I watched this spaghetti western under the title A MAN CALLED JOE CLIFFORD although the title APOCALYPSE JOE is much more exciting. It's a regular vehicle for western star Anthony Steffen, who certainly looked the part of a heroic gunslinger as much as Franco Nero did if not more so. This one has a plot involving Steffen inheriting a mine only to discover that it's controlled by the usual gang of corrupt and vicious types who use murder to keep opposition at bay.The twist with this western is that Steffen plays a somewhat unconventional hero with aspirations of grandeur; he'd rather be a Shakespearean actor on the stage than a fighter! This leads him to dress up and fool his enemy on occasion, although it's notable that this sub-plot is dispensed with entirely for the climax, a traditional large-scale gunfight around the town in which the bullets fly, the enemy is endlessly gunned down, and the flames billow.

Spanish/Italian co-production dealing with a traveling actor with his roulette and gunslinger named Joe Clifford (Anthony Steffen) , kills enemies exclaiming : ¨To be or not to be¨ . At the beginning he is imprisoned , when is freed by his aunt , Joe aware that has inherited a gold mine from his uncle . Returning to claim the mine , he finds town boss named Berg (Eduardo Fajardo) , his uncle's killer , controls it instead . Clifford sets out in pursuit the murderers . At the end takes place a long shootout at the little town in which Clifford is only helped by the barber . Then Clifford tells he goes to London for a meeting with Shakespeare .This Paella/Spaghetti Western is filled with action , thrills , horse ridding , brawls at the Saloon and crossfire . This is an acceptable Spaghetti starred by Antonio De Teffe , under pseudonym Anthony Steffen ; he steals the show as a gunman relishing his secret identity dressed in Shakesperean actor , or disguising as a priest or posing as a woman ; executing thespian skills , bounds and leaps , twists and climbs and throughly enjoys himself . Anthony Steffen in his ordinary role as a gunfighter who seeks vengeance against his eternal enemy , Eduardo Fajardo , and his hoodlums as the bouncing Fernando Bilbao . As Steffen freeing the town from nasties led by Eduardo Fajardo , using both gunning down and shrewdness . Both of whom starred as deadly contenders a lot of Western .The picture is well starred by Anthony Steffen-Antonio De Teffe- , he began playing secondary roles into typical examples of popular Italian films of the late 50s as sword and sandal epics, comedies, adventures and was with spaghetti westerns that renamed achieved worldwide stardom. His acting is often accused of being wooden, but in many manners is ideally suited to playing the steely-faced gunslinger synonymous with the genre . His others successes include well liked features as Seven Dollars to Kill, The last Mohican¨, ¨Train for Durango¨, ¨Gentleman Jo¨ , ¨Four dollars for Django¨, ¨Shango¨, ¨Arizona colt¨, ¨Apocalypse Joe¨ and several others. He was still enjoyable in other genres, specially Giallos as the successful The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave¨, ¨Death in Haiti¨ or The ¨Crimes of the Black Cat¨, a good example of Giallo where he played a blind pianist - one of his roles he most liked- , and ¨Killer Fish¨ . Being a Spanish/Italian co-production in the movie appears usual support actors such as : Mary Paz Pondal , Miguel Del Castillo and Fernando Bilbao as a bearded hunk , among others .This Western takes elements about ¨Hamlet¨and ¨Macbeth¨ . Other Spaghetti freely based on famous novel by Shakespeare is ¨The Fury of Johnny Kid¨ by Gianni Puccini with Peter Lee Lawrence and Cristina Galbo from ¨Romeo and Giuletta¨ . Other Spaghetti based on known and classic novels , are the following : ¨Johnny Hamlet¨(1968) by Enzo G Castellari ; ¨The return of Ringo¨ by Duccio Tessari inspired on the ¨Odyssey¨, ¨John Il Bastardo¨(1967) based on books from Zorrilla and Moliere ; and ¨Anche Nel West Céra Una Volta Dio ¨ (1968)by Marino Girolami¨based on ¨Island of treasure¨ by Robert Stevenson. The motion picture is produced by Eduardo Manzanos Brochero who started producing ¨Il Coyote¨ and ¨The Jiusticia De Coyote¨ by Joaquin Romero Marchent with Abel Salazar and Gloria Marin . After that , he produced with his company Copercines ¨Vengeance of Zorro¨ and ¨L'Ombra di Zorro¨ (1962) by Joaquin Marchent with Frank Latimore . Eduardo Manzanos built a Western town in Hoyo De Manzanares (Madrid) with sets by Cubero and Jose Luis Galicia , today sadly disappeared , called ¨Golden City¨ where filmed several Western as Welcome Padre Murray , Brandy , various Zorros and this one . He produced various films for Marchent brothers as Joaquin Romero Marchent : ¨Cabalgando Hacia Muerte¨ , ¨Three good men¨; and Rafael Marchent : ¨Quien Grita vengeance¨, ¨Two crosses in Danger Pass¨ ; and for Italian directors as ¨Sabor Odio¨ by Umberto Lenzi¨and ¨Winchester 1 between 1000¨ by Primo Zeglio .

In the world of the Italian western we have the lofty pinnacle reached by Sergio Leone, the lower plateaus managed by Sergio Corbucci, a few other efforts (Trinity series, works by Solima) that share that space and a multitude of films piled into a dark valley of wretchedness. True exploitation films, the average Italian western manages to touch all the required genre identifiers (lone hero, nasty villain, absurd gunfights, saloon scene, etc.) without any sense of pacing or originality. When a film comes along that actually tries something different, it seems like a ray of wonderful sunlight has suddenly entered the dark valley.The idea of a gunfighter who would rather be a Shakepearean actor is interesting but the idea is never taken very far. Antonio Steffan is not a wide-ranging actor and it's really obvious whenever he is in a disguise (about four times in the whole film!). The film opens with a great scene where Clifford is performing Hamlet's famous soliloquy and he suddenly shoots four men with a gun hidden in the prop skull! Unfortunately nothing tops that image for the rest of the film. We never find out why he shot the men as the film moves on to a stock story about a stolen gold mine deed.Great title (although the name "Apocalypse Joe" is meaningless), good score and decent photography help the film along. The pacing is slow at times and the final extended gunfight is juvenile, like a bunch of kids playing in the park.Better then most Italian westerns so if you are a fan this is a good one to find. For the average movie person, it promises more then it can deliver.

This is one of the finest examples of the post-1970 "later period" Spaghetti Western, a particularly interesting period of the genre defined by ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST's effect of finally proving that a truly great John Ford era Oater could in fact be made by & with primarily Europeans. Pepper in some name brand American faces to ensure good box office and Sergio Leone and company could blow away anything coming out of the states at the same time, aside from Peckinpah.It seems as though the success of Leone's movie served to liberate the genre, and between 1970 and 1974 or so there were scores of extremely low budget Spaghetti's made right at home in Italy, no need to even traipse to Spain for exteriors. Nobody was really counting the gaffes anymore and as such directors could pull out all the stops and go for broke without sweating issues like authenticity. Some went for the action, some for the comedy, some for the sex, and some even worked in some decent film-making along the way.So with nothing to prove except to show how these movies could be done by someone with a brain, Leopoldo Savona gathered two of the genre's biggest names -- frequent co-stars Anthony Steffen and the insane Eduardo Fajardo -- equipped them with costumes, props, a script and a supporting cast of familiar faces, and basically turned them loose, essentially choreographing a huge, violent, colorful cartoon for grown-ups with some of the wildest gunfights ever staged. Throw in a characteristically airy Bruno Nicolai soundtrack and you are talking a minor masterpiece.Critics of the genre might find it to be predictable and imitative of other examples. Fans will be delighted by how the film touches on pretty much all of the important elements that made Spaghetti such a special kind of entertainment, and still manages to come up with some new angles. Anthony Steffen is in peak form as Joe Clifford, who like Gianni Garko's Sartana character is something of an artiste & con man, as often as not thinking his way out of a jam in addition to using his fists and pistol to enforce frontier justice without a badge. And Eduardo Fajardo was able to cultivate a slavering, convincing villain just as despicable as his Major Jackson character from DJANGO. The only one who can stop him is Steffen, and their showdown is one of the great unseen climaxes to an example of the genre that is so much better than it probably had to be.9/10; Not to be missed!!