Spaghetti Westerns, Volume Three (Film Score Compilation)
This addition to DRG's Classic Italian Soundtracks series captures spaghetti Westerns at their eeriest and funniest. Ennio Morricone is predominant, of course, with tracks to such films asA Pistol for RingoandBlood and Guns, and vocal themes toThe Return of RingoandDeath Rides a Horse. A rarely heard voice-free version of "My Name Is Nobody" has the virtue of sounding like a soda pop commercial. Other pasta-and-pistols maestros such as Piero Piccioni ("I Don't Forget... I Kill"), Carlo Savina ("The Two Ringos from Texas"), and Luis Bacalov ("Gold of the Proud Ones") make an impressive showing, though there are some dull moments. In contrast to our domesticated Tiomkin-style Hollywood clichés, these eccentric to melancholy flourishes represent fantasies of the American West nurtured by a pastry-crazed European imagination.--Joseph Lanza