The Grand Duel

Lee Van Cleef, coasting on exactly the authority the genre built for him, plays an ex-sheriff shepherding a young man accused of murdering a patriarch through a town run by three sinister brothers. Giancarlo Santi had been Leone's assistant director, and it shows in the patient staging of a finale that keeps folding the question of who actually pulled the trigger back into the standoff. Luis Bacalov's swaggering main theme is the real headline, because Tarantino lifted it wholesale for Kill Bill, so you have heard it whether or not you have seen this. A late, unpretentious spaghetti western that earns its place on the strength of its star and its score.