Bang Bang Kid

Tom Bosley pulls off a surprisingly funny performance in this odd-ball Italian western tale. Some camp, a good-looking girl, a handsome guy and some baddies. Oh yes, an overweight robot Sheriff!

My favorite quote - "In the hands of a woman, even a broken machine can do better than a man."

See it for fun - you'll be afraid at first that it will become a bore-fest but it really is charming.

After making the lightweight Dustin Hoffman comedy, MADIGAN'S MILLIONS (1967), expatriate producer Sidney Pink fashioned this tongue-in-cheek western.

In the movie's prologue, a narrator tells us an obscure 1890s inventor, Merriweather Newberry, was overlooked by history as one of the movers and shakers who tamed the Wild West. In the one-horse town of Limerick, mining baron Bear Bullock (Guy Madison) rules the town's wimpy inhabitants with an iron fist, with the help of steely-eyed gunman Killer Kissick (Riccardo Garrone). The town leaders advertise for a sheriff, and one by one the respondents are shot down by Kissick.

All seems lost until Newberry arrives with his latest invention, a remote-controlled, full-size gunslinger robot called Bang Bang. Although Bang Bang can easily outdraw Kissick and his henchmen (in fast motion!), he frequently malfunctions. It's up to Newberry to rally the town's demoralized citizenry to rise up against Bullock.

Writer Howard Berk (aided by José Luis Bayonas) relies on wacky sight gags to carry the action, even when the story line eventually grows tedious. The acting is suitably broad and crowd-pleasing -- Tom Bosley pretty much carries the whole movie, but Garrone is delighftully wicked and Sandra Milo throws a lot of gusto into the role of Limerick's only liberated female, who carries on a Burton-Taylor sort of romance with Bullock. As Bullock, Guy Madison pokes fun the stolid personae he perfected in countless spaghetti westerns.

Producer Sidney Pink, who had a hand in some of the most interesting genre movies of the 1960s, claimed the making of THE BANG BANG KID as a thoroughly happy experience. The movie even finished shooting a week ahead of schedule, which made him even happier until he got into the editing room, where he discovered the movie ran 20 minutes too short. Pink and Berk came up with the extended prologue, described above, which was shot to bring the film to 80 minutes and therefore feature length.

This Chorizo/Pasta Western displays laughs , emotion , irony , thrills , stirring adventures , shoot'em up , slapdash , and results to be pretty amusing but mediocre . It is set in the mythical city of Limerick , Montana , a wide-open frontier town where rules by the iron fisted Bullock (Guy Madison) who submits firmly the citizens and possesses an impressive castle transported , sandstone by stone , from Europe . With an army of bandits , led by the diabolical murderer Kossock (Ricardo Garrone) , Bullock enforces a reign of terror without equal in history . Then , the Mayor (José Maria Caffarel) announces an offer by publicizing posters along the town captioning : ¨Wanted sheriff , need enterprising champion of peoples rights to rid small mining town of vicious gunman , slow guns need to apply ; signed : Mayor¨ . The greatest heroes of the West have attempted to stand up to the Monarch of Limerick but all have failed . There turns up Meriweather P. Newberry (Tom Bosley of Happy Days and Charlie's Angels), a mild-mannered traveling doctor who has never been in a gunfight in his life , he says he can turn into a gunslinger to help clean up the town . In a desperate manner , the people of Limerick rest their hopes on him . Unbeknownst to Kossock and his gang , Newberry has decided to use Limerick to try out his newest invention : a mechanical gunslinger , the Bang bang Kid , robot CAX107. Also joining the resistance fighters are the Mayor's daughters : the lovely Gwenda (Sandra Milo) , and the beautiful Betsy (Dianyk Zurawoska), two women who will stop at nothing to avenge the injustice of Bullock's reign .

This amusing , engaging movie is crammed of fist-fights , punches , kicks , moving stunt-work , colorful outdoors and lots of humor . Bang Bang Kid is just a mildly amusing action comedy Western , about on the level of a lesser Bambino/Bud Spencer - Tritinity/Terence Hill movie . This is a nice and funny juvenile story for kiddies with some touches of humor in charge of the mechanical artifact . Sympathetic acting by Tom Bosley as an eccentric inventor who shows up with a mechanical robot . Bosley is top-notch as a likable freewheeling inventor , meanwhile taking on two ominous villains . Likable and ironical performance from Guy Madison as a tyrannical crime lord who has returned mankind to the dark ages . Madison is delightful and enjoyable as a baddie who uses all kinds of tricks and fakes to get his purports . It's a co-production Spanish-Italian and , of course , shot in Spain , on location in Manzanares El Real , La Pedriza , Colmenar Viejo , and a spectacular castle of Manzanares El Real and Madrid surroundings , that is regularly photographed in Eastmancolor by the Spanish Antonio Macasoli , though a perfect remastering is necessary because of the film-copy is washed-out . There are many fine technicians and professional assistant direction and decent production design by the prestigious Wolfgang Burmannn , a magnificent scenario on the town and barren outdoors , dirty landscapes under a glimmer sun and fine sets . The musician Nino Fidenco -Spaghetti Western's usual-, composes an agreeable soundtrack and well conducted and splendid leitmotif ; it's full of attractive sounds and lively score , including catching ballad at the beginning . The motion picture written by José Luis Bayonas was middlingly directed by Giorgio Gentilli (Madigan's Millions) and Luciano Sacripanti (Ragan). Both of whom are director assistants and occasionally filmmakers , shooting a few films .