And God Said to Cain…

• Italian: E Dio disse a Caino, German: Satan der Rache
• Directed by Antonio Margheriti
• February 5, 1970 (Italy) / February 5, 1971 (West Germany)

A man granted a pardon from a prison work camp sets out to get revenge on those who framed him.

And God Said to Cain… is a very spaghetti Western though one with a very German cast. So much so you might get a tomato stain on your shirt with a smidge of sauerkraut by watching this. Klaus Kinski is not a man that would come to mind leading a Western, but here we are.

In conjunction with a dangerous storm coming, there’s a dangerous Klaus Kinski as Gary Hamilton coming to settle an old score for being framed and put into prison. Everybody is afraid of him. Kinski plays the character stone-faced making him feel disturbed. Or that could be the real Klaus coming across. The dude had issues.

Set on one fateful night, this is about taking out the threat in whatever random yet imaginative way may be available to the main character. At one point Klaus-as-Gary drops a bell on a character. Great scene though where what happens is largely implied rather than fully shown. On a random note I have been seeing a lot of that lately in my movies.

While great when successful, a movie where a character screws with his prey to unbalance them before death is hard to 100% pull off. You need to get so much right. There are only so many people a character can screw with before it becomes unbelievable and that varies based on multiple factors. This balances the elements well. Hamilton never goes too over-the-top. Just enough to poke at them and make them nervous.

The action is not kinetic. Klaus Kinski isn’t mixing it up like Jason Statham or Schwarzenegger. Hamilton is slow and methodical which surprisingly makes him a much more plausible threat. You can buy that he must take a little more time than somebody in much better shape.

Though I have not seen it, it has been said this is a remake of Salvatore Rosso’s 1968 film A Stranger in Paso Bravo with minor changes. I do not know about that but I do know this is a very atmospheric film and aims for plenty of style. Not always a plus. Sometimes the camera is awkwardly focused on the actor while others have the actor performing directly to the camera like it is a character making it, well, weird to me.

In the story years prior a man named Acombar (Peter Carsten) committed a gold heist leaving Hamilton’s water bottle behind as evidence. That was enough to convict him and send him to break rocks until a pardon came along based on his stellar military record. Huh? That stellar record did not work in his favor and create a little doubt? I think that needed a little more explanation.

Acombar has a son named Dick (Antonio Cantafora) portrayed as a relatively nice a good person in comparison to his dad who still sides with pops after the truth comes out. What was the point? There was no particularly strong bond between the two nor were they really ever at odds so taking one side or the other lacked motivation.

I was not wowed when watching but I was not disappointed. The story held me even though it was all dubbed and gave me immediate questions. Religion or religious themes were not too strong which was weird to me. The film’s three titles all contain religious allusions so something would be called for. I am not asking for a gaggle of preachers but at the minimum one Bible thumper was needed.

Even if it is flawed And God Said to Cain… was a pleasant discovery with enough to hold your attention. Certainly worthwhile for something a little different.