Kill Them All and Come Back Alone – Kino Lorber (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1968
Director: Enzo G. Castellari
Writers: Tito Carpi, Francesco Scardamaglia, Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent, Enzo G. Castellari
Cast: Chuck Connors, Frank Wolff, Franco Citti, Leo Anchóriz, Giovanni Cianfriglia, Alberto Dell’Acqua, Hércules Cortés, Antonio Molino Rojo, Furio Meniconi

Release Date: January 7th, 2020
Approximate running times: 99 Minutes 20 Seconds (English language version), 100 Minutes 33 Seconds (Italian language version)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC (Both Versions)
Rating: R
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: $29.95

“In 1864, mercenary Clyde McKay leads a squad of tough-as-nails cutthroats on a mission for the Confederate high command to infiltrate an enemy fortress and steal millions in gold from the Union Army. Unfortunately, the crew he has assembled to pull off the heist is even less trustworthy than he is and they all end up double-crossing each other.” – Synopsis provided by the Distributor

Video: 4.5/5 (Italian language version, English language version) 

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "Brand new 4K Restoration."

Kill Them All and Come Back Alone comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 42.3 GB

Feature: 20.4 GB (Italian language version), 19.2 GB (English language version) 

The sources used for both versions are in excellent shape. Flesh tones look correct, colors look great, image clarity, contrast and black levels are solid, compression is very good, the image retains an organic look.

Audio: 4.5/5 (DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD mono mix in English and a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian. Both audio mixes are in very good shape, dialog comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced and range wise ambient sounds are well-represented. Included with this release are removable English subtitles for the Italian language track.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer (1 minute 59 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), and an audio commentary for the English language version with filmmaker Alex Cox, author of 10,000 Ways to Die: A Director’s Take on the Italian Western.

Other extras are trailers for The Hellbenders, Death Rides a Horse, The Specialists, The Big Country, For a Fistful of Dollars, and Adios, Sabata.

Summary:

Directed by Enzo G. Castellari, an Italian filmmaker who worked in just about every genre that was popular in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Notable films that he directed are Cold Eyes of Fear, High Crime, Street Law, and The Big Racket.

Though, Enzo G. Castellari is most remembered for his work within Poliziotteschi (Italian crime films) genre. Like most Italian directors who got their start in the latter-half of the 1960’s, he worked in the Spaghetti western genre. In all, he would direct seven Spaghetti westerns.

From its inception the Spaghetti western genre was known to freely take plot elements from other films. Mostly notably how Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars took elements from Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. And in the case of Kill Them All and Come Back Alone, this film that was clearly inspired by films like, The Dirty Dozen. In fact, ten years later, Enzo G. Castellari’s The Inglorious Bastards would recycle many of these same elements.

When one discusses Spaghetti westerns one of the things that they’re most remembered for are opening sequences that do a great job introducing all the main characters. And Kill Them All and Come Back Alone, opens with an elaborate fifteen-minute segment where Clyde McKay and his motley crew of specialists show off their various skills.

Performance wise the cast are all very good in their respective roles, especially Chuck Connors (The Big Country) in the role of the protagonist Clyde McKay. Another performance of note is Frank Wolff (Once Upon a Time in the West) in the role of Captain Lynch, a double-dealing con man who eliminates all who stand in his way by pitting both sides against each other.

When compared to other Spaghetti westerns released in 1968, Kill Them All and Come Back Alone does not have the same violent intensity that has become synonymous with Sergio Leone’s and Sergio Corbucci’s Spaghetti westerns. In some ways, Kill Them All and Come Back Alone can-be seen as a precursor to lighthearted comedy Spaghetti westerns that rose to prominence in the early 1970’s.

Kill Them All and Come Back Alone gets a first-rate release from Kino Lorber that comes with a solid audio/video presentation, two versions of the film, and an informative audio commentary, recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer