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A Long Ride from Hell

A Long Ride from Hell (Vivo per la tua morte)

Movie · 1968 · 15 people

Released in 1968, the Italian spaghetti western A Long Ride from Hell carries the original title Vivo per la tua morte, which means "I live for your death". Camillo Bazzoni directed it, signing as Alex Burks. The picture runs roughly 90 minutes and was shot in Italian; in France it is known as L'Évadé de Yuma, and in German-speaking countries as Ich bin ein entflohener Kettensträfling or Zum Tode begnadigt. Its first German-language screening took place on 4 July 1969.

The story comes from Judas Gun, a pulp paperback novel by Gordon D. Shirreffs. The lead is Steve Reeves, the bodybuilder famous for peplum films, in what is described as his only western. Mimmo Palmara, Wayde Preston, Rosalba Neri, Silvana Venturelli, Aldo Sambrell and Nello Pazzafini round out the cast.

The production history is notable too. Reeves, who had earlier turned down the lead in A Fistful of Dollars, came aboard when he saw Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns doing well at the box office: he co-wrote the script with Roberto Natale and paid for the film himself. It did poorly in cinemas, and Reeves left filmmaking for good that same year, making this his last film.

DirectorCamillo Bazzoni

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Cast

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Nello Pazzafini Nello Pazzafini Actor · died at 62 Aldo Sambrell Aldo Sambrell Film actor · died at 79 Steve Reeves Mimmo Palmara Silvana Venturelli Franco Fantasia Enzo Fiermonte Rosalba Neri Mario Maranzana Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia Franco Balducci Emma Baron Bruno Corazzari Wayde Preston Guido Lollobrigida

Titles sharing this cast

Through different eyes

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

Seeing Steve Reeves, the muscle-bound star of peplum films, trade the sword for a gun is a draw in itself. For genre fans that is the real hook: watching an actor defined by his physique fit into the hard world of the western. But this film flopped at the box office, and anyone expecting the grit and pace of the Eastwood classics may be let down. A curiosity worth one try.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Based on a Gordon D. Shirreffs novel counted as pulp fiction, this is a western that accepts the limits of its material from the start. Expecting subtle character work from such a source would be unfair; the real question is whether the direction can bring style to plain material. The best spaghetti westerns could lift even an ordinary story with camera angles, music and silence. A Long Ride from Hell, in my view, settles for reproducing the genre's patterns without a signature of its own. That the script was co-written by its lead actor also suggests a story shaped around a star image. For those curious about the genre's history, it is still a complementary piece.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

The film is a good case study in how 1960s Italian popular cinema worked. Muscle-bound peplum heroes were moving into a new genre, the western; Reeves, who had turned down A Fistful of Dollars, financing this film himself once he saw the genre making money shows how quickly the industry chased box-office success. The director working under a pseudonym can be read as part of the same commercial logic: Italian productions selling an American genre picked names to match. The film's weak box office and Reeves leaving cinema the same year are a reminder that not everyone found a place in that rapid shift.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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