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5/10
Goofy and entertaining tongue-in-cheek spaghetti Western
ma-cortes11 August 2011
Funny but average film with action, struggles, and shootouts by the expert Enzo G. Castell . This Spanish-Italian co-production deals with a likable man ( Timothy Brent , aka Giancarlo Priete) who inherits from his uncle a gold mine. He assumes the mine is worthless, and join forces with a hunk and joker monk (an excessive Jack Palance in frank decadence) in encounter the propriety . Thus , two men looking for the hidden gold ,they are : a cynic and fake priest chased by bounty hunters going after the reward and a young gunslinger , son of a filthy family . However, the other members of his grimy family (father is Renzo Palmer , mother is Maria Vico and grandfather Lionel Stander) aware that the gold mine is actually worth a lot of money , and they set off in pursuit to take it from him before he realizes what he has a valuable mine . Besides a greedy landowner (Eduardo Fajardo), proprietary of Grant's mine , and his band of fanatics hoodlums set out to take the precious mine . At the ending the gold turns to be hidden in the New Laredo Prison .

This is a regular Faglioli-Spaghetti Western in Trinity and Bambino style and for that reason there is a cult to dirtiness with an appropriately goofy tone, customary issue in this sub-genre. The movie takes parts from Enzo Barboni movies such as ¨Trinity is my name¨ and ¨Trinity is still my name¨ . The film is plenty of action, fun, brawls , shootouts and surprise-filled entertainment. The picture contains funny gun-play along with fist-fight very much in the Terence Hill/Bud Spencer territory. The violence isn't crude but suits the light-weight comedy fun and silly slapstick like the Trinity series . It certainly has an enthusiastic cast , plenty of slapstick , some very impressive gymnastics, especially in the massive fight sequences . The highlights of the movie result to be when the family travels in a wheeled-ship such as ¨The man in wilderness (Richard C Sarafian)¨ and Jack Palance driving a hearse (Palance steals the show with his gestures , faces and excesses , including some scenes eating onions such as ¨Cipolla Colt¨) ; furthermore the silly final on a bath parlor and subsequents fights in the pool . The picture displays crazy characters with twists plots and is quite amusing . It does eventually outstay its welcome, and there are a surprising amount of fights and laughters . The movie starred by habitual Spaghetti as Timothy Brent and Jack Palance , besides usual secondaries as Italian players as Renzo Palmer , Riccardo Garrone as Spanish actors as Angel Alvarez (Django), Eduardo Fajardo (Sergio Corbucci's ordinary secondary) and Maria Vico . A really catching score musical by Guido and Mauricio De Angelis who often work with Castellari . Atmospheric cinematography filmed by Manuel Rojas shot in Camerata Nuova, and De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy and of course Almeria , Spain . Silly screenplay with ridiculous situations written by the usual Tito Carpi and Jose G . Maesso , also producer ( he produced several Western as ¨The ugly ones , Minnesota Clay , Django , A train to Durango , Hellbenders¨) . Enzo G Castell makes a nice camera work with usual zooms and clever choreography on the showdown , fighting , slow motion shootouts and bemusing scenes . He made more Western as ¨ Johnny Hamlet , Kill them everybody and came back alone, Seven Winchester for a massacre, Cipolla colt¨ and the masterpiece : ¨Keoma¨. Some of them are serious , others are goofy and plenty of slapstick and slapdash . This is a bewildering story , funny in lots of parts and it will appeal to Spaghetti Western fans . It's a mediocre film , but still better than a lot of the ulterior spaghetti western comedies to come .
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6/10
Silly slapstick euro-western, Terrance Hill-style
tilapia24 October 2002
Early western entry by one of Italy's finest directors - Enzo G. Castellari. If you're expecting something epic, like his western masterpiece Keoma, have another thought coming: this is a goofy western comedy very much in the Terrance Hill/Bud Spencer territory. Being such a juvenile movie, i'm surprised that Castellari's next film High Crime would turn out so serious.

Young con man Tedeum inherits a gold mine, and knowing his con men relatives he's sure it's worthless. He teams up with a sleazy ex-con turned monk and tries to sell the worthless mine to some poor sucker. Soon his family finds out that the mine is real and full of gold: will they get to him before he sells the mine to the evil major and his henchmen?

Although no Trinity, the movie works fairly good. It looks pretty good, have some pretty funny characters and a really catchy theme song (I can't get it out of my mind!). The plot is really simple, but suits the lightweight comedy fine. The movie made me laugh a few times, even though I insist that its got waaay too much slapstick humor for its own good.

6/10
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6/10
One of the better Italian western farces, featuring a delightful Palance performance
proforma19 February 2020
I was quite blown away by how much I actually enjoyed this viewing experience! A big part of it must've been the pristine 35mm print it was projected from but still... the movie is funny & entertaining, with memorable characters and even a few laugh-out-loud gags.

Made only one year prior to one of Enzo G.'s top works, High Crime, needless to say the direction is proficient. The score by the De Angelis bros compliments the action on screen. There are also some interesting religious themes in play... BUT the whole thing is still a loud, low-brow slapstick-fest.

It's great fun to see Jack Palance, typically the one straight performer in many a comedy, hamming it up the best he can. Most of the stuff involving Tedeum's (Giancarlo Prete) family is horrible, but thankfully the film recovers whenever they're out of sight.

Highly recommended to the fans of Italian western farces!
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3/10
Tedium, indeed
JohnSeal27 December 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Lionel Stander stars as Stinky Manure, the patriarch of a family of old west grifters in this decidedly unfunny western comedy, directed by an out of his depth Enzo Castellari. His blue-eyed son Tedeum (Satanik's Giancarlo Prete, aka 'Timothy Brent') is given the lease to a worthless goldmine and, with the aid of crooked phony monk Santini (a gurning Jack Palance), proceeds to carry out the titular 'Sting of the West'. As bad as the film is, it's rendered far worse on Interglobal Video's horrible VHS tape, which predictably is pan and scanned to death. It does, however, feature the original MPAA rating card, which is itself badly squeezed to fit the screen.
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2/10
For Those Who Think The Three Stooges Aren't Broad Enough
FightingWesterner23 May 2014
An obnoxious, repulsive family of thieves, led by bad grandpa Lionel Stander inherits a bogus goldmine deed, with all the fake seals and signatures. Stander's oldest grandson sets out to sell it for big bucks, teaming up with conman/fake monk Jack Palance to swindle as much money as possible.

There's more groans than laughs in this painfully unfunny "comedy", directed by the usually entertaining Enzo G. Castellari, perhaps his worst. Palance is occasionally amusing, though mostly wasted, and probably very wasted when he accepted an offer to star in this pot of stale spaghetti slapstick.

The score by Guido and Fabrizio De Angelis (who have done better also), is as embarrassingly bad as the endless sight gags.
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3/10
Sting of the West
BandSAboutMovies13 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Also known as Tedeum, Sting of the West and Con Men, this was directed by Enzo G. Castellari, who also wrote the script along with Tito Carpi, Giovanni Simonelli and José Gutiérrez Maesso.

Stinky Manure (Lionel Stander) and his family of criminals have inherited a gold mine but they don't trust anyone, so they send their son Tedeum (Giancarlo Prete) to sell the mine to someone else. Being a moron, he sells it to a lawman before getting help from a holy man named Santini (Jack Palance) and Betty and Wendy Brown (Francesca Romana Coluzzi and Mabel Karin) who also have a mine to sell.

The truth is that the Manure family mine is actually pretty valuable. That's why an actual criminal with some brains and guile, Grant (Eduardo Fajardo), wants it. Is after. I say that he's a pretty good bad guy except he keeps losing his pants.

At the end of the Italian Western cycle, most movies were comedies like this. As to whether or not you find them amusing, well, that's up to you.

If you don't like it, well, you can at least keep an eye open for Jack's brother Ivan as a man on a train. He also used the stage name John Gramack and is in A Bullet for the General, Kill a Dragon and A Bullet for Rommel. Castellari's daughter Stefania is also on hand as is the mysterious Carla Mancini, who often is in credits just so a movie could receive Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia tax credits.

Oh yeah - it has music by Oliver Onions!

Do you think when Lionel Stander stood up and was blacklisted he knew he'd be playing someone named Stinky Manure?
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8/10
A hugely enjoyable comic spaghetti Western riot
Woodyanders7 January 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Affable con artist Tedeum (a robust and likable performance by Giancarlo Prete) inherits the deed to a goldmine which he automatically assumes is worthless. Tedeum joins forces with wily fake priest Buck Santini (delightfully essayed with deliciously hammy relish by Jack Palance) and tries to sell the deed to some suckers. Meanwhile, Tedeum's madcap no-count family also attempt to gain possession of the deed. Director Enzo G. Castellari, who co-wrote the cheerfully inane and eventful script with Tito Carpi and Jose Gutierrez Maesso, relates the nutty story at a constant zippy pace and maintains an amiably silly tongue-in-cheek tone throughout. Moreover, the lively cast play their broadly caricatured parts with tremendous lip-smacking enthusiasm: Prete and Palance display an engagingly loose and easy chemistry as our charming outlaw protagonists; they receive fine support from Francesca Romana Coluzzi as sassy lass Betty, Mabel Kim as sweet, fetching Southern belle Wendy, Eduardo Fajardo as crooked banker Grant, Lionel Standler as cranky and hearty patriarch Stinky Manore, Renzo Palmer as the oafish Rags Manore, and Maria Vico as the haggish Ma Manore. This film reaches its sidesplitting comedic highlights with a couple of wild anything-goes rough'n'tumble fist fight scenes. The smooth, fluid cinematography by Manuel Rojas and the infectiously jaunty score by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis (the catchy theme song is a total groovy gas!) both further enhance the entertainingly wacky screwball merriment. A pleasingly breezy hoot.
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