Released not long after WW2, when cinemas were able to open up again to foreign product, this very early rural thriller was obviously inspired by the American westerns which would have been flooding the country around this time – and also foreshadows the Italian western, with those familiar rural locations and the ever present ‘blood feud’ plotline that would become a recurring staple of the genre.
Wikipedia (well, the Italian entry) has this down as being ‘loosely based on Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet’ – but I have no idea who wrote that or why? It is categorically not based on the bard’s tale of doomed romance. Yes, there’s a love story, but it’s between two cousins on the same side of the family (because marrying cousins was clearly the norm) but they are neither star-crossed or forbidden to be together. There is also no poisoned chalice.
The plot is a rather simple affair; man kills sheep that wanders onto his land, sheep owner then beats up sheep killer, sheep killer can’t stand the shame of being beaten up…. so he sneaks up on his aggressor later that evening and shoots him in the back, killing him. From then on, the feud just keeps ramping up to rather insane levels, from living in hiding in a forest to burning down entire homesteads, a couple more people get killed… You get the idea.
During my customary web trawl to research the film, I stumbled across Matt Blake’s translation of a contemporary Italian newspaper article (from L’Unita) which offers up a behind-the-scenes reportage of the making of this film including an interview with director Sergio Grieco. Link HERE (all credit to the Wild Eye – and support Matt’s work by buying his (thoroughly essential) books HERE)
Poster art courtesy of Api741 (eBay)
Fotobusta (imdb)
Publicity Stills courtesy of Metropolis-Cine (eBay)
Availability
Italian VHS – English (fan) Subtitles
One Man and His Droid 