Wow – it feels like just yesterday that I saw actors Gianni “Gary Hudson” Garko and Claudio Camaso partner for a 1967 Spaghetti Western. Oh way – it was yesterday that I watched those two in $10,000 Blood Money.

Garko and Camaso reunited quickly. They play the leads in 1967’s Vengeance Is Mine.

Johnny Forest (Garko) and brother Clint (Camaso) grew up in a wealthy family but Johnny left home due to parental issues. When their father (Gianni De Benedetto) attempts to make amends with Johnny, Clint kills Papa Forest and blames it on his brother.

This sends Johnny to prison for 10 years, and when he goes free, he operates as a bounty hunter. This leads him on an unexpected assignment: to capture Clint Forest.

All that sounds downright Biblical, doesn’t it? Though stories of antagonistic siblings likely predate Cain and Abel, of course, as the basic concept seems eternal.

Well-trodden as it may be, the conflict between brothers adds substance to Vengeance. While not the deepest Western one can find, it does become more involving than most in terms of story and themes.

Although my synopsis may imply otherwise, Vengeance starts in the story’s “present day” and tells of the Forest family woes in flashback. This works as a pretense, as it allows the movie to kick into gear immediately and deliver exposition painlessly.

Indeed, Vengeance comes with a boffo opening. It introduces Johnny in a dynamic manner that allows the film to jump out of the gate.

I don’t know if anything that follows lives up to this sequence, but Vengeance nonetheless keeps us with it. The core competition between Johnny and Clint may lean cliché, but the film explores these topics well enough to make them work.

Indeed, this side of things becomes more involving than I anticipated. I figured Vengeance would use the sibling rivalry as little more than a gimmick, but instead, it ekes some real drama out of these domains.

At times, this means Vengeance can feel a bit melodramatic. Nonetheless, the movie avoids too much cheesy sentiment and manages to bring us a fairly tight narrative.

Toss in some good action and Vengeance delivers a pretty satisfying Western. It manages a nice mix of character drama and the usual gunslinging shenanigans to hit the mark.

Vengeance Is Mine appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This turned into a largely satisfying presentation.

For the most part, sharpness looked fine. Occasional soft shots materialized, but these remained infrequent, so the movie usually delivered positive delineation.

I saw no issues with jaggies or moiré effects, and edge haloes failed to appear. Grain leaned a bit heavy, but that seemed to reflect the source, and I witnessed no print flaws.

As happens with many Westerns, the movie’s palette leaned toward a sandy/arid feel, with only sporadic instances of more vivid hues. Though the colors lacked much impact, they nonetheless worked acceptably well.

Blacks felt largely deep and dense, while low-light shots displayed positive clarity. Nothing here dazzled, but the image held up well over the decades.

I didn’t expect much from the LPCM monaural audio of Vengeance, and the soundtrack indeed seemed less than inspiring. That said, it worked better than usual based on my other experiences with 1960s Italian productions.

Like virtually all of those, Vengeance featured re-recorded dialogue, and that meant the lines usually came across as somewhat unnatural. Nonetheless, they fit the action a bit better than usual and lacked the thin/reedy tones I often find.

Music appeared generally decent, and effects showed adequate reproduction. Some louder elements suffered from distortion, but these didn’t seem severe. Though I didn’t think it merited a grade above a “B-“, this still turned into a better than expected mix given the generally iffy quality of older Italian tracks.

A few extras appear, and we get an audio commentary from film historians Adrian J. Smith and David Flint. They provide a running, screen-specific discussion of genre domains, cast and crew, and some production elements.

For the most part, the commentary offers a look at Spaghetti Westerns and their connection to Vengeance. While we don’t learn a ton about the creation of Vengeance itself, Flint and Smith mesh well and make this a lively an engaging discussion of the genre topics.

Four featurettes follow, and Crime and Punishment goes for 13 minutes, five seconds. This offers an introduction to Vengeance from journalist/critic Fabio Melelli.

Melelli discusses connections to $10,000 Blood Money, story/character domains, cast/crew and production areas. Melelli sheds some light on these subjects.

Cain and Abel spans 25 minutes, three seconds. It presents archival interviews with actor Gianni “Gary Hudson” Garko and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi.

Here we learn about their careers and work on this movie. We find a nice collection of notes.

Next comes In Conversation, a 15-minute, 34-second segment. It delivers an interview with composer Nora Orlandi.

She tells us how she approaches scores as well as aspects of her career. Orlandi creates an involving chat.

Movie After Movie goes for 16 minutes, 42 seconds. It presents an interview with producer Mino Loy.

As expected, Loy touches on his career and Vengeance. This becomes a worthwhile discussion.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we conclude with an Image Gallery. Its 22 frames display various promotional materials.

As a tale of antagonistic brothers, Vengeance Is Mine follows a well-worn path. Nonetheless, it tells its story well and becomes an engaging mix of action and drama. The Blu-ray boasts fairly positive picture and audio along with a mix of bonus materials. Chalk up Vengeance as a better than expected Spaghetti Western.

Note that this release of Vengeance Is Mine comes only as part of a four-film package called “Blood Money Volume 2”. In addition to this movie, it brings three other Spaghetti Westerns: $10,000 Blood Money, Find a Place to Die and Matalo.