Spaghetti Westerns are known for cynicism and for painting society as a grim place where no one (except the protagonist) is ever up to any good. That’s arguably a true reflection of the era in which most of the movies are set, and it can be argued that the genre really thrived when the characters weren’t always in a joyous mood. Corruption, revenge, killings, and betrayal all make for great viewing.
However, a few Spaghetti Westerns stick to the basics while still infusing various satirical or ordinary comedy elements. Such films were popular in the late ‘60s and ‘70s as they were intentionally made to revive a genre that seemed destined for doom, like the person with the slowest draw during a standoff. Even though they are not as popular as other productions, they still qualify as guilty pleasure viewing.
Movieweb
By Philip Etemesi
November 9, 2024
10 For a Few Dollars Less (1966)
Sergio Leone was reportedly furious when fellow Italian director Mario Mattoli parodied For a Few Dollars More, but no one else complained because For a Few Dollars Less is pure fun. The film follows two cousins who realize there is a lot of money to be made through banditry and bounty-hunting. They thus pose as expert marksmen and gain employment in a Mexican gang. How long can the ruse go on?
Fewer Dollars, More Fun
The film was presumably also made for a few dollars less than the one it lampoons, and the budgetary constraints are sometimes painfully apparent (most notably in the exterior locations). There’s hardly a structure and prop that doesn’t look as if it were constructed a few days earlier, and most of the locations have uniformly awkward, depersonalized quality. However, such is the quality of the direction, writing, and performances that all the flaws don't matter. The character dressed like Clint Eastwood will have you rolling on the floor.
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9 Trusting Is Good… Shooting Is Better (1968)
Trusting Is Good… Shooting Is Better gives us exactly what the title promises. A few outlaws believe they are on another routine crime mission, but when the leader of the gang dies, cracks form in the team, with the remaining three criminals attempting to outdo each other to get the loot. Fresh revelations also mount from there, drawing the criminals deeper into a hornet's nest of betrayal, and recklessness.
Slaptstick Mayhem
Cynical, and brooding, yet hilarious and knotted with mystery, Trusting is Good… Shooting is Better" is an inspired update of the crime-gone-wrong picture that equals most of what we got at the height of the genre. The villains are clumsy, you’d mistake them for Looney Tunes characters, but they survive long enough to ensure you’ve laughed as much as you expected. On top of that, inspired performances from the likes of Jorge Hilton and John Ireland only make things better.
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8 My Name Is Nobody (1973)
What good is retiring if you don’t retire in style? Such is the idea that a young fan of the aging gunslinger, Beauregard (Henry Fonda), plants in his head in My Name Is Nobody. Beauregard wants to move to Europe and enjoy a peaceful life, but the young man convinces him to take out 150 stubborn outlaws first, as such a move would make him a legend. You’d think he’d say no, but this film comically reminds you of the Western movie trope involving gunslingers taking up every job that comes their way.
Gunslingers Can Talk
When the fan assures Beauregard that he’ll make his way into the history books after he takes out all 150 outlaws, the protagonist responds with, “You'll be down on Earth reading them while I'm up there playing on a harp.” This kind of clever, humor-laden dialogue is splattered across the movie, and the introduction of a character known as Nobody sure feels like a slight dig at “The Man with no Name” in Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy. Sit tight and enjoy yourself.
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7 Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay
(1970)
Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay’s protagonist, Sartana (Gianni Garko) has found himself confined to a boring, uneventful existence among the stand-offish locals. No major crime is happening. Soon, he finds fresh purpose when a massacre happens and several figures make offers to buy the pieces of land that belonged to the victims. Are the buyers the killers?
Powerful Performances All Around
An unpitying attack on corruption in the Old West, Balabanov’s Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay is grim, mildly scary, shrewdly funny. Long under-appreciated even by director Giuliano Carnimeo’s fans, the Western is a sweetly kooky affair that weds frontier humor and investigative hijinks. Unlike many of the outlaws he's played, Garko's inept Sartana is surprisingly a hoot to observe here. You'll often wonder what his face was like during filming.
6 They Call Me Hallelujah (1971)
Revolutionaries need money… lots of it, so the Mexican guerrillas in They Call Me Hallelujah hire a famed American gunslinger named Hallelujah to steal a stash of jewelry for them. He does so, only to discover the jewels are fake. Unwilling to accept failure, he goes after the real jewel.
Politics Goes Hand in Hand with Crime
“Heads I shoot you, tails you are dead!” Not the fairest of options in a coin toss, but Hallelujah constantly dishes out such cheesy remarks in They Call Me Hallelujah. Away from the humor, the film weaves multiple incredible subplots — including one involving a Russian nobleman and a fake Russian nun — into a sprawling tapestry of cowboy heist adventure and nifty political critique, creating something closer in spirit to a Zapata-Spaghetti hybrid. Be guaranteed a good time.
5 Those Dirty Dogs (1973)
Those Dirty Dogs is literally about “those dirty dogs,” as the higher-ups in the military prefer to call them. The “dogs” are bandits who have stolen military weapons from a U.S. army wagon-train. Three soldiers are then sent by Washington to recover the arms, and aiding them is a blond bounty hunter who carries a pink umbrella and quotes extensively from the Quran.
An Action-Packed Film That Never Slows Down
With its guffaw humor, self-parodying moments, and slapstick fight sequences accompanied by kung-fu-ish sound effects, Those Dirty Dogs is as chaotic as Spaghetti comedies get. Here, we also get minor James Bond treatment as there are machine guns hidden in ordinary household items, and villains who have plans that are bigger than their resources and intellect. Jump on this ride and go after those dirty dogs.
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4 They Call Me Trinity (1970)
They Call Me Trinity sees a lazy gunfighter and his brother (played by Terence Hill and Bud Spencer) defending a settlement of Mormons from a Mexican bandit. This is the film where Terence Hill fasted for 24 hours so he could shoot the opening scene in which he devours a full pan of beans, bread, and booze in a single take. That little stunt would give birth to the food-themed subgenre known as the fagioli (bean) western.
The Best of Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer
Boasting vivid arid cinematography, first-rate camerawork, knife-edge editing, and powerhouse performances all around, They Call Me Trinity scores a knockout. Interestingly, there is a villain who can’t seem to land a punch. Watch out for some raunchy stuff too, such as when two Mormon girls use biblical lines to seduce Hill’s character into bed, claiming it is all part of their culture.
3 Life Is Tough, Eh Providence? (1972)
Life Is Tough, Eh Providence? has a simple plot, yet it overflows with hilarious moments. The premise concerns Provvidenza (Tomas Milian), a bounty hunter who makes a living solely by catching his dumb but powerful bandit friend, the Hurricane Kid (Gregg Palmer), and taking him to the authorities for the reward money.
More Silly Moments Than You Can Bear
If your life is tough, watch Providence. From nasty falls to an amazingly loud, long and annoying belch by the Kid, the film often catches you by surprise with its silly moments. Nothing is sacred in this spoof of the get-em-and-free-em Western trope, and a plethora of funny actors only adds to the divine absurdity and splendid campiness of it all.
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2 If You Want to Live... Shoot! (1968)
If You Want to Live... Shoot! Follows a man who goes on the run after killing one of his opponents during a card game. The title slightly alters one of the memorable quotes in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: “If you want to shoot… shoot! Don’t talk.” The bandit Tuco says the words after gaining the upper hand on an enemy who had confronted him while he was in a bathroom.
Visual Humor and a Broader Alluring Aesthetic Feel
This minimalist Western about a fugitive traveling harsh desert environs has a moving delicacy, merging long spells of quiet moments with soul-searching lines of dialogue. The cinematography is outstanding, too, making the sun-baked plains look astoundingly inviting. There is little fighting. Instead, we get numerous slapstick moments that make us wish we were in the same situation to make better choices.
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1 You're Jinxed Friend, You've Met Sacramento (1972)
Who would have thought that boxing would have made such a great premise for a Western? In You're Jinxed Friend, You've Met Sacramento, Sacramento (Ty Hardin), a retired boxer, finds himself in a predicament when his daughter gets kidnapped by a former rival, who is now a bandit. The criminal asks for a ransom first, but his plan is to lure Sacramento to a secluded spot so that he can beat him to death with fists as revenge for an in-ring defeat he suffered at the hands of the protagonist.
Great Music, Coupled with Plenty of Bizarre Moments
The film is occasionally raunchy (Sacramento once peeps on his son having sex), and it’s a mystery how it escaped the eager scissors of 1970s censors. The dialogue also feels like a kindergarten grammar exercise, but you’ll love it as it’s meant to poke fun at some of the absurd things villains and heroes say in Westerns. It would also be unfair to not praise the wonderful score by Franco Micalizzi, who also did the magic in They Call Me Trinity but is better known for his scores for Poliziotteschi films.
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