolman and his gang attack Johnny-Johnny's new saloon and Johnny-Johnny is gunned down and one of the saloon girls Angela is taken captive and Valler uses Angela to force Blade to reveal where he has hidden his gold. Angela is stabbed and killed by Valler and Blade is beaten and tortured and is blinded and left to die. Craven rescues Blade and brings him to a cave and nurses Blade back to health. But, Craven rides back to Suttonville and tells Valler that Blade is in a cave and Craven accompanied by Dolman and some of his men return to the cave and Dolman and his men enter the cave to finish Blade off - But, Blade uses the caves to his advantage and he manages to kill Dolman and his men and Blade, whom has confronts Craven and Craven is shot and killed. Blade returns to Suttonville, only to find the town shrouded in mist and that a battle broke out between the miners, Valler and his men and McGowan has been killed by Valler. Blade shoots and kills Valler's dogs and Blade kills Valler with a hatchet. Deborah mourns and cries over Valler's body and is left with nothing and Blade walks away and leaves.

Review: The movie is about a man who wields a blade for a weapon in fending off the bad guys while rescuing the girl from the evil villain, Voller (brilliantly played by John Steiner).
At the beginning of the film we find our rogue hero Blade (played by Maurizio Merli) chasing after a man through the misty swamps.
The director, Sergio Martino, could not have directed a more well-scripted film, complete with all the elements of a traditional spaghetti western!
A Blade In The Gut. One of the later Spaghetti Westerns, and often compared to Enzo G.
"A Man Called Blade" is a very stylish, and pretty brutal movie with some minor flaws.
The comparisons to Keoma are quite plausible indeed, Mannaja was made only one year after Keoma, both soundtracks were composed by Maurizio and Guido De Angelis, and the leading actor Maurizio Merli actually looks a lot like the great Franco Nero, who played the title role in Keoma.
The music composed by the De Angelis Brothers, which some folks seem to have disliked in "Keoma" (I'm not one of them), actually fits into Mannaja very well.Mannaja, an occasional bounty hunter and gunslinger who is fast with both his gun and his tomahawk, comes to a small town to collect the reward for a bandit he has caught.
Mc Gowan's right hand man, a ruthless killer named Voller, however, even makes his boss look like a nice guy in his sadism and unscrupulousness.Mannaja has, apart from its resemblances to Keoma, many resemblances to earlier Spaghetti Westerns.
Mannaja's back-flashes, for example, remind of movies like Sergio Corbucci's "The Great Silence", or Sergio Leone's "Once Upon A Time In The West".
The performances are good, I especially liked John Steiner as the villainous Voller and Maurizio Merli as Mannaja.
All things considered, Maurizio Merli, who is best known for his roles in ultraviolent Italian crime flicks, is probably not as versatile an actor as Franco Nero, but he definitely made a great Mannaja.
A nasty, ultra-violent and gripping Spaghetti Western, "Mannaja" is a must see for genre-fans!.
"Mannaja" is probably the most obvious with it's similar visual style and music score, but Sergio Martino's keen visual sense (though not as good as Castellari's) and Maurizio Merli's excellent performance allow the film to stand on it's own two legs.
By 1977, the spaghetti western was already on its death throes and if I'm not horribly mistaken, Mannaja is the last major release in the genre.
It seems that after westerns like Mannaja the genre had nowhere to go, having explored every nook and cranny of the old west and milked every bit of potential in the process.Sergio Martino was not a regular spaghetti western director.
Maurizio Merli's Mannaja bears more than a passing resemblance to the dirty and grim looking Keoma played by Franco Nero, there are several beautiful slo-mo shots, a dream-like atmosphere in places, it's quite brutal (a hand is chopped, a woman is whipped, a man gets an axe in his head, old ladies and other innocent bystanders are shot and killed) and the score is very weird by spaghetti western standards and it can be as annoying as Keoma's (although I didn't mind the latter).
Nature plays a big part in how the movie looks: rain, mud, fog are all used to great effect, the last shootout in the fog adding a surreal, ghost-town quality to it.
Generally it's equal parts gritty and atmospheric and with enough budget to hold everything on the seams.Maurizio Merli made his name in the Italian movie business by playing violent Dirty Harry-esquire cops in polizioto crime flicks and was quite successful as a genre actor.
The rest of the cast all turn in fine performances.Mannaja might have come during the twilight of the spaghetti western but it's easily one of the best it has to offer.
The lead actor, Maurizio Merli, is a handsome man and a decent actor cast in the role of the "Good" Bounty Hunter, with Donald O'Brien as the "Ugly" thief/wanted man, and John Steiner as the "Bad" villain.
Pale Rider 10.Silverado 11.High Plains Drifter 12.Hang Em High 13.Once Upon A Time in the West 14.Fistful of Dynamite 15.The Quick and The DeadIf you are a fan of movies that are as much art as film, then you should love Italian cinema!.
Although very much late in the game for an Italian western, (the bulk of which were made between 1965 and 1972) Mannaja (A Man Called Blade) is no slouch.
It's actually a good muscular western with lots of violence and dark atmosphere, with the sun blocked out and everything bathed in a fog of dust.Maurizio Merli plays Blade, a mysterious hatchet wielding bounty hunter with unfinished business to take care of regarding a puritanical mine owner and his psychotic number two, played by John Steiner, who's excellent at portraying nasty weasels.Also memorable is (the late?) Donal O'Brien, who would later gain infamy as the title character in Doctor Butcher M.D.
(Medical Deviate), as a scroungy fugitive who gets his hand cut off by Blade in the first scene and features prominently in the film's finale.Director Sergio Martino is a master of Italian exploitation and really knows how to deliver the goods, especially in action/adventures.
The titular character thankfully isn't an ancestor of overrated vampire-hunter Wesley Snipes, but a genuinely old-fashioned and testosterone-laden spaghetti western hero who furiously wanders around the deserts like a one-man-army, hunting down wanted criminals for the rewards on their head.
And, oh yes, Sergio Martino's film can easily compete with the absolute greatest efforts in this sadly extinct sub genre of cult cinema, like Sergio Corbucci's "Django", Sergio Sollima's "The Big Gundown" and perhaps even some of Serio Leoni's lesser known movies.
"A Man Called Blade" is a very eventful and exciting film, chock-full of outrageous gun & fistfights, mean & treasonous bandits and wild ambushes.
The plot twists perhaps aren't the most original ones ever, but bear in mind "A Man Called Blade" got released during the dying years of spaghetti western cinema.
"Mannaja" ("A Man called Blade" is a case of great director + great cast great film.
One of the most stylish of all spaghetti western it stars several veterans of the Italian crime/action genre: Maurizio Merli, John Steiner and Donald O'Brien.
"Mannaja: A Man Clalled Blade" (1977) is one of the last true Spaghetti Westerns, being made almost at the end of the ailing genres decline.
It is directed by Sergio Martino and stars seventies Italian crime movie veteran Maurizio Merli as the eponymous (anti-)hero as well as John Steiner and Donald O'Brien.The screenplay was written by the director and is about a bounty hunter, Mannaja/Blade (who is armed with a hatchet instead of a gun), arriving in the mining town of Suttonville attempting to claim the bounty on the outlaw Burt Craven (O'Brian).
This is hardly a light-hearted film; Mannaja is a man with vengeance in his heart and neither he nor his enemies have any qualms over killing to achieve their goal.Martino's direction is the chief attraction here, as along with cinematographer Federico Zanni, he conjures, a cold, wet, muddy landscape for his characters to briefly live and then die in.
Merli is good as Mannaja, although playing a silent, tough bounty hunter hardly seems to be stretching him as an actor.
Sergio Martino is one of my favourite directors, and the reason for that is mostly down to his excellent Giallo films.
While Martino did a lot of work in other genres, he was not especially well known for his westerns despite making a handful of them.
A Man Called Blade is the last western that Martino made and also the only one I've seen.
The film did come rather late on in the Spaghetti Western cycle and as such won't be remembered for it's originality, but A Man Called Blade is entertaining throughout and that's the main thing.
The film takes up the common basic western plot of a nameless man drifting into town and causing a stir.
The man is named Blade, called such because his choice of basic weapon is a hatchet instead of a revolver.
I didn't know a lot about this film going into it, but was very pleased when I discovered that Maurizio Merli was the leading man.
He's an actor I know best for his roles in crime films, and although a lot of his stuff is quite similar; I have noticed over the more recent Merli films that I've seen that the actor does actually have quite a good range, and he fits into the gritty western star mould very well indeed here.
The biggest flaw of the film as far as I'm concerned is the fact that there isn't all that much to separate it from the rest of the genre; but if you're just looking for an entertaining western, you can't go far wrong with this one!.
MANNAJA: A MAN CALLED BLADE (Sergio Martino, 1977) **1/2.
The fact that it starred Maurizio Merli - the "poor man's Franco Nero" - whom I had only watched, up till then, in WHITE FANG TO THE RESCUE (1974) added to my skepticism...but, then, the film itself turned up on late-night Italian TV: I watched it and actually liked the film quite a bit though, at the time, I was perfectly happy with the recording I made and felt no urgent need to own it on DVD!
Anyway, let's get to the subject at hand: Merli here exchanges his customary modern outfit for a Western garb, but he's still the resolute - and unconventional - man of justice (even if he's officially a bounty hunter); this was his only out-and-out Spaghetti Western which is no surprise, coming so late in the game - but he cuts a good enough figure!
- going after a disheveled Donal O'Brien), the film settles down to being an enjoyable and stylish - if highly derivative - entry in the genre (which also happens to be director Martino's second and last such effort).
As I said, the plot line plunders several of the earlier Spaghetti Westerns: the unusual weaponry from DJANGO (1966); the crippled landowner from ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968); the traveling show from A SKY FULL OF RAIN FOR A ROOF (1968); the hero left to rot in a hole out in the sun (from DEATH RIDES A HORSE [1968]) and is then rendered temporarily blind (from BLINDMAN [1971]); the hero's backstory, revealing his thirst for revenge, presented as intermittent flashbacks (of course from any number of Sergio Leone films) - but there's no denying that all these various bits and pieces manage to blend together very well indeed!
Besides, the many action sequences - augmented by a good score from the ubiquitous De Angelis brothers (although it, too, sounds awfully similar to that of KEOMA...down to the irritating male baritone!) - certainly deliver the goods.The supporting cast is also above-average: apart from O'Brien's unusual role (he turns up again later on in the film with a hook for a hand - and who even gets his own song, characterizing his slimy 'qualities'), we have Philippe Leroy as the corrupt boss who has an account to settle with Merli but whose power is slipping away from him, a couple of girls (Sonja Jeannine - from Sergio Sollima's THE BLACK PIRATE [1976] and who reveals herself to be less innocent than one would have thought!
- and Martine Brochard) and, best of all, John Steiner in one of his finest roles as Leroy's vicious lieutenant (flanked by a couple of mastiffs!) who harbors ambitions of taking over the latter's empire and bears a grudge against Merli's hero all through the film...until he receives his just desserts in another fog-laden showdown!
The main supplement on the DVD is an interesting interview with a typically down-to-earth Martino (I saw him at the Italian B-movie retrospective held during the 2004 Venice Film Festival)..
You've got to love a Spaghetti Western that opens like a horror film and begins with a guy losing a hand to a tomahawk.
I nearly fainted when I discovered that John Stiener of The Last Hunter and Tenebrae was in this too!Mannaja is one of a handful of twilight era Spaghetti Westerns full of vicious violence and dark imagery filmed in the latter half of the seventies.
Some generous dancing ladies find a wounded Mannaja and nurse him back to health, and they all head back into town, where they meet McGovern, pious and religious owner of the silver mine, who doesn't know that right hand man Steiner is in cahoots with a local bandit.
Merli holds his own as the enraged Mannaja, with the always dependable OBrien backing things up.As this is the late seventies, the violence quota is high, what with hands being cut off, many innocent people being gunned down and one character being buried up to his neck in sand, with his eyes stitched open so the sun can burn out his corneas.
Sergio Martino directed Western yawn-fast that wants so desperately to be 1976's "Keoma", but can't.
Maurizio Merli (Franco Nero look a like) plays the role of a hatchet-wielding bounty hunter out for revenge, or something.
It's main flaws, a horrid soundtrack (not nearly as bad as "Keoma"'s though) and a wholely unsatisfying rushed ending My Grade:D+ Blue Underground DVD Extras: 'A Man called Segio' Featurette; Poster & Stills Gallery; Talent Bios for Sergio Martino & Maurizio Merli; and Theatrical Trailer1 Easter Egg: hidden hatchet on the Extras menu for Trailers of "Django", "Run, Man, Run" and "Django Kill, if you live Shoot".
The rest of this dull movie consists of blade getting involved with some very bad people and having to save the day.
After claiming the bounty of a outlaw known as Burt Craven, a bounty hunter named Blade (armed with a hatchet instead of a gun) is hired by the town's wheelchair bound mayor McGowan and his corrupt associate Voller to track down McGowan's daughter Debra who has gone missing.
This is my fourth spaghetti western review.I was really pleased with Mannaja,it's one of the last spaghetti westerns and it was released at a time when the western as a whole was dying and people were becoming more interested in action movies and comedies.The acting is good, the main soundtrack is excellent and the action is brilliant.
Mannaja also uses his weapon of choice(an axe)to take out his enemies.The character of Mannaja is a typical spaghetti western anti-hero,he's a bit similar to Django and Sabata, but he's a brilliant characters played brilliantly by Maurizio Merli.
The soundtrack is excellent,i highly recommend this movie and if you can get hold of it,watch it.Keep checking my account for more spaghetti western reviews, there is a lot more on the way..
This movie which was done in 1977 was the last hope for the Genre which was the Spaghetti Westerns.
Mannaja ( A Man Called Blade) was one of my favorites the only two things it really lacked was the opening score was a bit weak and the whole Donal O'Brien Character (Craven) coming back to nurse Blade back to health to betray him?????
Maurizio Merli played the blade character to a tee great job especially for his only contribution to the genre.I really enjoyed the music with the beginning love stages with blade and actress Martine Brochard a very well choreographed scene.
The story was great so was the acting an overall interesting tale of a mountain man bounty hunter out for revenge.
It's a shame such a great movie came too late to change things for the genre..
A bounty hunter (Maurizio Merli) arrives in a town to confront the man responsible for his father's death years earlier.
Although the hey day of the spaghetti western was long finished this typically violent example of the genre was made and is actually quite decent albeit derivative, with music similar but inferior to Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), and clichéd (flashbacks depicting the reason for revenge) elements.
After the relative success of Castellari's KEOMA, with Franco Nero, Italian director Sergio Martino decided to attempt to best his fellow countryman's movie so made a rip-off very close to the original.
This film sees everyone's favourite Franco Nero lookalike Maurizio Merli starring as Blade, whose trick is to kill people with hatchets as opposed to a gun – although as you can imagine, he packs a pistol too, as he doesn't have an unlimited supply of those hatchets.The film is eventful rather than ground-breaking, with a fair few twists and surprises to keep viewers engaged, and there's plenty of action and violence going around for genre fans.
In addition, the camera-work is pretty darned great and the score memorable – including a Nero impersonator wailing on the soundtrack as in KEOMA (Merli himself, perhaps?).The acting?
It's fun, excitable stuff, typical in Italian genre films such as these.
"Mannaja - A Man called Blade", its a 70's late spaghetti western by Sergio Martino.
Light years away from Sergio Leone movies, or even "Keoma"(Enzo G.Castellari), which by the way "Mannaja" is greatly inspired by.It is a typical Western Spaghetti, with a main character( "Blade" ) with the characteristic of a macho super-hero.
Thats the all point of this kind of films, all the main characters in various Westerns Spaghettis like "Blondie", "Django", "Navajo Joe", "Cuchillo", "Keoma" are bigger than life, capable of doing the impossible.
"Mannaja - A man called Blade" is not a masterpiece, far from that, but its entertaining, have good moments and a epic\comic soundtrack that fits like a glove.
If you like this one, i recommend: All Sergio Leone's Westerns(the finest); "Django" (Sergio Corbucci) and "Keoma"(Castellari).
In fact, I've never seen a Spaghetti western this recent.The opening scene of "Mannaja: A Man Called Blade" is so wicked.
A dude gets his arm chopped off with a hatchet and that is maybe the most gory thing I've seen in a western movie so far.