Gianni (Johnny) Garko and William Berger, two actors who previously squared off in If You Meet Sartana Pray For Your Death (among other films) are at it again in They Called Him Cemetery...
Spaghetti Western Database Synopsis: The two McIntre brothers return to their home in the west. They soon find that a band of mysterious masked men are controlling the county and extorting the ranchers. The brothers are helped by a gunman called Cemetery to combat the bandits, while the bandits hire Cemetery's old friend, Duke.
I'm beginning to understand why Gianni Garko is a Spaghetti Western icon. His calm, cool and collected attitude, combined with a squinty-eyed haggardness allow him to evoke a sympathy, and to quickly transition to projecting a dusty bad-a** quality. In this film (which in a tribute to high quality box-collections of old films, is oddly entitled They Called Him Graveyard on the disk from the same box set it was referred to as by the other title!), Garko is once again teamed up with his frequent opposite number, Berger.Both Berger, as Duke, and Garko, as Cemetery, have surprisingly similar "looks" in this film (right down to their facial hair) and world weary approach to the jobs that they take on for both personal (Garko) and financial (Berger) reasons. Though not fully revealed, there is a definite shared back story to these two gun fighters and if not for Berger's death in nearly every film (he is generally cast as a villain after all) this film could easily be viewed as just another chapter in an ongoing series of adventures during which these two characters cross paths.
Despite the dramatic performances of Berger and Garko, They... Cemetery does include the overtly comedic elements (goofy sons raised in the East and ill-equipped to deal with the tough guys of the West, for example) indicative of later Spaghetti Westerns it does (mercifully) stop short of spiraling into lampoon. This is thanks in great part to the grounded performances of the two leads.
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