Hate for Hate

By the late 1960s, the spaghetti Western, known for its stylized use of music, cinematography, and violence, was becoming more and more excessive. One film, Django Kill! (1967), featured vampire bats, a crucifixion, and an army of homosexual marauders. As a result, the brutality and extreme nature of a few features like the above caused many critics to ignore the genre and many outstanding films within it. But one part-time movie critic and filmmaker, Domenico Paolella, also known as Paul Fleming, made a unique contribution to the spaghetti Western with Hate for Hate (1967), also known by its Italian title, Odio per Odio. It starred American actor John Ireland and Antonio Sabato (father to Antonio Sabato, Jr., currently a popular model and occasional actor). Ireland plays a bank robber who befriends struggling rancher Sabato after returning the money that Sabato has just deposited in the bank he raided. But when Ireland discovers that his wife has been murdered, he suspects Sabato and seeks retribution for the crime. Domenico Paolella was a political filmmaker during the Italian Fascist period and later directed Mafia flicks for American television. In addition to writing scripts for noted Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, Paolella also founded the film journal La Settimana Incom in 1946, for which he edited for the first 600 issues. Paolella directed in many genres, such as the musical, the swashbuckler, the crime picture, thrillers and horror films before he made his own entry in the spaghetti Western cycle with Hate for Hate. Several directors of this genre, like Sergio Sollima (The Big Gundown (1966) and Face to Face, 1967), gained valuable experience working for Paolella. Producer: Italo Zingarelli Director: Domenico Paolella Screenplay: Bruno Corbucci, Fernando Di Leo, Domenico Paolella Cinematography: Alejandro Ulloa, Giovanni Bergamini Original Music: Willy Brezza Principal Cast: John Ireland (Cooper), Gloria Milland (Maria), Antonio Sabato (Miguel), Fernando Sancho (Coyote), Mirko Ellis (Moxon). C-79m. Letterboxed. by Scott McGee