Day Of Anger (1967) ***1/2

Day Of Anger (1967) is a great little Italian Western with a delightful pop-art credits sequence, a rousing and playful score by Riz Ortolani, and confident direction by Tonino Valerii. Lee Van Cleef is his usual mean, smirking self (and I mean that in the most reverent way) as—what else—a lightning fast gunfighter. Giuliano Gemma shows good range as "a rare spaghetti-western hero with a character arc" (to quote Kim Newman). Despite the film being somewhat derivative of the genre and fun and breezy at times, it also has a conscious—presenting a complex and corrupted society—concluding with a decidedly dark ending.