“Not a great sacrifice for being able to have slaves.” With the Italian-Spanish western director Paolo Biancini "This hot day on fire" there is an unfortunate misunderstanding. It is caused by the fact that one of its rolling versions was called “Gatling machine gun”, which completely coincided with the American picture, released three years later, and belonging to the same genre. Given that both works are based on the formidable invention of an outstanding native of the United States, this can lead to confusion, making the viewer think that we are talking about the same thing, and overlook the independent “duplicate”. How this is fraught with regard to the work of Robert Gordon does not make sense here, but the option to overlook the creation of the Italian director seems to me extremely negative for fans of film collisions associated with the Wild West.
In fact, "Django lets blood" (another rolling name, habitually parasitic on a popular character) can be safely attributed to the findings, for which it makes sense to shovel a lot of mediocre and just bad tapes, and before the very beginning of the action does not give out its outstanding content. Judge for yourself - the names of a whole list of recognizable artists formally do not guarantee absolutely nothing, and the surname of the main person on the set causes maximum caution. There can be no other when it comes to a person who has previously removed unassuming adventure tapes and a couple of spaghetti, which, in my opinion, deserve only the epithet of “strong”. Such a “strong” at best and expect in such a scenario.
However, with every minute of time spent at the screen, the action shown on it attracts and practically does not disappoint, pleasantly surprising with competent directing, colorful camera work of the Spaniard Francisco Marina, an excellent soundtrack from Piero Piccioni, and, most importantly, a skillful plot. On his canvas, like pieces on a chessboard, various characters are placed, and although among them there are formally stronger, cunning and skillful, the subsequent game, the winner of which is expected by a truly valuable award, constantly changes the balance of forces, when a particularly remote pawn can escape into the queen, and the king of the situation will lose all the attributes of ghostly power. Moreover, there are more than two parties interested in winning, and the lack of mutual understanding and the element of chance can confuse the entire thought-out strategy.
It should be noted that each opposing camp is represented by memorable images, due to successful casting, greatly blurring the very concept of “main characters”. Magnificent George Rigault and Gerard Herter deservedly receive their portion of applause for the constant ability to bring the role of the second plan to a much more significant level. They constitute a formidable competition to Robert Woods, who receives the most attention, and John Ireland, around whom the action revolves for the most part (except for the ill-fated gambler). At the same time, Woods pleases separately, presenting not the usual manner for him of the “sensual cowboy”, but a much tougher and harsher pro who does not lose a drop of charm. Female characters are also individual and attractive, as far as even the Rada Rada Rassimov-Mrs. Treble, who received very little screen time.
The constant saturation of events that do not slide into stupid mellitus, competent support for real historical events of the Civil War and famously twisted intrigue makes Quel caldo maledetto giorno di fuoco an extremely successful representative of the dawn of the Apennine Westerns. Still, it is not for nothing that Biancini years later successfully moved to the camp of the creators of “serious” cinema.
No, this is not a masterpiece that deserves maximum appreciation, and some scenes such as the rescue of the main character are completely far-fetched. But these nitpicking is not the reason for excessive severity - after all, we are in front of the "spaghetti western" in all its pretentious beauty!
8 out of 10