MAN FROM THE EAST (MAN OF THE EAST) (E P IL MAGNIFICOOI LO CHIAMARONO)
(director/writer: Enzo Barboni; cinematographer: Aldo Giordani; editors: Eugenio Alabiso /Enzo Ocone; music: Guido De Angelis /Maurizio De Angelis; cast: Terence Hill (Sir Thomas More), Yanti Somer (Candida), Enzo Fiermonte (Candida’s Father), Gregory Walcott (Bull Schmidt), Dominic Barto (Monkey), Harry Carey (Holy Joe). Alessandro Sperli (Tim), (Jean Louis (Prison Warden); Runtime: 122; MPAA Rating: PG; producer: Alberto Grimaldi; United Artists; 1972)
“A dull Italian western.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A dull Italian western directed and written by Enzo Barboni(“Renegade”/”Odd Squad”), that has a blend of violence and cornball comedy.
It’s set in the West during the time of the railway construction. The scholarly young English foppish nobleman, Sir Thomas Fitzpatrick Phillip Moore (Terence Hill), from Boston, takes over his late criminal father’s ranch. Thomas joins at the ranch dad’s former gang members: the stagecoach robbers Monkey (Dominic Barto), preaching gunfighter Holy Joe (Harry Carey Jr.) and the strongman Bull (Gregory Walcott). We meet the three characters as Thomas treks west via railroad and stagecoach. After meeting Thomas at the ranch and disappointed that Thomas is not manly like his dad, the outlaws are given letters dad wrote to each. He implores the outlaws to make Thomas a “real man.” The outlaws fail when Thomas refuses to handle weapons and rides his bicycle rather than a horse. Things change when he meets in town Candida (Yanti Somer) again, the landowners ((Enzo Fiermonte) attractive daughter he met before on the train. They share an interest over Lord Byron and begin a friendship. Morton (Riccardo Pizzuti), Candida’s father’s toughie ranch boss, considers her his property and challenges Thomas for her hand. But Thomas now learns fighting skills from the outlaws and handles him in a manly way. He thereby wins the girl. In the inane fairy tale happy ending the 3 outlaws leave town on the heels of encroaching civilization and the lovers will supposedly live happily ever after.
REVIEWED ON 7/21/2016 GRADE: C-