I was most disappointed with this. A spaghetti western with Klaus Kinski in the lead role as a sex starved wheeler dealer, what could go wrong? Actually the story is fine with various parties interested in a large amount of money that suddenly appears on the scene. One of those interested parties is Crazy Joe, who Kinski plays to the hilt, grabbing at every passing women and preparing to bash up against a wall or into a hay loft anyone in possession of a bosom. But, either the director could not control Kinski or did not see the need, for this is a great wasted opportunity to tell a tough tale well. As it is Crazy Joe becomes a laughable has been and the for the rest we have group after group of baddie chase each other to little effect.
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christopher-underwood17 January 2013
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spider8911926 July 2005This was a somewhat enjoyable movie, even though I was expecting it to be better.
Klaus Kinski does an adequate job with what he is given, but his character really doesn't have much personality. I'm not sure if this is Kinski's fault or the director's, but the character of Johnny is simply a man who can't control his sexual impulses. There is absolutely nothing else that can be said about him. He has no unusual mannerisms or interesting personality traits to speak of. He is just downright boring. This does not make for a good main character of a movie, especially when the film is a spaghetti western. The other characters are even more boring. In fact, they are too dull to even be called cliché.
Stelvio Cipriani's music score is very good, which really helps this movie, since a good score is especially important in a euro-western.
The overall story is also pretty good, and is enough to keep you interested all the way to the end. The main story being told in this movie is not really about a sex maniac in the old west, as many people describe it. It is a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions that shows just how much damage greed can do to a person and his or her loved ones.
The problem is that the characters are not interesting or memorable enough for the viewer to become emotionally involved in the story. Therefore the most memorable thing about the movie ends up being "Kinski plays a sex maniac." It's too bad because this movie had the potential to be much more.
Still, it's interesting enough to be worthwhile if you're a spaghetti western fan. -
Bezenby30 December 2018This film is strange not in a surreal way, but in the way it dispenses entirely with the Man With No Name character and tells the story of one of the bad guys and his effect on everyone he encounters.
Put it this way, if Klaus Kinski came to you and said he had a sure fire way to make loads of cash, would you not run away screaming? In fact, if Klaus Kinski said hello to you, would you not run away screaming? These people learn the hard way, but let's back up a bit.
Kinski this time plays Crazy Johnny Laster, a demented drifter who loses the plot the moment he sees cleavage and tries to force himself on every woman he sees. For some reason, some guy thinks Johnny is a good bet to recruit for a robbery. They kill a landowner who has just sold his land, only to find the money has been sent to a bank in Dallas to a relative. I'm sure the guy thought it was a good idea at the time, but I'm not so sure he thought it was a he hit the ground with one of Johnny's bullets in his back.
Johnny still wants the cash, so he heads south with a plan and recruits a local guy and a Mexican couple for a heist, but how do you think that's going to work out if they put Johnny in charge of someone they've kidnapped? And what about that rival Mexican gang who want the cash too?
There's no mysterious stranger here, just Johnny and all those stupid enough to trust him. There's also the genuine good characters who are shoved to the background: the sheriff and the deputies, the townsfolk, the landowner. We just get to sit back and watch all the fallout as Johnny makes kissy lips at cringing women (truly horrifying) and shoots anyone who disagrees with him. He never actually gets to rape anyone.
The pretty grim ending doesn't come as a surprise, but it's good to see Kinski unleash his inner madman. Or just be everyday Kinski for the cameras. -
Sorsimus29 September 2002An above average Italian western featuring a nicely sinister performance by Klaus Kinski. Kinski is a sadistic sex mad bandit who's after dollars as well as women.
The plot is engaging and the acting above average, so this one is easy to recommend to fans of the genre or the man Kinski.
Fast paced and fun. Probably even better with original soundtrack, though!
Released on video in Finland in the early eighties. -
steeplejack173 February 2006A rare lengthy Kinski feature role as Crazy Johnny sex crazed outlaw who is wanted in San Francisco. Kinski's character is obsessed with raping women a sexual predator in the old west who has nothing more but stealing, raping, and killing on his mind. This movie maybe a major disappointment for many Spaghetti Western fans but not for many Klaus Kisnki fans. Overall it had two things going for it a great performance from Klaus Kinski and a great music score by Stelvio Cipriani.
Another story line which needed much more work done to it to be impactive but still fun to watch!
It would be nice to see this movie redone in the future. Since most old movies are being re-made nowadays. -
zardoz-134 January 2010"Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West" director Mario Costa's unsavory Spaghetti western "The Beast" with Klaus Kinski could only have been produced in Europe. Hollywood would never dared to have made a western about a sexual predator on the prowl as the protagonist of a movie. Never mind that Kinski is ideally suited to the role of 'Crazy' Johnny. He plays an individual entirely without sympathy who is ironically dressed from head to toe in a white suit, pants, and hat. This low-budget oater has nothing appetizing about it. The typically breathtaking Spanish scenery around Almeria is nowhere in evidence. Instead, Costa and his director of photography Luciano Trasatti, who shot another Kinski western "And God Said to Cain," lensed this horse opera in rather mundane setting around Tor Caldara, Lazio, Italy and Monte Gelato Falls, Treja River, Lazio, Italy. Nevertheless, "The Beast" qualifies as a Continental western because it deals with wholly unscrupulous characters and the action could be classified as film noir because the hero and heroine are trapped by intolerable circumstances that compel them to resort to criminal activities. Predictably, their well-laid plans backfire owing largely to the Kinski character. Indeed, the licentious Kinski character resembles a Wily E. Coyote type character. Consistently, he struggles to have sex with several beautiful women but either lawmen or outlaws frustrate each of his efforts. Ultimately, "The Beast" amounts to a tragic character study brimming with irony. The Stelvio Cipriani orchestral score sounds as if it were lifted by the Tony Anthony western "The Stranger Returns." The Mario Costa screenplay takes place on the western frontier between San Diego and Mexico that is being terrorized by a notorious Mexican bandit called Machete (Giovanni Pallavicino of "We Still Kill the Old Way") and his gang. They prey on the stagecoach and nobody is safe from their depredations. The first time that we see 'Crazy' Johnny Laster he pauses to refresh himself at a stream and spots a gorgeous looking woman washing clothes. He creeps up behind her and attacks her, but a bigger man armed with a rifle intervenes and he has to flee. He shows up in a nearby town and a snuff-snorting gunslinger recruits him to help ambush a wealthy man, Mr. Powers, on the trail and rob him. They wind up killing him and getting no money. Mr. Snuff-sniffer accidentally leaves his snuff box at the scene of the crime and the sheriff arrests on suspicion of murder. 'Crazy' shoots his accomplice from his hotel room so that he doesn't have to worry about being implicated in the crime.
Meanwhile, a young couple in love are having trouble making their way in the world. Riccardo (Steven Tedd of "Requiem for a Bounty Killer") lives a Mexican couple on their ranch and helps them raise their real son Juan. In the village, Riccardo's lovely girlfriend Juanita (Gabriella Giorgelli of "Stranger in Sacramento") sings and dances in the cantina. Riccardo and Juanita plan to marry, but the last place that Juanita wants to settle down is on a dusty ranch. She dreams of living in the city, but life in the city requires more money than either Riccardo or she has. They team up with a blond outlaw name Glen (Paolo Casella of "Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead") and they plan to kidnap Mr. Power's daughter Nancy when she comes to get her inheritance. Glen makes the fatal mistake of enlisting 'Crazy' Johnny to help them because Glen knows that Johnny needs the money to get women.
They abduct Powers' daughter and keep her at a remote cabin with Johnny standing guard over her. Meantime, Juanita masquerades as Powers' daughter and shows up in town to get the money from Powers' attorney Gary Pinkerton (Giuliano Raffaelli of "Blood and Black Lace"), but he grows suspicious because Juanita doesn't look anything like he remembered Nancy. Riccardo brandishes his six-gun and warns Pinkerton that they have kidnapped Nancy. Unfortunately for Riccardo and Juanita, Pinkerton can only lay his hands on $50-thousand because Machete has struck such fear into the hearts of everybody that the Powers' total inheritance cannot be shipped through the territory by stagecoach. Meanwhile, back at the cabin, horny Johnny tries to rape Nancy, but she outsmarts him, knows him out with a chair on the pretense of needing to be alone while she undresses. After she knocks him unconscious, she steals a buggy and drives it back to town. Johnny recovers, pursues her and murders her about the same time that Glen, Riccardo, Juanita, and Pinkerton meet him on the trail. They inform Johnny about the complications created by Machete's reign of terror and give him $12-thousand as his cut of the money. Pinkerton is aghast at the sight of Nancy's bloodstained corpse and threatens Johnny. Naturally, Johnny guns him down in cold blood on the spot.
Things really begin to deteriorate as the law in San Diego sets out to capture Machete. Glen, Riccardo, and Juanita return to Mexico while Johnny attacks two women at a ranch and narrowly escapes getting caught. He rides to Mexico, finds a cantina whore and is going down on her when a bounty shoves a revolver in his face. Johnny confesses that he knows where they can find more money if they will release him. Machete's men follow up on Johnny's tip and capture Juanita. The villagers join Riccardo to attack Machete and Johnny rescues Juanita but she dies later on after a big shoot-out. Riccardo is left standing alone now. Machete and his men retaliated against his step parents, not only killing them but also little Juan. Everything that Riccardo and Juanita dreamed up having goes up in clouds of gun smoke for an unhappy ending. 'Crazy' Johnny dies and never gets to assuage his lust. If you think about Costa's uncompromising sagebrusher, "The Beast" emerges as an interesting character study and an exercise in film noir in a western setting where everybody is punished. -
Klaus Kinski popped up in a sizable number of spaghetti Westerns throughout the 60's and early 70's; he was usually cast in secondary parts as nasty villains. Kooky Klaus lands himself a juicy lead role as Crazy Johnny Laster, a foul, twitchy, and deranged sex maniac who comes up with a plan to abduct a lovely heiress in order to obtain her considerable inheritance. Johnny and his gang become wanted fugitives after the plan goes disastrously awry. Writer/director Mario Costa ably crafts a sordidly compelling portrait of a severely sick and twisted piece of sniveling low-life work: the plot unfolds at a steady pace, the tone is appropriately gritty and serious, and the exciting action scenes are staged with real skill and brio (the shoot-outs in rock quarries are especially gripping and thrilling). Ironically dressed in white, oozing oily charisma from every rotten pore, and jumping on beautiful women every chance he gets, Kinski's Johnny makes for a fascinatingly creepy and monstrous brute. Kinski is simply spectacular as this gloriously repellent character; he receives fine support from the luscious Gabriella Giorgelli as sweet, fiery saloon girl Juanita, Steven Tedd as the cheery Riccardo, Giovanni Pallavicino as ruthless band gang leader Machete, Giuliano Raffaella as smart lawyer Gary Pinkerton, and Paolo Casella as Johnny's sensible parter Glen. Kudos are also in order for Stelvio Cipriani's moody and spirited score. Well worth seeing for Kinski fans.