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Guest reviewer Lee Broughton returns to shine a critical light on a double bill Spaghetti Western disc, two features starring the world’s favorite acting fiend, Klaus Kinski. The prolific German actor racked up credits in more than twenty Euro-Westerns, some of which amounted to brief-if-worthy guest spots. These two Italian productions feature the German actor up front in starring position, and both are pretty good genre entries to boot.

And God Said to Cain & Twice a Judas

Double Bill DVD

Spaghetti Western Collection Volume 45

Wild East

1970 & 1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / Street Date August 26, 2013 / 19.95

Starring: Klaus Kinski, Antonio Sabato.

Directed by Anthony Dawson (Antonio Margheriti), Nando Cicero

CineSavant DVD Guest Review by Lee Broughton

Anthony Dawson’s And God Said to Cain (1970) is a decidedly gothic affair distinguished by the fact that Kinski is cast against type as a sympathetic vengeance seeker who holds the film’s moral high ground.

The...

Raro Video resurrects an excitingly obscure title this month with Liliana Cavani’s 1967 film, The Year of the Cannibals, a counter culture art house film modernizing Sophocles’ play Antigone to explore modern political unrest, here in the streets of Milan. Cavani, perhaps best known for her notorious 1974 film The Night Porter, posing star Charlotte Rampling in one of her most iconic roles, has crafted a stunningly photographed and arresting film in this early work that’s ripe for rediscovery. Shown in art houses and retrospectives after receiving favorable reaction upon domestic release and major film festival play (Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes), the title never secured distribution in the Us, though this is mostly due to Cavani’s refusal to change the bleak finale when a major studio approached her to buy the film.

Set in a dystopic Milan, corpses litter the bustling streets after the government has squashed a vicious rebellion.