Il sole nella polvere

There are a number of obvious parallels to the "Hamlet" story here: the murder of the observer behind the arras, the company of actors who perform a play specially altered for the occasion; Ophelia floating in the water, etc. Even without a knowledge of Shakespeare, however, the viewer may enjoy this slightly-off-beat western because of the way it concentrates its action in a limited area and because of its focus on a relatively small number of characters. Be forewarned, there are flashes of female nudity of the buns-and-boobs variety.

The "Hamlet" character is presented as a mute who's regarded by others as being good-looking but not too bright. He seems to have only one line of spoken dialog and that occurs at the 74-minute mark. Maria Schell, the sole "name" in the cast, doesn't have much to do as a black-haired Gertrude. Acting honors go to Bob Cunningham as the "Claudius" character. He's not handsome but he has "presence" and he almost oozes with testosterone. And yes, he does have a bare-chest scene. On the other hand, Daniel Beretta is a tad wimpy, even by standards of the Hamlet character, and he's not as good looking as the dialog about him would indicate.

The music score's credited to, of all people, Francis Lai.

Note: on some videotapes, the on-screen title for this production is "In the Dust of the Sun."