Day of Judgment (1971)

Ty Hardin is a former Civil War officer who returns home to find his wife and son dead, his home in embers.

He’s able to salvage one keepsake: A small mechanical drummer boy that was one of his son’s favorite toys.

So The Stranger sets out on a mission of vengeance. Two years later, he’s learned the identity of most of the men involved in the killing of his family.

But he doesn’t know who was behind it all.

He’ll don the disguise of a gravedigger and a circus performer to try to get the information.

Meanwhile, the body count is rapidly climbing. With most of the deaths prec eded by the rap-tap-tap of a mechanical toy.

And the sheriff (Rossano Brazzi) is given an edict: Find the man responsible or his badge will be in jeopardy.

Review:

A 1971 Spaghetti that harkens back to the glory days of the genre with a good-old fashioned revenge story.

We have flashbacks and an avenging hero who orders coffins for men who haven’t died yet and uses a toy salvaged from his destroyed home to count down the final seconds in his victims’ lives.

So what could go wrong?

Well, we’re given no reason to care whether our avenging hero lives or dies. There’s no real suspense regarding who the real villain is. Nor much doubt that he’ll accomplish his mission.

So we’re left with a film chock full of cat-and-mouse antics and familiar faces, but one that’s unlikely to leave much of an impression after the credits roll.

Heck, it’s not even clear what started the violence. Was Hardin’s family killed because he was considered a war traitor or because the man behind it all had a fetish for pretty Indian girls?

Here’s one surprise: Judging from the film’s body count, a small army must have been in on the killing of The Stranger’s wife and son. But Gordon Mitchell’s character apparently wasn’t among them!

Directed by:
Mario Gariazzo
as Robert Paget

Cast:
Ty Hardin … The Stranger
Rossano Brazzi … Sheriff
Edda Di Benedetto … Prairie Flower
Craig Hill … O’Connor
Gordon Mitchell … Norton
Rosalba Neri … Rising Sun
Pinuccio Ardia … Mr. Higgins
Federico Boido … Burt
as Rick Boyd
Stelio Candelli … Deputy Steve Mller
Giuseppe Castellano … Deputy Bill Jenkins
Giovanni Cianfriglia … Blackie
as Ken Wood
Bruno Corazzari … Bill
William Mayor .. John Mason
Guido Lollobrigida … Clay
as Lee Burton
Raf Baldassarre … Jason

Runtime: 98 min.

aka:
Il giorno del giudizio
Drummer of Vengeance
Doomsday
An Eye for an Eye

Music: Claudio Tallino

Memorable lines:

Gravedigger: “Oh, yes, gentlemen, ghosts do exist. I live among them. This is a ghost; that’s the reason you can’t catch him. This is the angel of vengeance. And for all the sinners in this town, it is doomsday!”

Frank, contemplating a plan to find the killer: “Yeah, I think I’ve got it.”
One of his men: “What? A plan or constipation.”

Trivia:

Rosalba Neri plays Ty Hardin’s deceased wife in a non-speaking role. We catch glimpses of her only in flashback sequences.

Blink and you might miss Craig Hill in this film. He plays O’Connor, the man in charge of the traveling circus.

Does the soundtrack sound familiar? That’s because it’s the Ennio Morricone theme from “The Hellbenders” (1967), liberally borrowed for this film.

Edda Di Benedetto plays the pretty Indian maiden Prairie Flower, basically a human target of a circus performer for an Indian brave who hurls spears in her direction. She appeared in one other Spaghetti, 1973’s “On the Third Day Arrived the Crow.”