The Grand Duel (1972) ***1/2

As in several Italian Westerns before it—including Death Rides A Horse (my review here) and Day Of Anger (my review here) (both 1967)—The Grand Duel (1972) (aka The Big Showdown) features an older gunfighter (Lee Van Cleef) and a younger protagonist (Alberto Dentice, as Peter O'Brien, in his only credited film role) who (sort of) team up.

TGD was Giancarlo Santi's (himself with only three director credits) directorial debut, having cut his teeth as Sergio Leone's assistant director on films such as The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966) (my review here), Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) (review) and the aforementioned DRAH.

Van Cleef plays Sheriff Clayton, who cleverly captures and arrests Philip Vermeer (Dentice) a prison escapee (serving a sentence for the murder of Ebenezer Saxon, the "Patriarch" of Saxon City, who in turn Wermeer believes killed his father) with a $3,000 reward on his head posted by Saxon's three sons David, Eli and Adam. Clayton and Vermeer fight off bounty hunters as they make their way to Saxon City where Clayton demands that the Saxons reopen Vermeer's case. All is eventually resolved through a series of flashbacks that reveal more and more information regarding the shooting of the Patriarch as the film plays out and results in a duel (naturally) to the death.

TGD is filled with tropes of the genre and elements borrowed from Leone, but it's very enjoyable. There's great action, impressive stunts, just the right amount of humor, and a classic theme (famously appropriated by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)) by an uncredited Luis Bacalov featuring the always sumptuous vocal stylings of Edda Dell'Orso. It's interesting that the film's theatrical poster depicts Van Cleef with a gun holster because that was one thing about the film that stood out to me—that the character of Clayton simply stuck his pistol in his waistband.