Ben e Charlie

Now, this is one of those Spaghetti Western comedies, but this one works really well due to the talent in front of the camera and behind it. Plus, it doesn't go overboard with the slapstick and throws in a bit a serious action and tragedy into the mix too.

We first meet Charlie (Eastman, who created the story too) when he's hanging around outside of a jail for days on end. He's waiting on Ben (Gemma), and seemingly is happy to see him when Ben gets out, only to take him out into the desert for a punch up. Looks like Ben and Charlie are two conmen and Ben's last con got him landed in jail, with them both losing everything. You'll also notice here that Gemma's real life skills as a trapeze artist come in handy during fake fights, and that Joe D'Amato's camera films everything like it's a high budget art-house film.

Charlie then tells Ben to head in the opposite direction from him and keep walking, but don't you know the two of the keep bumping into each other while trying to pull various scams (including both of them cheating during a game of cards which of course leads to a bar fight).

Things get more serious when Ben runs into his ex-fiancé that he run away from. She's a high class prostitute that makes plenty of money and Ben tries to put a face on why he's dressed in rags. Realising that he'll never win her back with petty crime, he sets his mind of a big heist and somehow manages to drag Charlie down with him too.

What makes this film better than most of the comedies is that Gemma and Eastman look like they are genuinely having the time of their lives and it shines through in their characters. Eastman's face when he's standing at the bar, penniless, while beer and whiskey fly back and forth is priceless. Giacomo Rossi-Stuart's role could have been bigger, but in the end this is one of the few comedy westerns I'd recommend.

Italiano westerns rock, even with jazzy piano /country western theme music (I like it!!)

I think E. May saw this film to borrow structural elements for Ishtar - - lol.

Viva Italia.

This entertaining engaging movie is crammed with fist-fights, kicks , punches , overwhelming stunt work and lots of humor . Gemma and Eastman or luigi Montefiore are pretty good as two army men robbing and taking on a bunch of bandits and both of whom make their own stunts , as usual .It deals with Ben : Gemma who is freed from prison after spending some years. His colleague Charlie: George Eastman or Luigi Montefiori is waiting out of jail. Then they undertake several adventures, heists , stagecoach assaults and dangers. While they are fighting and hating each other. The duo being relentlessly pursued by a nasty sheriff : Aldo Sambrell and a detective of the famous Pinkerton Agency : Giacomo Rossi Stuart or Jack Stuart. Along the way Ben falls in love for a beautiful woman : Marisa Mell. At the ending takes place , at the downtown, a thrilling duel in Spaghetti style and under splendid musical score background .

This Ravioli has noisy action , shootouts, fights and saloon brawls in Terence Hill/Bud Spencer style. It is an entertaining and funny Pasta Western with the attractive actors Gemma and Eastman forming an odd as well as fun couple. Lightingly paced and with a really disconcerting storyline that results to be absurd at times, but frenetic fights and gunplay sequences make up for it . This release has some cool and hilarious moments ; however, the Terence Hill and Bud Spencer movies are much better. The picture displays lots of laughters , tongue in cheek, jokes , slapstick and cold killings , too . In the picture appears ordinary genre support actors as Spanish players : Aldo Sambrell, Roberto Camardiel, Jesus Guzman, Jorge Rigaud ,Antonio Casas, Francisco Sanz , Cris Huerta , Luis Induni ; as Italian people such as : Nello Pazzafini, Ken Wood or Giovanni Cianfriglia , Tom Felleghy and Franco Fantasia ; most of them playing brief appearances.

Nice cinematography filmed on location El Lacio, Gelato and Spain : Poblado Tabernas, Almeria, Andalucia, Spain. Very good musical score by Gianni Ferrio in Ennio Morricone style and full of catching sounds and haunting songs . The motion picture originally written by Sergio Donati and George Eastman himself was decently made by Michele Lupo who directed various Bud Spencer vehicles as Bulldozer, El Supersheriff, Dos granujas en el oeste, Supersheriff and the little extraterrestrial. Lupo directed to Gemma , his fetish actor , in various movies as Master Touch with Kirk Douglas, Stay Away with Amidou, Arizona Colt with Fernando Sancho and the best: California with William Berger, Romano Puppo, and Miguel Bose .The motion picture will appeal to Spaghetti western aficionados and Giuliano Gemma fans

I saw this movie for the first time twenty years or so ago. In this time,I found it absolutely fantastic, extremely enjoyable, with a good plot (what is not common in a spaguetti western) and two very interesting characters superbly played by Gemma and Eastman. If you can find this movie (under its English title "Ben and Charlie) take it. It's really a good western movie, not just for addicts, I can guarantee. You'll find that even in the so under-estimated genre of the spaghetti western, there's some good moments that makes us wonder: maybe these times of bluffing, crazies westerns-movies, that made the fame of actors like Giulliano Gemma, Terence Hill and Bud Spencer are not so bad at all!

Generally speaking the comedy spaghetti westerns of the 70's are not usually very good at all. So, this one was a bit of a surprise. Giuliano Gemma and George Eastman have great chemistry as a couple of small time crooks who are a disaster together but wind up as a constant hapless duo. The mix of comedy with typical spaghetti western action was balanced just right, and I did find myself actually chuckling a few times. Look out too for a cameo appearance from the delectable Marisa Mell as a woman from Gemma's past.