Vivo ou Preferivelmente Morto

This film is also known as Sundance and the Kid in the U.S. release. Starting as early as the 1970's most Euro-Westerns started going downhill in quality and budget. So Italian producers started combining the usually dramatic Spaghetti Westerns with comedy and later in 1970's with martial arts! This film, Sundance and the Kid, is just plain awful in everything from the acting to the screenplay. This turkey was cranked out to compete with the more original Spaghetti Western comedies with Italian actors Bud Spencer and Terence Hill such as Boot Hill, They Call Me Trinity, Trinity is Still My Name..etc. and also perhaps to certain extent the quality U.S. film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with Robert Redford and Paul Newman which is recommended if you want to see a quality made comedy-western.

Ironically, in my opinion, Italian directors made the very best westerns and the very worst westerns. On most all these Spaghetti Western-Comedies everything from the title of the movie to the names of the Italian actors, directors and sometimes even the production crew would change their names to American names and add awful English dubbing all designed to sound more American so it would sell better. In Spaghetti Westerns everything in fact is made in Italy but to make $$$ they had to make it look like an American made western as much as possible...but sometimes failed miserably as in this movie.

Oh great: another Italian Comedy Western that's low on laughs and everything else to boot. This is even more disappointing as it was directed by Duccio Tessari of Tony Arzenta fame, and it stars Guilliano Gemma of loads of great films fame. Sometimes these tongue-in-cheek comedies work (like Run Man Run and Fistful of Lead) but most seem to rely on lame slapstick that you've seen Charlie Chaplin do several hundred years previously.

This one involves two brothers who hate each other, but who also have to spend six months living together in order to receive an inheritance from a dead Uncle. Don't ask me why. There's a bunch of bad guys who are harassing Gemma's brother who periodically turn up throughout the film to ruin Gemma's increasingly dumb attempts at crime sprees (including robbing a bank where everyone who enters the bank trips over the same step…hmm).

Gemma does get to show off his trapeze skills and there's an axe fight on a train that results in an entire carriage being destroyed, but no one in their right mind is ever going to want to watch this unless they are obsessively watching their entire collections of Italian films. Ahem.

Other comedies not being reviewed any time soon: My Name is Trinity, My Name is Nobody, Cry! Onion, Life is Tough, Eh, Providence, Trinity is Still My Name etc etc.

A Spaghetti Western enthusiast, I will always have utmost respect for Giuliano Gemma for his performances in genre-greats such as "Day Of Anger" (1967) and "Price Of Power" (1970) as well as in other films, such as Dario Argento's stunning Giallo "Tenebre" (1982). Duccio Tessari's "Vivi O, Preferiblmente, Morti" aka "Sundance Cassidy And Butch The Kid" of 1969, however, is certainly the worst movie I've ever seen Gemma in, an utterly silly slapstick-Spaghetti Western that tries to imitate the style of satirical SWs starring Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill, but fails. Although the movie is amusing in some parts, and certainly not a total disaster, it is just too silly and not as funny as it should be, and Gemma is probably the only good reason to watch it.

Two estranged brothers, city gambler Monty (Giuliano Gemma) and Wild West farmer Ted Mulligan (Nino Benvenutti) inherit 300.000 Dollars from their late uncle, on condition that they endure to live together for six months. The two start a fight over everything, and trouble begins as soon as Monty arrives in Ted's hometown...

Besides Gemma, the only other Spaghetti Western regular appearing in "Sundance Cassidy..." are Antonio Casas (who should be known to lovers of the Italian Western for his appearances in "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly", "The Big Gundown", "Face To Face", "Price Of Power", "A Pistol For Ringo" and others), and Cris Huerta ("Navajo Joe", "They Call Him Holy Ghost", "Cemetary Without Crosses"), who plays the obese leader of an outlaw gang. Apart from Gemma and Casas, and one kinda funny, recurring gag, the movie has little to offer except for very flat gags. Beautiful Sydne Rome has a supporting role, but that doesn't turn the movie into a highlight either.

All things considered, "Vivi O, Preferiblmente, Morti" is kinda funny in some scenes and an acceptable time waster if you're looking for featherbrained entertainment, but the only people I would really recommend it to are hardcore-fans of Giuliano Gemma. Others, watch Bud Spencer and Terence Hill flicks instead. 4/10

Notorious American B movie producer Edward L. Montoro retitled this spaghetti western "Sundance Cassidy and Butch the Kid" when he released it to American theaters in the '70s. But the only connection this movie has to "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" is that both are westerns and both have comic bits. If the makers of this spaghetti western had copied the American movie's quality, we might have had something here. Oh, there are a few minor amusing bits, and there is some impressive stunt work on display (some of it actually performed by the actors instead of their stunt doubles.) But on the whole, this is a tired enterprise that feels endless at times. The American print I saw was cut by about twenty five minutes, and judging from what survived the editing, I think the original Italian version would be much harder to sit through.

This is a comedy western, but it isn't one of those totally awful ones that are more annoying than funny. This one genuinely provides some good laughs. Some of the slapstick in this film even reminds me of The Three Stooges. Especially one particular fight scene in a flooded hotel room.

I would probably have given this movie seven or eight stars if the music score was better. It isn't terrible or anything, but it just isn't spaghetti western style music. What we have here instead is the kind of music one would expect from a Hollywood western, with some vocals thrown in here and there. To me, the musical style is a very important component in the spaghetti western genre, and it can definitely make or break these films.

The acting is above average, and the quality of this film is decent. Giuliano Gemma always delivers a fine performance. The action scenes are well done, and the film features what would have been a very fancy and unique looking early automobile. I don't know what make it was.

Overall I found this movie to be quite entertaining. It is worth watching for fans of the genre.