Buffalo Bill, el héroe del oeste

Handsome Euro western genre film here, kind of straddling two genres at once. Gordon Scott is well cast & appropriately larger than life as the Indian fighter turned US Army scout Buffalo Bill Cody, trading in his Samson tunic for a buckskin jacket + goatee. Not sure if the Italian, French & Spanish filmmakers who made this followed much of Buffalo Bill's actual history for their plot, but then again that isn't really the point of the film.

Which was to find a wholesome heroic good guy for Gordon Scott to play in an early spaghetti western. And he plays Cody pretty much as he played the Son of Hercules: Strapping, brawny, beefy, but surprisingly intelligent, insightful, and considerate of even the guy whom he beats the stuffing out of in a bar room brawl. He is almost insufferably good, working for the native Indians to live side by side with his fellow Palefaces and keep the two sides from massacring each other.

Once you get down to it the basic premise of the film has been lifted more from the Winnetou/Old Shatterhand films from Germany & Yugoslavia which precipitated the Italian/Spanish spaghetti western boom. Gordon Scott's appearance and mannerism is almost a dead ripoff of Lex Barker's Shatterhand, though there's no Winnetou analog. Instead the film seems to want to experiment with putting this Shatterhand surrogate into some of the trappings of what would become the spaghetti western approach.

Which is one of the things that makes the film unique -- a genuine Hero, rather than an ambiguous Anti-Hero, and Scott was well prepared for the undertaking. Sure, it's silly and potentially offensive to see Spanish supporting actors dressed up like Injun braves and dubbed by voice actors with mid-Atlantic quasi British accents. What the film may lack in terms of authenticity it makes up for with wide-eyed innocence, and they even have Scott ride off waving to the crowd in the end to the applause & cheers of those he had saved, just like in his Maciste films. Not something you'd see Clint Eastwood do, that's for sure.

The film was most likely made in 1964 as the Italian Peplum sword & sandal era was coming to an end, and from the looks of it the producing studio apparently figured that by bringing along one of their most popular Peplum matinée stars they'd be able to translate the medium into a western and be guaranteed a hit. The production standards of the film are respectfully robust and there's quite a large supporting cast; they spent some money on this one, and while voters on the IMDb may not have thought much of the results it's a shame that they didn't get a little film series out of the effort.

One of the problems was Gordon Scott, who made one more Euro western for Albert Band, the tragic Spanish romantic range drama THE TRAMPLERS which isn't nearly half as much fun as this one. Rumor has it that while preparing to make a third western Scott's nose was broken by co-star Mario Brega (who plays a Bud Spencer-ish lummox rogue in this one) and found the disfigurement ruinous to his photogenic looks. Scott made two more action/adventure films of the spy genre ilk and abruptly retired from the industry in late 1965, the year this film was released.

The spaghetti genre itself had also changed by the time this film was circulating, with the more stylish approaches of DJANGO and Sergio Leone's "Dollar" films making the more traditionalist approach seen here look a bit old fashioned by comparison. And that's exactly why I adore it: Here's a spaghetti western from the infancy of the genre when they were still making movies about good guys & bad guys, Injuns and the cavalry, and a do-gooder hero designed to be rooted for like he was Audie Murphy or something. The change of pace is quite refreshing.

7/10: Something Weird Video apparently has a widescreen English version on VHS & DVD-R, which you can order directly from their website. Take a look.

Released in 1965 and directed by Mario Costa, "Buffalo Bill, Hero of the West" stars Gordon Scott as the title character who is commissioned to avert an Indian war by stopping renegade Indians, led by Yellow Hand (Mirko Ellis), who are illegally sold guns by Big Sam Donaldson (Mario Brega). Roldano Lupi plays the rigid colonel of the local fort and Ingeborg Schöner his beautiful daughter while Feodor Chaliapin Jr. plays Chief White Fox and Catherine Ribeiro his daughter, Silver Moonray.

Gordon Scott's acting career only lasted a dozen years from 1955-1967. He was tall with a lean waist but with muscular bulk and a likable, almost innocent disposition (think Brendan Fraser with big muscles). He's perhaps best known for playing Tarzan six times in as many years from 1955-1960, but also known for sword & sandal roles, like Goliath, Samson, Remus and Hercules. I was curious to see how he'd do in a Western and was pleasantly surprised.

While this is a Spaghetti Western, it was made in 1964 and Sergio Leone's Man With No Name trilogy was just starting to skyrocket to popular success. As such, don't expect the items usually associated with Spaghetti Westerns, except badly dubbed dialogue, Spanish locations substituting for the American West and Spaniards playing Native Americans. Beyond these factors, this is more akin to American Westerns, like John Wayne ones and, of course, 1944's excellent whitewashing of the same Western icon, "Buffalo Bill," where Joel McCrea played the hero. Unlike that movie, which is biopic, this version is a slice-in-the-life of Buffalo Bill. Actually, the character of Yellow Hand was taken from that earlier movie, being based on the real-life Cheyenne chief Yellow Hair whom Cody shot, stabbed and scalped three weeks after Little Big Horn (!), or so he claimed.

At any rate, this ain't no cheapo flick. Yes, the Native dialogue is a tad stereotypical, but that was typical at the time and it's not as bad as you would think, like, for instance, in Elvis' "Flaming Star" (1960). The locations and sets are excellent, such as the Western town and the fort; and the costuming is quite good as well. On top of all this, Scott shines as the winsome protagonist and you'll find yourself rooting for him and his sidekick. Not to mention the two women are quite fetching. The only problem I had with this movie is the poor dubbing and the washed-out (non) colors of the public domain DVD I viewed. To add insult to injury it's a pan & scan version where one person talking in a scene might be totally off camera but, thankfully, I only really noticed that in one scene near the end. I would love to see a widescreen version with brighter colors.

The movie runs about 90 minutes and was shot in Spain and Elios Studios, Rome.

GRADE: B-

A note about Catherine Ribeiro (cast as "Moonbeam" );her film debut was Godard' s "Les Carabiniers" ;in the mid-sixties,she wound up in this spaghetti western : her acting is quite disastrous, a wig is not enough to make us believe she's an Indian ;Primarily a Chanteuse ,she became a leftist well-respected Latin progressive rock singer,in the seventies ,along with her group "Alpes" ;She was then one of our best French artists - her peak is arguably her 1972 album ,"Paix",which contains her most memorable track " Un Jour La Mort" .

The hero is called "Buffalo Bill ",but they could have chosen Davy Crockett or Hopalong Cassidy or any legendary wild west character;after Tarzan and the sword and sandals flicks,and before becoming ,in the wake of James Bond ,a secret agent ,Gordon Scott (essentially remembered for his part opposite Steve Reeves,in an estimable "Romolo E Remo")was cast as the fearless horseman ,on the right side of the law ;here he is friend with the Indians (particularly Moonbeam and her father "Wise Fox" ),the good ones that is :some of them buy weapons from a white villain.(Buffalo Bill supported the native American rights )

The movie borrows a little from many American movies :of course ,there's a fort with a bossy colonel who does not want his daughter to marry a nice captain -because marrying a military man would make her a widow too soon;a final fight between Bill and the nasty Indian is the Pièce De Résistance of a harmless entertaining western,with a rather nice cinematography and a good sense of space which makes up (a little) for the triteness of the plot.

Muscleman Gordon Scott swaps his loincloth/tunic for a buckskin fringe jacket, jeans and a six gun in this entertaining euro western. It classed as a spaghetti western, but it eschews the gritty and anti-hero elements of that ilk. This western is a traditional shoot-em up a la John wayne-style with colourful locations, and there's plenty of intense action. Every western lexicon is covered here: barroom brawls, saloon shoot em ups, and exciting staged Indian fort attack. There's a naive charm about it with a lot of colour and energy.

There is a reason why this is ranked so highly; because it is more authentic than most of the Hollywood propaganda. Realistic sets, costumes and storyline scripts - - even the dubbing is good and it does not have to match up. Ideally somebody should reissue this in original Italian dialogue with English subtitles. Last but not least, I'm in love with Ingeboerg Schoener. PS/I'm glad Italy won Euro 2021 - - bless those poor English fans! They wuz robbed.