Il grande scout

Entertaining Western/comedy in which follows the misadventures of a misfit group of rogues and hustlers involving them into multiple antics . This eccentric funny Western set in Colorado of 1908 deals with Sam Longwood (Lee Marvin) , a scout who has liven better days , passing through aware his former gold-mine colleague named Jack Colby (Robert Culp) , now is a politically ambitious magnate , who ran off with all the gold from a mine they were prospecting several years earlier . Sam revives his old feud being helped by his other pals from that time , a wacky half-breed named Joe Knox (an improbable Indian Oliver Reed) and a roguish old man named Billy (Strother Martin) . Very funny Western about some helpless adventurers who hatch a plan and attempt to rob a fortune to a former swindler who now supports Taft presidential election . As they confront Jack Colby asking him the thousand dollars he previously took . After being thwarted in this attempt , they, and a likable young prostitute with rambunctious temperance named Thursday (Kay Lenz) scheme a variety of get-rich , well-concocted plans , as robbery of proceeds from big boxing match for raising funds to President Taft campaign . They also abduct Colby's spouse , Nancy Sue (Elizabeth Ashley) , who is coincidently Sam's old flame , but they learn that she is not the sweet woman that Sam had known .

Delightful Western parody with considerable silliness in which the grifter frontiersman Lee Marvin and the American Indian Oliver Reed steal the show using his wits , breaking all the rules and kicking virtually every cliché in the pants , as they relentlessly rob , run , and make jokes ; furthermore adds sparkle other actors . It is developed up and down with not much plot , some grotesque moments and in other side contains bemusing and funny scenes . Amiable but sometimes lumbering Western satire goes on and on about the same premise . Seemingly endless list of character players includes a good support cast as Elizabeth Ashley as an adulterous wife , Strother Martin as an inept botcher old man whose double-crosses habitually misfire , Kay Lenz as a wanna-be young whore and Sylvia Miles as a stubborn Madame . The film follows in the wake of ¨ Hallelujah trail (65) ¨ by John Sturges ¨ Support your local sheriff ¨ and ¨ Support your local gunfighter ¨ by Burt Kennedy ¨Waterhole¨ by William A Graham and of course ¨ Blazing saddles (74) ¨ by Mel Brooks , all of them are engaging Western satire and pretty amusing . Colorful cinematography by the Mexican Alex Phillips and lively , jolly musical score by John Cameron , full of mirth and amusement .

The film is well produced by AIP's Samuel Z. Arkoff and professionally directed by Don Taylor . None of Don Taylor's later movies have topped this one for sheer belly laughters . Don was an actor and director as TV as cinema , he played one of the leads in the Army-Air Force production of Hart's play, "Winged Victory¨ . Returning to civilian life , Taylor resumed his work in pictures with a top role in the trend-setting crime drama ¨The naked city (1948)¨ and played successful films as ¨Destination Gobi¨ , ¨Battleground¨ and ¨Stalag 17¨. In later years Taylor became a film and TV director , being nominated for an Emmy for his direction of an episode of "Night Gallery" (1969). Don met his wife Hazel Court when he directed her in a 1958 episode of "Alfred Hitchcock presents" (1955). Taylor was an expert filmmaker on adventures genre as ¨Adventures of Tom Sawyer¨ , Terror as ¨Damien : Omen 2¨ , and science fiction as ¨Island of Dr. Moreau¨, ¨Escape from Planet of Apes¨ and ¨The final of countdown¨. Rating : Good , 6,5 . Acceptable and passable Western/broad comedy fare although could have been funnier and better viewed in big screen . The movie will appeal to Lee Marvin and Oliver Reed devotees who will want to check out their excessive and comical performances .

Actors I love a lot, Oliver Reed, Lee Marvin, Kay Lenz! Plus Robert Culp and Strother Martin. The story it's not great, the movie is a bit long and boring, just the pleasure of being for 1hour and 42 minutes in the company of those loved actors. So, it's up to you, if you want to see a sweet Kay Lenz, the unique Oliver Reed and Lee Marvin in a role similar to the one in "Cat Ballou", but not as great. I would have liked to give it 10 stars, because I love those 3 actors very much, Lenz, Reed and Marvin, but I can only give it 6.

This is American International Pictures mid 70s drive-in movie idea of Blazing Saddles meets Cat Ballou via Paint Your Wagon. Believe it or not, it is actually funny. Renowned for making budget imitation versions of popular genres or other blockbusters, AIP often just made their own remake of whatever was popular. Bonnie And Clyde? AIP make A Bullet For Pretty Boy or BoxCar Bertha or Bloody Mama, etc. Westworld? AIP make Futureworld. on it went. Until after Superman they made Meteor and went broke. Sad really because AIP had a place in pre Video and DVD Hollywood after Republic Pictures and Allied Artists also went out of the biz. GREAT SCOUT is a Lee Marvin western style 'romp' with an excellent cast. It imitates those initial films above (possibly also The Cheyenne Social Club) and adds some phoney animation (cartoon dots supposed to be a beehive attack) rude Native American Indians played by Oliver Reed (!) and Black Bart style gunslingers. It's all slight and silly. Cross reference the films mentioned and it is all no worse than something Ann Margret and Arnie and Kirk Douglas once made. GREAT SCOUT is a sitter for a cult revival on DVD.

Lee Marvin dusted off the rapscallion character he played in both Cat Ballou and Paint Your Wagon to star in The Great Scout&Cathouse Thursday. Marvin is the great scout at least by his lights and Cathouse Thursday is Kay Lenz.

It's 1908 and the scout's seen his best days gone by. But the sight of his old prospecting partner Robert Culp who is now running for governor of the state on a fortune that was started with the money that they prospected and Culp stole sends Marvin into action. Marvin contacts Oliver Reed and Strother Martin the other two partners and they formulate several plans for revenge.

The plan they eventually settle on is to kidnap Culp's wife Elizabeth Ashley who used to be with Marvin and hold her for ransom. Along in all of this is Lenz who is left over from a raid on a bordello she works at when Oliver Reed decides to keep her after he rescues the others. Lenz isn't crazy to go back there and be the special favorite of lesbian madam Sylvia Miles. In fact she comes in quite handy in dealing with Culp.

The Great Scout&Cathouse Thursday is a rollicking western with Marvin, Reed, and Martin all competing to see who can ham it up the most. I think Reed's scene in which he gets cured of the clap after being led down a garden path by Marvin is the best. Let's just say that Marvin was years ahead of his time in predicting the treatment.

The final fight scene between Marvin and Culp was borrowed from the John Wayne classic, McLintock. It still works in this film and provides a fitting climax.

An outstanding and irreverent comedy. Lots of belly laughs! Cannot understand why it is not available on DVD yet? Even though that pretty well sums up what I have to say, more is necessary if I want this to appear, so here goes.

Marvin, Reed, Crenna and Lenz all have a gift for comedy that was not always appreciated. Lenz is at her most fetching and can light up the screen and steal scenes, even from such veteran actors. Amazing also the way the old West stuff is still so applicable to modern life. Guess the dynamics of human nature and the relationship between men and women never change much. People a hundred years from now could watch this film and get the same laughs as the same absurdity in human situations will still exist then.