AT:
Crazy Westerners (USA)
D: Ferdinando Baldi; S: F.B., Franco Rossetti; C: Enzo Barboni; M: Robby Poitevin; with: Rita
Pavone, Lucio Dalla, Gordon Mitchell, Mario Girotti (“Terence Hill”), Teddy Reno
Shortly outside the gates of Rome guests a kind of “Wild West Revue”: Mean protagonist are Little Rita (Rita
Pavone), a gnomish female gunslinger with her biiiiiig peacemaker, and her hippiesque companion Francis Fitzgerald Scott
(Lucio Dalla). Furthermore we see a dance-crazy indian tribe under leadership of Sitting Bull (Gordon Mitchell), who smokes
a kind of shillum from time to time to get in the right mood. Besides there are several rogues like Ringo (“Kirk Morris”
= Adriano Bellini) or Pancho Villa (sic!) (Fernando Sancho) and young cowboy Texas-Joe (“Terence Hill”), who first
only loves money and later on Jane. Our heroine, Francis and Sitting Bull wanna get as much gold as possible and destroy it
to make earth a better place to live. Most people don’t agree with these plans, so many of them have to die. If they
won’t because of the bullets of Jane’s gun, they surely will because of the many italian Beat- and Popsongs, if
you know what I mean. Oh boy!
I
1967
The
Gunslinger says:
We like Fernando Baldi because of his bizarre films with Tony Anthony as “Get mean”. Well, and once again Baldi is on his road: “Rita ..” isn’t in fact a Spaghettiwestern but a musical,
which is enriched with many elements of the SW, which was quite popular in that time. You’ve got i.e. Django and his
coffin or Eastwoods "lead-weighting jacket" out of "A Fistful of Dollars". Decors, acting efforts and storyline are of minor
matter. Don’t complain over the horrible wigs of the “indians” or the lacking atmosphere. Is not worth thinking
too, why “Terence Hill” is on his trail with a bunch of b/w cows instead of some real cattle.
The aim of the Baldi-team obviously wasn’t the production of another serious western
but of a “hip” vehicle for Rita Pavone and propably Lucio Dalla. Pavone already was a star in Italy with some hits in
Germany too. In 1967 she stood at the beginning of a real international
career, whereas italian soulster Lucio Dalla was at the beginning at all.
If Baldi and his crew would have invested a little more brainwork and efforts in the production,
instead of building exclusively on the not sooo convincing vocals of Rita Pavone, things could have worked out … Maybe
…
In a nice minor role as sheriff, completely out of his depth, you can see Teddy Reno,
manager and husband of Rita Pavone.
Rating: $$+
Bodycount: ca. 10 Gringos, ca. 13 Mexicans
Explicit Brutalities:
Folx, if you have to listen to more than one song of RP: What do you call that?
Luv’: Joe and Jane are made for each other 3/10
Specials:
Jane sometimes wears a kind of lead-weighting jacket and uses bloody effective rifle grenades
