Requiescant *** (1967, Lou Castel, Mark Damon, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Franco Citti, Ninetto Davoli, Barbara Frey, Rossana Martini, Mirella Maravidi) – Classic Movie Review 11,438

Lou Castel stars as Requiescant and Mark Damon plays the flamboyant Ferguson in the strange, cultish and entertaining 1967 spaghetti Western film Requiescant, also starring Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Producer-director Carlo Lizzani’s Italian/ German co-production 1967 Requiescant [Kill and Pray] [Kill and Say Your Prayers] stars Lou Castel, Mark Damon, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Franco Citti and Ninetto Davoli.

Lou Castel stars as Requiescant and Mark Damon plays the flamboyant Ferguson in this strange, cultish and entertaining Sixties spaghetti Western that even features an appearance by gay Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini as the priest Don Juan, along with two of Pasolini’s protégés, Franco Citti and Ninetto Davoli, as co-stars.

The boy Requiescant is taken in and raised by the priest Father Jeremy after surviving a massacre of his family, and is tempted back into violence when he comes face to face with his family’s killer, a deranged ex-Confederate officer, years later.

Requiescant is a minor gem rescued and was resurrected after years of obscurity by the BBC’s Moviedrome series in 1993.

The cast are Lou Castel as Jeremy (Requiescant), Mark Damon as George Bellow Ferguson, Pier Paolo Pasolini as Don Juan, Barbara Frey as Princy, Rossana Martini (as Rossana Krisman) as Lope, Mirella Maravidi as Edith, Franco Citti as Burt, Ninetto Davoli (as Nino Davoli) as El Nino, Lorenza Guerrieri as Marta, Ferruccio Viotti as Father Jeremy, Carlo Palmucci as Ferguson’s henchman, gunslinger Dean Light, Vittorio Duse, Peter Weissberg, and Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia.

Requiescant [Kill and Pray] [Kill and Say Your Prayers] is directed by Carlo Lizzani, runs 92  minutes, is made by Castoro Film, Mancori–Chretien Istituto Luce and Tefi Film Produzione, is released by Consorzio Italiano Distributori Indipendenti Film (CIDIF), is written by Adriano Bolzoni, Lucio Battistrada, Armando Crispino, and Pier Paolo Pasolini, based on a story by Franco Bucceri and Renato Izzo, is shot in widescreen by Sandro Mancori, is produced by Carlo Lizzani and Ernst R von Theumer, is scored by Riz Ortolani, and is designed by Enzo Bulgarelli.

Mark Damon (born Alan Harris; April 22, 1933 – May 12, 2024).

The legendary Mark Damon

Handsome leading actor Mark Damon (born Alan Harris; April 22, 1933 – May 12, 2024) was signed in 1958 to 20th Century Fox, who cast him in inconsequential films. But he found more notable work outside the studio, winning the the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor as Philip Winthrop in House of Usher. He moved to Italy and became a notable Spaghetti Western star, especially in Johnny Oro [Ringo and His Golden Gun] (1966) directed by Sergio Corbucci and Requiescant (1967). He gave up acting in the mid-1970s to become a film producer, returning to the US in 1977, where he founded Producers Sales Organization (PSO). He developed a reputation as one of the leading producers and distributors of independent films, and as the ‘legendary Mark Damon’.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,438

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