T'as le bonjour de Trinita

My hobby is watching bad movies. Every week I watch about 20 bad movies. Really bad movies. I try and seek out the most obscure and bizarre films I can possibly find. After 'The Gods Must Be Crazy' parts 3 and 4 I thought I'd seen it all. Just before this I watched a French Nazixploitation film starring Brigitte Lahaie and it barely phased me. So as you can tell I've built up a tolerance. But I am just at a loss for words to describe this film!

So it's obvious this is a spaghetti western about a female gunfighter. Nothing odd here, there are plenty of spaghetti westerns like 'The Good the Bad and the Ugly' there are plenty of westerns with female leads. And it's a comedy parody of westerns, no problem, there have been many parodies of westerns like 'Blazing Saddles' and 'Support Your Local Sheriff.' And it's a musical, no problem, there have been many western musicals like 'Paint Your Wagon Red.' Combining all FOUR of these themes is pushing it.

My point is, I went in to this knowing it was spaghetti western parody musical with a female lead. But nothing of 38 years on this earth could prepare me for this!!! This is something which must truly be seen to be believed!!!

At 6:00 in we truly enter a parallel universe!

The only way to describe it is that the characters who up until now have been dubbed to English break into a rock and roll dance number in Italian which I can only compare to an Elvis Presley movie. 48 hours later I still can't get the tune out of my head even though all the lyrics were in Italian.

The music and singing this film are done very well. Remember, it's all rock and roll and all in Italian.

So after that I was unfazed by anything which happened after that. And A LOT of bizarre things do happen. It turns out Little Rita has been robbing stage coaches for the Indians so they can gather all the white man's evil gold and destroy it. NOT KIDDING that's the plot! Obviously it would be impossible for one person to amass the entire world's gold and it's impossible to destroy gold! It's an element. You can melt it down but it's impossible to destroy.

Anyway, first Little Rita must battle the evil gun fighter Ringo. Yes, Ringo! She does this by strapping a golden RPG to her .45 and blowing him up. Whatever... I'm still in a daze from 6:00. I guess John, Paul, and George must now avenge his death.

This isn't the last time Little Rita uses her golden RPGs to win a gunfight. She takes out an entire gang of Mexican bandits with one blast.

Finally after a few more musical numbers Little Rita "returns to where she came from." and just rides her horse into outer space! Yup, I'm not making up any of this. So she's an alien and her horse is a space ship? Still not as shocking as what happens at 6:00.

So yes I would endorse this film. It is highly entertaining. I loved it. Just be prepared for an out of body experience. Your brain may have a hard time processing this. After 48 hours mine still hasn't. I'm still in a total daze.

Little Rita (Rita Pavone) is a female gunfighter who travels to the Far West , she has a glorious dream , to get the best world , that's why she is chasing bandits . Little Rita believes that all the badness in the world comes from the gold rush . Pavone takes the valuable gold from them and hides it in a cave and assisted by Sitting Buffalo she has decided to destroy it and to blow it up by dynamite . In her mission she is helped by the Indian Chief Sitting Buffalo (Gordon Mitchell) and by her colleague John Fitzgerald Francis (Lucio Dalla) . All of them undertake several adventures and risks . Along the way Little Rita takes on the speedest gunslingers as Ringo (the muscle man Kirk Morris) , Django (Natale) and others as Jesse James (Remo De Angelis , ordinary master of arms) and Zorro (Romano Puppo , habitual Pasta secondary) . Rita meets a reformed Pistolero called Black Star (Terence Hill)and she decides to share his way of life . Later on , Rita is taken prisoner by the Mexican nasty Sancho (Fernando Sancho) and his ominous henchmen who try to rob her precious gold . The draw-fast Black Star seems determined to help her , he then rescues her , but things go awry .

The film is a Rita Pavone recital , as she dances , sings , stooges , make acrobatics , tongue twister and put faces and grimaces . This ¨Little Rita¨ film blends the common scenarios , as invincible and tough antiheroes , difficult and fast showdowns with numerous deceases , impulsive and quick zooms as well as amazing musical numbers . Lots of gags and sketches , some of them funny but in the movie lacks a real freshness . Parody movie with a myriad of silly and amusing gags , laughs , comedy with tongue in-cheek and it has its good moments here and there . This is a disconcerting and fun farce with the famous singer and it displays too much fights , punches , shootouts and hilarious as well as spectacular musical numbers , such as : dancing at the Indian settlement , the Pecos town choreography and saloon dances . This ¨Rita in the West¨ belongs to a sub-genre , the Musical spaghetti western along with ¨Una Donna Per Ringo¨ by Rafael Romero Marchent with Sean Flynn , Pili and Mili and ¨Per un Pugno Di Canzoni¨(66) by Jose Luis Merino with Gustavo Rojo and Renzo Palmer . Picture is a Rita Pavone vehicle , as she plays as Little Rita who has a dream : she dreams to avoid the evil that emerges from human ambition and attempts to get a better world and as she schemes to blow up one day all the gold she can put her hands on and get rid of the root of all greed : money . That's why she confronts outlaws as ¨Ringo/Kirk Morris¨ but this role has nothing to do with Giuliano Gemma/Ringo , but he bears a remarkable resemblance to ¨Clint Eastwood/Man without name , including his Poncho ; besides , she contends Django who is dragging his coffin , adding his known machine gun and he subsequently attacks Rita in the customary cemetery full of crosses similarly to Sergio Corbucci's Django . This is an attractive flick which many consider her best musical comedy . As Rita is an nice singer , authentic comedian and real Farceur . If you like Pavone's crazy interpretation , you will most definitely enjoy this one .

Cinematography by Enzo Barboni or E. B. Clucher (author of ¨Trinity series¨ with Terence Hill and Bud Spencer) is well made . It contains a catching , original musical score by Robby Poitevin and Alessandroni and enjoyable songs sung by Rita Pavone and Lucio Dalla . The motion picture titled ¨Little Rita nel West" , "Crazy Westerners" , "Little Rita" (USA title) or "Locuras En El Oeste" was professionally directed by Ferdinando Baldi , under pseudonym , Freddy Baldwin . Ferdinando was a craftsman who directed all kind genres but especially Western such as "Carambola's Philosophy : In the Right Pocket" , "Blindman" , ¨Il Pistolero dell'Ave Maria" or "Forgotten Pistolero" , ¨"Django Sees Red" , ¨Rita in the West¨ and ¨Adios Texas¨ at his best . The pic will appeal to Rita Pavone , Terence Hill fans and Spaghetti Western buffs . Rating : Nice and acceptable. Well worth seeing .

Gunslinger Rita Pavone is out to get all the gold in the west and destroy it, since gold is te root of all evil. She takes on various spaghetti western types, shoots them, and takes their gold to be guarded by Indians led by Gordon Mitchell, who wears full Cherokee head dress and carries a putter. She and Terence Hill fall in love. But when he tries to get away with the gold, he is condemned to death. Handed over to the Indians, they refuse to execute the sentence because he saved Miss Pavone's life. He becomes the local sheriff (displacing a willing Teddy Reno, Miss Pavone real life husband); like a character out of Gilbert & Sullivan, he can't kill anyone until he kills himself first.

Signorina Pavone has been a popular recording artist since the early 1960, which is why there are about five big production number sung by her in a 1960s pop style with elaborate backing singers and dancer in bright Technicolor. Apparently some more silliness was added after Hill became a comedy star in the Trinity movies. It's a thoroughly enjoyable piece of nonsense.

If you're like me, you found this movie researching other westerns to watch with Terence Hill in the cast. If you've seen a lot of westerns, then this one from 1967 is a treat, not to be taken seriously. It's a parody (note the intentionally blue-eyed Indian chief). Elvis Presley was doing westerns around the same time, so I guess it was decided to do one to showcase an Italian female rock star. The song-and-dance production numbers are first rate with large numbers of dancers and extras and choreography. Sometimes the audio sounds mono on the quick-paced songs (in Italian), that's my only complaint. I've seen things in this western I've never seen in other westerns. There's even some cartoon animation. Since it is a western, there is some shooting of guns and death (sometimes portrayed with humor), some physical fighting, but no foul language or nudity and it is suitable for the entire family to sit down and watch in my opinion. The filmmakers wanted to ensure that teenage fans of Rita Pavone could see it so they kept it clean.

The quote "Frontier Humor" is from the movie. That sums up this amazing movie. "Little Rita of the West (A. K. A. "Crazy Westerners") is mind blowing. The fact that it is a "Spaghetti Western" - made in Italy a week after the Spaghetti Western was born - and its a rock n' Roll musical exists tickles me to no end!

The songs are catchy and memorable...even if you don't understand what they are saying. I'm shocked this movie didn't get on the Midnight movie circuit. It has everything Rocky Horror has.. but its not a parody or spoof of the Spaghetti Westerns..as they just started making them a year or two prior. "LIttle Rita of the West" is its own glorious creation.

There are some scenes where it drags. Mostly one or two in the middle ..and at the very end. There is one moment with Terrence Hills character that brings up a personal story for him..but gets totally dropped not 2 minutes later and never brought back up.. but at that point, you don't care as it doesn't effect the main and Rita's story at all.

Why people rate this below a 7 out of 10 baffles me.