A TOWN CALLED BASTARD

A TOWN CALLED BASTARD

By William Terry

NEL, 1971

Revolutionaries massacre a church congregation and destroy its interior. From that day onwards the town becomes known as Bastard.

Some years later Bastard is under the control of bandits masquerading as revolutionaries who kill on the slightest whim. A priest is trying to rebuild the destroyed church and the townspeople live in fear. 

A fancy hearse arrives in town, its female owner searching for the man who killed her husband. The woman promises to pay $20,000 in gold if the man who killed her husband is found and delivered to her so his corpse can be placed in the coffin the hearse is transporting. The bandit leader wants that gold, so sets out to find the unnamed killer. Could it be the mysterious man of legend Aguila? Does Aguila even exist?

Further violence will erupt when a brutal army Colonel arrives on the scene searching for an elusive rebel leader and no-one is safe from his savage methods to find the man he seeks.  

Based on Richard Aubrey’s screenplay for the spaghetti western of the same name, William Terry does an excellent job of capturing the mood and viciousness on the movie. There are a few scenes in the book that don’t appear in the movie and I don’t know whether the author added these himself or they were including in the screenplay and were omitted from the final cut of the film. 

There are some great characters to be found in this story, The Priest, Don Calos, Alvira and her bodyguard, Spectre, to name but a few. Terry captures the harshness of this tale in a very visual way and fleshes the characters out a little more than is done in the film. I seem to remember watching the movie many, many years ago and thinking it didn’t make much sense but the author fills in the gaps so it is much easier to follow. Maybe the censor was responsible for the film being uneven? 

Violence is graphic, and the author seems to have added some sexual scenes that don’t appear in the film to spice the book up, but these aren’t graphic. They do help explain why some of the characters act the way they do. There are a few neat twists to the tale before the book ends as brutally as it began.  

I must say I much prefer the book version to the film, which was also known as A Town Called Hell in some countries. 

William Terry is a pseudonym for author Terry Harknett, perhaps better known for his Edge westerns written as George G. Gilman. 

The movie starred Robert Shaw, Stella Stevens, Telly Savalas and Martin Landau. It was produced by S. Benjamin Fisz and was directed by Robert Parrish.

RED SUN

By William Terry

NEL, July 1972

A train carrying a Japanese delegation with a golden ceremonial sword for President Grant is robbed by outlaws led by Link and Gauche. When Gauche double-crosses Link and leaves him for dead, Link is ordered to team up with Kuroda, one of the ambassador's samurai bodyguards, who has a week to recover the sword or commit 'hara-kiri'. Kuroda will also kill Link before taking his own life. Hoping to find out from Gauche where the gang buried the loot from the train before Kuroda can kill him, Link tries to unsuccessfully escape from the samurai. Soon a truce is formed between the American and the Japanese samurai and they close in on Gauche but a new threat is waiting for them all, a band of Comanche warriors eager to take all their lives.

One of three film novelisations written by William Terry, whose real name was Terry Harknett, whom westerns fans will know better as his pseudonym George G. Gilman behind which he wrote the extremely successful Edge series. 

Terry told me that his movie novelisations were based on the screenplays and that he didn’t get to see the film before writing the book. He was also given information on who would be starring in the film so he could base his characters descriptions on them. When reading this book, it is very easy to imagine the actors in the leading roles, and hear their voices too. 

The clash of cultures makes for some humorous scenes that add a light-hearted feel to the story but it is not a comedy western. The plot is simple yet entertaining and the many action scenes can be quite brutal at times although nowhere near as graphic as Harknett’s series westerns. 

If you’ve seen the film or are a fan of Terry Harknett’s writing, then this is a must read for you. If you like stories where cultures clash then this is a tale you will probably enjoy. I also think anyone who likes westerns should find this a worthwhile read. 

Red Sun is a 1971 Franco-Italian Spaghetti Western that was directed by Terence Young (better known perhaps for his James Bond films). Red Sun starred Charles Bronson, Toshirō Mifune, Alain Delon and Ursula Andress. The original screenplay was by Denne Bart Petitclerc, William Roberts, and Lawrence Roman, from a story by Laird Koenig. 

Hannie Caulder

By William Terry

NEL, September 1971

Fleeing the scene of a botched bank robbery, the Clemens brothers come across an isolated homestead. Attempting to steal fresh horses, the trigger-happy youngest brother murders Caulder, the landowner. His wife Hannie is unable to fend off the three Clemens alone. They rape her, steal her horses and burn her home to the ground. Determined to seek revenge Hannie teams up with Thomas Price a ruthless bounty hunter. She implores him to teach her how to kill. Reluctantly he agrees and together they set off in pursuit of the outlaws.

This is the book of the film rather than a book that became a film. The author, William Terry, based the book on the screenplay which in turn was adapted from an original story by Peter Cooper.

William Terry is a pseudonym used by Terry Harknett, who would become much better known the following year as George G. Gilman when the first in the best-selling Edge western series was released, a series that would run for seventeen years.

Terry tells me he wrote the book from the final draft of the script the director would be using to make the film. He knew who was to star in the film and was sent some black and white stills of key scenes which is why his descriptions of characters is spot on. Dialogue was taken from the script and it’s intriguing to discover this contains a lot of gallows humour which would become a trademark of Terry’s own books, something he freely admits he was influenced by along with many other TV and film westerns he watched and was ‘enthusiastically encouraged by the editorial team at New English Library!’ to continue using this in his own westerns.

The story is a straight-forward revenge tale and mixes the dark theme of Caulder’s rape and subsequent quest for vengeance with lighter comic moments mainly through the antics of the Clemens brothers. Terry’s writing perfectly captures the spirit of the film and its changing tones.

The book was published around the time the movie was released and is a must read for fans of both the film and Terry Harknett’s work as well as those who enjoy fast-moving westerns that mix violence and humour.

The film is a British production directed by Burt Kennedy and starred Raquel Welch as Hannie Caulder. It also stars Robert Culp, Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin, Jack Elam, Christopher Lee, Diana Dors, and Stephen Boyd.