The Hellbenders

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The Hellbenders
Directed by	Sergio Corbucci
Produced by	Alfredo Antonini
Written by	Alfredo Antonini, Ugo Liberatore
Starring	Joseph Cotten Norma Bengell Julian Mateos Gino Pernice Angel Aranda Maria Martin Al Mulock
Music by	Ennio Morricone
Cinematography	Enzo Barboni
Release date(s)	1967
Running time	90 mins
Country	Italy
Language	Italian
Preceded by	Navajo Joe
Followed by	The Mercenary (A Professional Gun)
IMDb profile

The Hellbenders (Italian title: I crudeli) is a Spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Corbucci in 1966.

[edit] Plot

Jonas, a fanatical Confederate general, is determined to reorganise the Southern Army and defeat the Union. With his sons Ben, Nat and rapist Jeff, he massacres Union soldiers transporting a consignment of banknotes and conceals the loot in a coffin supposedly belonging to a deceased Confederate officer. A drunken prostitute, Kitty, pretends to be the officer's widow. When Kitty is killed attempting a double-cross, Ben persuades Claire, a saloon hostess, to take Kitty's place - they fall in love. Claire, resentful of Jonas' fanaticism, arranges for the coffin to be buried in 'her' husband's fort. Jonas and co. dig up the coffin, grab the money, and the group moves on - but their horses are killed by a mad beggar and they fall foul of Indians, one of whom Jeff has tried to rape. Ben denounces his family's fanaticism and offers the Indians all the money in the coffin, which his brothers have died trying to protect. The mortally wounded Jonas discovers he has dug up the wrong coffin. All die.

[edit] Themes

One of Corbucci's best Westerns (along with The Great Silence and Django). Jonas is a fleshed-out version of Django's adversary Jackson. Corbucci's view of the Civil War is more overtly political than Sergio Leone's (though less, ultimately, profound: Leone depicts the War as a massive killing-machine, and refuses to differentiate, morally or visually, between North and South).

Marital fidelity is a strong element, just as it is in Navajo Joe and The Great Silence: it seems one of Corbucci's themes - even though the marriage is fraudulent.

[edit] Notes

I crudeli was made back-to-back, in Spain and Italy, with The Tramplers, with Joseph Cotten in a similar role.

Has a similar plot to Vera Cruz, in which Burt Lancaster, a dandy gunfighter, and Gary Cooper, a former Confederate Colonel, team up to escort a carriage with a French countess to Vera Cruz, for the Emperor Maximilian. In fact a horde of gold is hidden aboard the carriage!