TODAY IT'S ME...TOMORROW YOU!, aka TODAY WE KILL, TOMORROW WE DIE!, is a 1968 spaghetti western directed by Tonino Cervi and starring Brett Halsey as a Django lookalike who goes on the warpath to avenge the death of his wife. The film's origins are clear, with the straightforward revenge story concocted by Dario Argento no less. The first half sees posse members being assembled (a bit like THE DIRTY DOZEN) while the second sees them carrying out their mission of vengeance.There's little in this movie you won't have seen elsewhere, but I was surprised at how well shot it is. The locations are atmospheric and the cinematography is excellent, with plenty of gritty shoot-outs for action fans. Characterisation is slim but the characters themselves are engaging, from Halsey's taciturn lead to the likes of William Berger, Bud Spencer and Wayde Preston as various members of the posse. The music is stirring and as a whole the production values can't be faulted.The best actor of the lot is a real surprise: Japanese star Tatsuya Nakadai, star of the late Kurosawa movies RAN and KAGEMUSHA: THE SHADOW WARRIOR, playing the bad guy. Nakadai gives a multi-layered and extremely decent performance straight out of Japanese samurai cinema, and acts everybody else off screen. Simply said, he's brilliant and lifts the movie whenever he appears. The rating gains a star due to his presence alone.

I'm sure this title has been broadcast on Italian TV many times over the years but, only after renting it on DVD along with many another Spaghetti Western, did I bother to check out whether it was any good – and I was surprised to see it receive a *** rating on the "Cult Filmz" website! As it turned out, I found myself agreeing with that assessment – which makes the film one of the better (if largely unsung) entries in this profuse, eclectic and erratic genre.An interesting name in the credits is that of co-screenwriter Dario Argento; actually, early in his career the soon-to-be horrormeister worked on several such efforts in this capacity (including the ultimate genre masterpiece, Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST [1968]). Similarly, director/co-screenwriter Cervi started out as a producer on films by such Italian art-house heavyweights as Antonioni, Bertolucci, Bolognini, De Sica, Fellini, Lattuada, Monicelli and Visconti, etc. – though, later, he even dabbled in nunsploitation flicks! Anyway, as I said, this is a pretty good Spaghetti Western – albeit saddled with a catchpenny (and meaningless) title – involving a typical revenge plot: leading man Brett Halsey (appearing, unnecessarily, under the amusing pseudonym Montgomery Ford!) emerges from prison after five years, having been framed for the murder of his Indian squaw bride (shown in sepia-toned flashback, this is pretty much a genre fixture); he rallies a compact but formidable band of gunmen/mercenaries (shades of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN [1960]) and sets out in pursuit of the real culprit, ex-pal Tatsuya Nakadai (the celebrated Japanese actor is given the Mexican name of Elfego, though he wields a deadly machete in the fashion of a samurai!).Halsey appeared in a number of low-brow Spaghetti Westerns (one of them being ROY COLT AND WINCHESTER JACK [1970], incidentally an irregular – and disappointing – stint in the genre by Mario Bava, another seminal figure in Italian horror cinema) but this is most probably the best one he did. Accompanying the appropriately dour and black-clad lead, among others, are beefy Bud Spencer (a future icon of brawling comic fare – by the way, I have three more Spaghetti Westerns of his lined up for this week, one of which also credits Argento among its scriptwriters) and genre/Euro-Cult stalwart William Berger (his character is something of a fop and, furthermore, has a gambling addiction).Nakadai's presence here, then, is a delightful surprise – which definitely works to the film's advantage (his demise, in a confrontation not unlike that in a Budd Boetticher Western, is a particular highlight); with this in mind, prolific composer Angelo Francesco Lavagnino incorporates several weird Oriental sounds into the traditional Spaghetti Western motifs – and the result is effective indeed. Sergio D'Offizi's notable cinematography, however, isn't rendered justice by the English-dubbed print utilized for the VCI DVD – which is considerably scratched and muddy (at one point, Halsey remarks that "It'll be dark soon"…but the sky, as it appears, is already pitch-black!). Needless to say, the film contains the expected set-pieces of violent action – including an admirably sustained forest ambush at the climax.

Overall, just okay, really, although I will say kudos in particular to Tatsuya Nakadai, who played a great lead villain (he later played the leading role in Kurosawa's "Kagemusha"). What makes him even cooler is that - besides the fact that he wears no hat, nor does Spencer for that matter, Nakadai also wields a wicked machete when things get cooking! Halsey plays an effective lead too, in particular visually - I mean, the dude can grow a good scruff and done a wicked black cloak and hat!The one drawback is the obvious low budget, never more obvious than the fact that - outside of the "good guy" gang and the "bad guy" gang, I think there is like 5 more people in the ENTIRE movie - seriously! The entire third act takes place in a barren forest as the two gangs square off - very weird, really. Kind of like a First Blood thang, with dudes hanging from trees and ambushing guys from the bushes and stuff. I REALLY would have loved to have seen a more seasoned-Argento tackle something like this. The possibilities would have been endless . . .

This movie could be seen as one of the many "western" mushroomed out in Italy after the success of Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars". What makes it noteworthy is the presence of Bud Spencer, here at his debut with the heavy-handed character which will make him later famous with the "Trinità" series, and the casting in the role of "villain" Jess Elfego of one of the most outstanding Japanese actors, Tatsuya Nakadai, at the time almost unknown outside his country, well before arising to world fame with the leading role in Akira Kurosawa's "Kagemusha".