Minnesota Clay
Tags: western, violence

Plot synopsis:
The year is 1883. Clay, a gunfighter with health problems, is interned in Drunner Labor Camp. He's determined to prove his innocence since he was framed by Fox, the current Sheriff of Clay's former home of Mesa Encantada. Fox has subsequently been hired by the townspeople to protect them from Ortiz and his bandits. Instead, Fox now runs a protection racket, extorting and terrorizing the complacent citizens, threatening them with violence if they do not pay exorbitant taxes to him. Clay rides out to meet Ortiz, who tries to hire him to kill Fox.
Ortiz's mistress Estella, whom Clay saved earlier from an attack by Fox's men, lets Clay escape the Ortiz encampment. She tells him Clay stole gold from him, prompting Ortiz and his gang to seek out Clay. This enables Fox to ambush both of them. Fox kills Ortiz and captures Clay. She helps Clay escape and, despite losing his sight, manages to decimate Fox's gang one by one. Realizing he is unable to see clearly, Fox seeks him out in one of the town's stables and tries to lure him into shooting his own daughter, Nancy during the final showdown.
Various VHS and DVD versions end with Clay lying apparently dead in the street, with Nancy at his side. This more pessimistic ending is in the style of Corbucci's later masterpieces, Django and The Great Silence. But in the Italian version, there is an afterword in which the Cavalry, having presumably dealt with any surviving malefactors, ride off, and Clay - now wearing glasses - bids goodbye to Nancy and her beau (who are to be wed). He then rides off.
Corbucci lets Clay reach the horizon, then cuts to a medium shot of Clay taking off his glasses, throwing them in the air, and shooting holes in both lenses. His sight, miraculously, has been completely restored.

Review: Spaghetti with Chorizo Western filmed in Spanish location as La Pedriza ,Manzanares Del Real and Colmenar Viejo and interior scenes shot in usual Italian scenarios called Elios studios.
As Minnesota Clay (Cameron Michell) takes prisoner a lieutenant (Julio Peña) and seeks revenge on the man who withheld evidence at his trial and arrives in a town ravaged by a sheriff and bandits .
But here is a problem however, Clay is going blind.The film packs violence , shootouts , high body-count and it's fast moving and quite entertaining .
It's an exciting western with breathtaking showdown between the starring Cameron Mitchell and his enemies , Geoges Riviere and Fernando Sancho .
In ¨Minessota Clay¨ appears as secondaries the habitual in Spanish/Italian Western such as Jose Luis Martin , Simon Arriga , Alfonso Rojas , Antonio Casas ,Alvaro De Luna and Guido Pernice , many of them usual in Corbucci films .
Maesso , also producer ( he produced several Western as ¨The ugly ones , Minnesota Clay , Django , A train to Durango , Hellbenders¨) .
Direction is well crafted, here Corbucci is more cynical and violent and less inclined toward humor and packs too much action , but especially this moving Western contains broad violence specially on the character played by Georges Riviere .
In addition Sergio directed other inferior S.W. as ¨Far West story¨ ,¨Johnny Oro¨, ¨The white the yellow an the black¨ , ¨Massacre at Great Canyon (his first Spaghetti) ¨ and ¨Minnesota Clay (his second Western)¨.
Unfortunately he is also slowly losing his eyesight, with his vision now so impaired that one more punch could cause complete loss of sight.The movie begins with Clay (Cameron Mitchell) escaping from imprisonment, and intent on getting revenge on the man who set him up.
The man in question is Fox (George Riviere), who has appointed himself as the Sheriff of Clay's hometown and abuses this power, with the townsfolk living in terror of his gang.
They had initially paid Fox to protect them from bandit Ortiz (played by the ever excellent Fernando Sancho), who himself terrorises the town.
They are reunited, but caught in the crossfire between the two gangs, co-ordinated mischievously by Estella (Ethel Rojo) who is as devious as she is beautiful (and my is she beautiful!).Minnesota Clay is one of the earliest Spaghetti Westerns, directed by a pre-Django Sergio Corbucci.
Whilst it is not as captivating or as dark as the films he directed during the Spaghetti boom of 1966-1970, it is still a very enjoyable movie, with the usual sprinkling of injustice that we have come to expect within his films.Mitchell, Sancho and Riviere are captivating throughout, and Rojo could win the heart of any man with her portrayal of Estella (no wonder her character is so able to use those around her so ably).
As a huge lover of Italian Westerns, Sergio Corbucci is one of my favorite directors ever.
Corbucci's most famous and influential film is doubtlessly the blood-soaked cult-flick "Django" of 1966, his most brilliant achievement is the dark 1968 masterpiece "Il Grande Silenzio" ("The Great Silence").
But Corbucci enriched the Spaghetti-Western genre by even more masterpieces than the aforementioned two films, such as the Mexican revolutionary Westerns "Il Mercenario" (aka.
And even his lesser known films, such as "I Crudeli" ("Hellbenders", 1967) or "Navajo Joe" (1966) stand out as gritty and great Spaghetti Westerns, which makes Corbucci the undisputed number 2 in the genre, right after Sergio Leone.
This being said, Corbucci's early Western "Minesota Clay" of 1965 does not live up to his later films in the Genre.
While this is by no means a bad film, it is nowhere near as cynical, gritty and memorable as Corbucci's later Westerns were, as it bears more resemblance to the traditional American 'Good Guys Vs. Bad Guys' Westerns than the masterpieces of Corbucci's later career.The eponymous hero, Minnesota Clay (played by the great Cameron Mitchell) is not really a typical anti-hero, as he is looking partly for revenge, but mainly for justice and for an opportunity to redeem his name.
American) that control the little town where this is set resemble the premise of "Django" as well as Leone's milestone "Fistful Of Dollars" (both of which were based on Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece "Yojimbo").
Even though a tough guy, Minesota Clay is basically an honest man who is looking for justice, and not nowhere near as immoral as anti-heroes like The Man With No Name or Django.
The sexy Ethel Rojo and Diana Martin make a nice-looking female cast and the supporting cast includes Spaghetti Western regulars Antonio Casas ("The Good, The Bad And The Ugly"), Fernando Sancho ("The Big Gundown") and Gino Pernice ("Django").
As mentioned above, this film often resembles a traditional American Western - only with a bit more violence and Spaghetti-style.
This is an entertaining film that my fellow Spaghetti-Western-freaks should enjoy, yet I recommend everybody to see some of Corbucci's other films before.
MINNESOTA CLAY (Sergio Corbucci and, uncredited, Mario Bava, 1964) **1/2.
Corbucci's second Spaghetti Western is an improvement on the first – MASSACRE AT GRAND CANYON (1965) – but still a long way from his best efforts in the genre (namely DJANGO [1966] and THE GREAT SILENCE [1968]).
The leading man is Cameron Mitchell, who wisely opted to appear in European films tackling starring roles rather than be stranded in Hollywood playing poor supporting ones; that said, he was also featured in a fine 'B' Western by Monte Hellman – RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND (1966) – alongside rising star (and screenwriter) Jack Nicholson!
The narrative provides many typical Spaghetti Western elements but, as I said, it's an early example yet – so that it lacks the baroque touches inherent in later outings (suffice to compare Corbucci's relatively sober treatment here to the tongue-in-cheek approach to the same concept in the self-explanatory BLINDMAN [1971]!).Here, as in his two better-regarded genre classics, Corbucci gives us a hero – his name probably derives from Jackie Gleason's character, Minnesota Fats, in the pool-room drama THE HUSTLER (1961)!
Quick draw Cameron Mitchell escapes a federal hard labor camp and returns to his old stomping ground to find the man who could have exonerated him of murder charges, where he reconnects with his estranged daughter, and tangles with two rival gangs, all while contending with his own failing eyesight.The second western directed by Italian favorite Sergio Corbucci, this isn't as good as some of his later work.
Still, it's a solid western that's handsomely produced and a lot of fun to watch, with some good gun-play and a memorable title character, effectively portrayed by Mitchell.The climax where Minnesota Clay battles the heavies using only his sense of hearing is quite entertaining..
"Minnesota Clay" (1964) was one of the earliest Spaghetti Westerns directed by Sergio Corbucci; in two years time he would make the iconic and notorious "Django" and in 1968, he made the best non-Sergio Leone Spaghetti: "The Great Silence".
Shot around the same time as Leone's groundbreaking "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964), but released later, it shares the two gangs warring over a town theme, as well as the bandits being separated by race: the white, American Fox (Georges Riviere) and the Mexican Ortiz (Fernando Sancho); but this is the only similarity (which had been copied from Akira Kurosawa's samurai film "Yojimbo" [1961], which in turn had been inspired by the pulp writings of the brilliant Dashiell Hammett and his novel "The Glass Key" [1931]) and while nowhere near the greatness of Leone's Western, this is still a remarkably good movie.The plot (by Adriano Bolzoni and Corbucci) though, is clichéd ridden: Minnesota Clay (Cameron Mitchell) escapes from prison after being framed by the devious Fox; returning to his hometown, Clay discovers that it is overrun by two gangs: Fox's and Ortiz's and then proceeds to clear the place up, even though his eyesight is failing terribly.However, despite these script constraints, Corbucci directs some brilliant action, in particularly the climatic gunfight in the dark.
Wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, Minnesota Clay seeks revenge on the man who withheld evidence at his trial.
There is a problem however; he is going blind.The most notable hing bout this film is that it happens to be a spaghetti western before "Django".
People more knowledgeable than myself could probably make style comparisons.In many respects, this is the same story that we see in westerns again and again: a good guy, a bad guy, and a town caught in the middle.
A pre-Django Spaghetti Western from Sergio Corbucci, starring b-movie master Cameron Mitchell as a gunslinger going slowly blind, and out to revenge his wrongful imprisonment before his condition overtakes him!
The town is ruled by Fox, a nasty fella who put Cam in jail in the first place and is looking for a way to rid the town of the Mexican bandit gang (led by Fernando Sancho.
Fernando basically plays the same character in every film I've seen him in - the chicken leg eating, cackling, Mexican bandit leader...and that's not a complaint).Cam thinks about hooking up with Sancho to get rid of Fox but there's a Latin spanner in the works by the name of Estella and she's playing everybody for a fool.
Cam is going blind but he's also the greatest shot the town has ever seen, which makes him a bit of challenge.Perfect pacing in this film I felt, and not only a great performance from Cameron (who is prone to over acting or not acting at all), but also a complete turnaround from Georges Rivieres as the bad guy Fox. The last film I watched him in (Castle of Blood) he played a wide-eyed, innocent romantic type...in this he's a man without a soul.Cameron steals the show as the world weary gunslinger out to save his daughter before his blindness is complete.
He was the king of the b-movie, from low budget acid westerns like Ride In the Whirlwind (with Jack Nicholson), horrors like Nightmare In Wax, terrible weirdo films like Medusa, Hollywood bigshot films like the Klansman (with Lee Marvin!), mystery films like Haunts, playing a psychic so terrible the people who hired him shoot him in the South African slasher film The Demon, going up against Satan himself in The Nightmare Never Ends, being a cult leader talking crap in kung fu film Low Blow, or a park owner in Memorial Valley Massacre, one things for sure: He always looked middle aged, for some reason..
It was one of the first spaghetti westerns to hit the American market and was playing as the second feature on a double bill.Cameron Mitchell who was doing sword and sandal epics in Italy at the time stars in this in the title role.
There's also another gang doing a lot of looting around there headed by a self styled Mexican general.Mitchell's also working against the clock because in addition to everything else, he's going blind.
It sounds like he's got glaucoma which is not getting better with the burning Southwest desert sun.Those of you who are devotees of the spaghetti western can pretty much figure out what's going to happen.
Turns out he has family in the town, family that doesn't know he's a blood relation.I'm not generally liking spaghetti westerns, but Minnesota Clay is all right and will hold your interest..
Sergio Corbucci's "Minnesota Clay" puts a spin on the spaghetti western genre.
Here the protagonist (Cameron Mitchell) is losing his sight as he escapes jail and seeks revenge on the man who wronged him.
Wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, Minnesota Clay (Cameron Mitchell) escapes to seek revenge against the man who refused to testify at his trial.
Sergio Corbucci is one of my favorite Spaghetti Western directors.
The movie plays more like a traditional American Western that just happens to have been filmed in Europe.
While there are set-pieces I enjoy (like Clay's meeting with the Mexicans or any scene with Ethel Rojo), as a whole, it never draws me in the way Corbucci's other movies do.I've always been a big fan of Cameron Mitchell.
He was more than capable of giving the kind of performance that should have been perfect for one of Corbucci's Spaghetti Westerns.
It's too bad this movie wasn't made later in the Spaghetti Western cycle.
I just picked up a 3 DVD/9 Movie set of Spaghetti Westerns put out by St. Clair Entertainment and am getting an introduction to some neat Eurowest films.
Cameron Mitchell portrays protagonist Clay, a gunslinger who escapes from a labor camp while waiting to be hanged for murder.
'Five Aces' Fox (Georges Riviere) and his band of five henchmen carries on a running feud with Mexican bandit Ortiz (Fernando Sancho), while the town suffers in silence.If things weren't hot enough, the presence of Ethel Rojo as Estella turns up the action a few degrees.
Nancy (Diana Martin) only knew her father as Mr. Clay, having met him for the first time in the course of the film.
Early spaghetti western is a fine looking film.
Sergio Corbucci is one of the spaghetti western's greatest directors – he was responsible for two classics, DJANGO and THE GREAT SILENCE, among many others.
This one feels more like a set-bound American western; it has that clean-cut style to it rather than the dark and gritty atmosphere that epitomised the 'spaghettis'.Saying that, it's still a great little film, really well paced for a western and with some intriguing characters.
Much of the film's success is down to Cameron Mitchell, who appeared in some of the best genre films Italy had to offer during the '60s; most of these were directed by the great Mario Bava (I'm thinking LAST OF THE VIKINGS, BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, KNIVES OF THE AVENGER, the list goes on).
Georges Riviere, who starred in a couple of Italian gothics like CASTLE OF BLOOD before appearing in this, is an unusual villain in that he doesn't actually do much that's villainous in the film: he just stands in Clay's way, and that's enough.
Cameron Mitchell followed several other American actors to Europe in the 1960s and starred in several films, including westerns and sword & sandal sagas.
"Django" director Sergio Corbucci cast him as a veteran gunslinger in "Minnesota Clay" who is losing his sight.
Unlike Corbucci's later westerns for which he is better known, including "Django," "Navajo Joe," "The Great Silence," "The Mercenary," and "Companeros," "Minnesota Clay" qualifies as a more conventional sagebrusher in the mold of traditional American model with few of the sudden, nimble reversals of a Spaghetti western.
One trope that "Minnesota Clay" adheres to in the Spaghetti western formula is its high body count.
As it turns out, Bolzoni supplied the story for Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars." Interestingly, when you compare the plots of both "A Fistful of Dollars" and "Minnesota Clay," the similarities are noticeable.
The chief difference between the two films is that Kurosawa sued Leone for copyright infringement but ignored Corbucci's western."Minnesota Clay," for the most part, resembles a standard-issue American horse opera about a gunfighter searching for redemption.
Second, a slimy stereotypical Mexican bandit General Domingo Ortiz (Fernando Sancho of "Gunfight at High Noon"), who is as dimwitted as he is gullible, wants to see Fox bite the dirt.
Corbucci stages a typical American western scene where Nancy struggles to halt a runaway team and Clay rides heroically to her rescue.
The above-average "Minnesota Clay" ranks far down on the list of Corbucci's westerns.
You got to be blind, if you think Minnesota Clay is a horrible movie.
One of the earliest Spaghetti Westerns directed by a pre-Django Sergio Corbucci, this film was indeed, fun to watch and you don't need braille to see that.
Between the time of Grand Canyon Massacre release and the making of Minnesota Clay, a little film call 1964's Fistful of Dollars by Director Sergio Leone came out and change how Italian westerns films would be made.
The year is 1883, Minnesota Clay (Cameron Mitchell) has just escape from a prison labor Camp.
To make the conflict worst, Mexican bandits leaded by a man named Gen. Domingo Ortiz (Fernando Sancho) wants to take over the town, no matter whom is the winner.
American) wanting control of a little town, resemble the premise of 1966's "Django" as well as Leone's Fistful Of Dollars in which both were based on Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece 1961's Yojimbo, which in return is based off, the 1929's novel, 'Red Harvest' by author, Dashiell Hammett.
Noble, shrewd, and lethal ace gunslinger Minnesota Clay (an excellent and convincing performance by Cameron Mitchell) breaks out of a federal labor camp while serving time for a crime he didn't commit.
This film further benefits from sound acting from an able cast: Mitchell impresses as a sympathetic protagonist, Riviere makes for a deliciously mean and hateful villain, plus there are commendable contributions from the luscious Ethel Rojo as the sultry, fiery, and duplicitous Estella, Diana Martin as the sweet and fetching Nancy, Antonio Roso as affable, jocular young buck Andy, the always great Fernando Sancho in one of his trademark greasy bad guy parts as vile and grubby Mexican bandit leader General Ortiz, and Antonio Casas as Clay's loyal friend Jonathan.