''Mannaja'' (also known as ''A Man Called Blade'') is an Italian 1977

Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

film directed by

Sergio Martino Sergio Martino (born 19 July 1938) is an Italian film director and producer, notable for his contributions to the giallo genre. Martino is the brother of the late producer Luciano Martino (who died in 2013). They collaborated frequently in their ...

. The main role, Blade, is played by

Maurizio Merli Maurizio Merli (February 8, 1940 – March 10, 1989) was an Italian film actor and a star of many Italian police thrillers. Career After a decade of minor film roles, 1974 saw a breakthrough for Merli with his first starring role in a rema ...

. Other central roles are played by

John Steiner John Steiner (7 January 1941 – 31 July 2022) was an English actor. Tall, thin and gaunt, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and performed on-stage for the Royal Shakespeare Company, but was best known to audiences for his roles i ...

Sonja Jeannine Sonja Jeannine is a retired Austrian stage and film actress. Career Jeannine started her career with the ensemble Löwinger-Bühne and later passed to cinema, especially acting in sex report films directed by Ernst Hofbauer, such as three ''Schu ...

, Donald O'Brien, Philippe Leroy and

Martine Brochard Martine Brochard (born 2 April 1944) is a French actress and writer. Life and career Born in Paris, Brochard debuted in 1968 in a minor role in François Truffaut's '' Baisers volés''. In 1970, she moved to Italy, where she became a minor s ...

Plot

Bounty hunter Blade (Maurizio Merli), who uses a

tomahawk A tomahawk is a type of single-handed axe used by the many Indigenous peoples and nations of North America. It traditionally resembles a hatchet with a straight shaft. In pre-colonial times the head was made of stone, bone, or antler, and Europ ...

as a throwing weapon, arrives at the mining town of Suttonville with the outlaw Burt Craven (Donald O'Brien) as his prisoner. His real motive is to kill mining big boss McGowan (Philippe Leroy) who has killed his father. Blade gives up his revenge – because McGowan “is not worth it” – and instead accepts to deliver the ransom for the mine owner's daughter (Sonja Jeannine). However, this mission fails because she turns out to be the lover of her kidnapper, McGowan's foreman Voller (John Steiner), who secretly works for a gang that regularly robs the shipments of silver from the mine. Voller then kills his boss and turns his mining empire into bloody chaos by massacring the mine workers. Blade is beaten up and buried up to his neck and left to be blinded by the sun. However, he survives and returns for a showdown with Voller.

Cast

as Blade (Mannaja) *

as Theo Voller *

as Deborah McGowan * Donald O'Brien as Burt Craven * Philippe Leroy as Ed McGowan *

as Angela * Salvatore Puntillo as Johnny *

Antonio Casale Antonio Casale (17 May 1932 – 4 February 2017) was an Italian film actor of the 1960s and 1970s who appeared in mostly Spaghetti Western Italian films between 1965 and 1976. Although his later roles were more prominent, Casale is probably mo ...

as Dahlman *

Enzo Fiermonte Enzo Fiermonte (17 July 1908 – 22 March 1993), sometimes credited as William Bird, was an Italian actor and boxer. Early life Vincenzo "Enzo" Fiermonte was born on 17 July 1908 in Casamassima, a rural village near Bari, in southern Italy to D ...

as agente del governo *

Rick Battaglia Rik Battaglia (byname of Caterino Bertaglia; 18 February 1927 – 27 March 2015) was an Italian film actor. He was born at Corbola, near Rovigo, Veneto. He mainly used the stage name of Rik Battaglia although alternate names he used for his fi ...

as padre di Mannaja * Aldo Rendine as uomo derubato *

Enzo Maggio Enzo Maggio (10 October 1902 – 13 July 1978) was an Italian actor. Born Vincenzo Maggio in Naples into a family of actors, Maggio made a long apprenticeship in the avanspettacolo theaters before and during the Second World War. On stage, he w ...

as vecchietto *

Sergio Tardioli Sergio may refer to: * Sergio (given name), for people with the given name Sergio * Sergio (carbonado), the largest rough diamond ever found * ''Sergio'' (album), a 1994 album by Sergio Blass * ''Sergio'' (2009 film), a documentary film * ''Se ...

as barista *

Sophia Lombardo Sophia Lombardo (born September 14, 1955) is a former Italian actress. Biography Lombardo started her career when she was young. She appeared in Italian style sex comedies and also in Spaghetti Western movies. She is best known for the role o ...

as Lucy

Music

The film's score was composed and performed by

Guido & Maurizio De Angelis Guido and Maurizio De Angelis, also known as Oliver Onions, are a prolific duo of Italian musicians, multi-instrumentalists, composers and singers, as well as television and film producers. They reached the height of their popularity in the 1970 ...

, whose soundtrack has been described as " eeringunpredictability between Italian Western ballads, contemporary pop songs,

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

-led horror motifs and 1970s

prog rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Initi ...

Release

''Mannaja'' was released in 1977. It grossed a 750 million

Italian lire The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually f ...

domestically in Italy.

Reception

In his investigation of narrative structures in

films, Fridlund ranges ''Mannaja'' among stories obeying the "Tragic Mercenary” plot where the pursuit of a monetary motive entails the killing or wounding of someone close to the hero, who then sets out on a vengeance mission. This story appears in the very influential '' Django''. In the case of Blade his economic arrangement with the man he should have killed sets off a course of action leading to him being tortured and to the death of the showgirl Angela, who loves him. The situation where a kidnapped woman betrays her savior because she is the lover of her would-be abductor also appears in ''

Ten Thousand Dollars for a Massacre ''10.000 dollari per un massacro'' (internationally released as ''$10.000 Blood Money'' and ''Guns of Violence'') is a 1967 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed by Romolo Guerrieri. The film was one of the unofficial sequels of '' Django'', a ...

'' - another "Tragic Mercenary” story.Fridlund, Bert: ''The Spaghetti Western. A Thematic Analysis''. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company Inc., 2006 pp. 133-34.

Notes

References

External links

*
Swedish video cover from 1982
* {{Sergio Martino Films directed by Sergio Martino 1977 Western (genre) films Spaghetti Western films 1977 films Films scored by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis Progressive rock soundtracks 1977 drama films 1970s Italian films