aka Un buco in fronte
Directed by Giuseppe Vari who, having previously made DE GUELLO, DJANGO THE LAST KILLER, DEATH RIDES ALONG and POKER WITH PISTOLS was no stranger to the spaghetti Western, but also a filmmaker as adept in other categories, as demonstrated in a career that would span the peplum, Euro crime and war genres too.
Bill Blood (Anthony Ghidra aka Dragomir 'Grida' Bojanic) arrives at an old monastery where he is greeted with hospitality in the shape of a square meal and somewhere to lie his tired head. During his stay, Blood encounters Morienda (Bruno Cattaneo), a bandit full of lead and looking a little worse for wear. The words "gold in the cloister" and the name "Monguija" are about all poor Morienda can muster, but is more than enough to grab Blood's attention. For Monguija (Robert Hundar aka Claudio Undari, who appeared as Tomas Milian's henchman Dario in Umberto Lenzi's excellent THE CYNIC, THE RAT AND THE FIST) is a ruthless bandit chief and a man whose illicit pleasures include cold-blooded murder, rape and placing bets on arm wrestling matches where the loser's hand is impaled on a spike. It's not long before Blood discovers a king on Morienda, a card with some sort of code scrawled upon it, and when put together with two other playing cards, will lead the bearer to a fortune in gold Pesos. So begins a race to the treasure where only one will be victorious...
A HOLE IN THE FOREHEAD is an extremely enjoyable Italian Western and one that I would implore lovers of all things spaghetti-like to seek out and see. The film features a pleasantly-soothing and eminently melodic score by Roberto Pregadio; something that borders on classical. At various points of the film I found myself wondering whether or not the film's score had been issued on vinyl or CD, so imagine my surprise when I discovered that ten of the cues are presented as an extra on the DVD; a pleasing addition, to say the very least.
The presentation of the film is both pleasing and somewhat disappointing. On the plus side, the film picture is presented in all its original 2.35:1 glory and has been anamorphically-enhanced for widescreen displays. However, there are no English or Italian audio options, forcing the viewer to opt for the German dub with English subtitles. That said, this is a German release and we should consider ourselves lucky there are any English options at all.
On the extras front, New Entertainment World has put together a respectable package that includes a film gallery, the German trailer, previews for three other NEW titles, the alternate Italian opening credits and the aforementioned soundtrack cues.
Gripes aside, this disc will certainly suffice until a better release arrives, if indeed that ever happens, and remains the only way we can experience this immensely enjoyable slice of spaghetti-flavoured fun.
(Aarron Waite)
