Buffalo Bill, le héros du Far-West

Handsome Euro western genre film here, kind of straddling two genres at once. Gordon Scott is well cast & appropriately larger than life as the Indian fighter turned US Army scout Buffalo Bill Cody, trading in his Samson tunic for a buckskin jacket + goatee. Not sure if the Italian, French & Spanish filmmakers who made this followed much of Buffalo Bill's actual history for their plot, but then again that isn't really the point of the film.

Which was to find a wholesome heroic good guy for Gordon Scott to play in an early spaghetti western. And he plays Cody pretty much as he played the Son of Hercules: Strapping, brawny, beefy, but surprisingly intelligent, insightful, and considerate of even the guy whom he beats the stuffing out of in a bar room brawl. He is almost insufferably good, working for the native Indians to live side by side with his fellow Palefaces and keep the two sides from massacring each other.

Once you get down to it the basic premise of the film has been lifted more from the Winnetou/Old Shatterhand films from Germany & Yugoslavia which precipitated the Italian/Spanish spaghetti western boom. Gordon Scott's appearance and mannerism is almost a dead ripoff of Lex Barker's Shatterhand, though there's no Winnetou analog. Instead the film seems to want to experiment with putting this Shatterhand surrogate into some of the trappings of what would become the spaghetti western approach.

Which is one of the things that makes the film unique -- a genuine Hero, rather than an ambiguous Anti-Hero, and Scott was well prepared for the undertaking. Sure, it's silly and potentially offensive to see Spanish supporting actors dressed up like Injun braves and dubbed by voice actors with mid-Atlantic quasi British accents. What the film may lack in terms of authenticity it makes up for with wide-eyed innocence, and they even have Scott ride off waving to the crowd in the end to the applause & cheers of those he had saved, just like in his Maciste films. Not something you'd see Clint Eastwood do, that's for sure.

The film was most likely made in 1964 as the Italian Peplum sword & sandal era was coming to an end, and from the looks of it the producing studio apparently figured that by bringing along one of their most popular Peplum matinée stars they'd be able to translate the medium into a western and be guaranteed a hit. The production standards of the film are respectfully robust and there's quite a large supporting cast; they spent some money on this one, and while voters on the IMDb may not have thought much of the results it's a shame that they didn't get a little film series out of the effort.

One of the problems was Gordon Scott, who made one more Euro western for Albert Band, the tragic Spanish romantic range drama THE TRAMPLERS which isn't nearly half as much fun as this one. Rumor has it that while preparing to make a third western Scott's nose was broken by co-star Mario Brega (who plays a Bud Spencer-ish lummox rogue in this one) and found the disfigurement ruinous to his photogenic looks. Scott made two more action/adventure films of the spy genre ilk and abruptly retired from the industry in late 1965, the year this film was released.

The spaghetti genre itself had also changed by the time this film was circulating, with the more stylish approaches of DJANGO and Sergio Leone's "Dollar" films making the more traditionalist approach seen here look a bit old fashioned by comparison. And that's exactly why I adore it: Here's a spaghetti western from the infancy of the genre when they were still making movies about good guys & bad guys, Injuns and the cavalry, and a do-gooder hero designed to be rooted for like he was Audie Murphy or something. The change of pace is quite refreshing.

7/10: Something Weird Video apparently has a widescreen English version on VHS & DVD-R, which you can order directly from their website. Take a look.

Released in 1965 and directed by Mario Costa, "Buffalo Bill, Hero of the West" stars Gordon Scott as the title character who is commissioned to avert an Indian war by stopping renegade Indians, led by Yellow Hand (Mirko Ellis), who are illegally sold guns by Big Sam Donaldson (Mario Brega). Roldano Lupi plays the rigid colonel of the local fort and Ingeborg Schöner his beautiful daughter while Feodor Chaliapin Jr. plays Chief White Fox and Catherine Ribeiro his daughter, Silver Moonray.

Gordon Scott's acting career only lasted a dozen years from 1955-1967. He was tall with a lean waist but with muscular bulk and a likable, almost innocent disposition (think Brendan Fraser with big muscles). He's perhaps best known for playing Tarzan six times in as many years from 1955-1960, but also known for sword & sandal roles, like Goliath, Samson, Remus and Hercules. I was curious to see how he'd do in a Western and was pleasantly surprised.

While this is a Spaghetti Western, it was made in 1964 and Sergio Leone's Man With No Name trilogy was just starting to skyrocket to popular success. As such, don't expect the items usually associated with Spaghetti Westerns, except badly dubbed dialogue, Spanish locations substituting for the American West and Spaniards playing Native Americans. Beyond these factors, this is more akin to American Westerns, like John Wayne ones and, of course, 1944's excellent whitewashing of the same Western icon, "Buffalo Bill," where Joel McCrea played the hero. Unlike that movie, which is biopic, this version is a slice-in-the-life of Buffalo Bill. Actually, the character of Yellow Hand was taken from that earlier movie, being based on the real-life Cheyenne chief Yellow Hair whom Cody shot, stabbed and scalped three weeks after Little Big Horn (!), or so he claimed.

At any rate, this ain't no cheapo flick. Yes, the Native dialogue is a tad stereotypical, but that was typical at the time and it's not as bad as you would think, like, for instance, in Elvis' "Flaming Star" (1960). The locations and sets are excellent, such as the Western town and the fort; and the costuming is quite good as well. On top of all this, Scott shines as the winsome protagonist and you'll find yourself rooting for him and his sidekick. Not to mention the two women are quite fetching. The only problem I had with this movie is the poor dubbing and the washed-out (non) colors of the public domain DVD I viewed. To add insult to injury it's a pan & scan version where one person talking in a scene might be totally off camera but, thankfully, I only really noticed that in one scene near the end. I would love to see a widescreen version with brighter colors.

The movie runs about 90 minutes and was shot in Spain and Elios Studios, Rome.

GRADE: B-

Muscleman Gordon Scott swaps his loincloth/tunic for a buckskin fringe jacket, jeans and a six gun in this entertaining euro western. It classed as a spaghetti western, but it eschews the gritty and anti-hero elements of that ilk. This western is a traditional shoot-em up a la John wayne-style with colourful locations, and there's plenty of intense action. Every western lexicon is covered here: barroom brawls, saloon shoot em ups, and exciting staged Indian fort attack. There's a naive charm about it with a lot of colour and energy.

There is a reason why this is ranked so highly; because it is more authentic than most of the Hollywood propaganda. Realistic sets, costumes and storyline scripts - - even the dubbing is good and it does not have to match up. Ideally somebody should reissue this in original Italian dialogue with English subtitles. Last but not least, I'm in love with Ingeboerg Schoener. PS/I'm glad Italy won Euro 2021 - - bless those poor English fans! They wuz robbed.

Light as well as colorful mini-biopic about the mythical hero taking on Indians and Cheyenne chief Yellow Hand . This ¨Buffalo Bill¨ by Mario Costa boasts a nice Italian/German cast with Hans Von Borsody , Roldano Lupi , Mario Brega , Ingeborg Schöner , Mirko Ellis as Yellow Hand and Gordon Scott as Buffalo Bill . This is an entertaining chronicle of the noted frontier explorer , nowadays as an Army high officer . A simple story of William "Buffalo Bill" F. Cody (Gordon Scott) , legendary westerner , whose adventures made him a hero , this is a fictionalized account of the life and career from his days as an army Major . Buffalo confronts renegade Indians , and smugglers (Mario Brega) who are selling weapons . Bill must battle hostile Indians and some outlaws intent on gunrunning . As Buffalo Bill is sent to stop the arms trading and avert an Indian war led by Chief White Fox (Fiodor Chaliapin) . Along the way Bill delivers justice by confronting nasties and brawls at the Gold Dust saloon , whose owner is the suspicious Monroe (Jan Hendriks) . Later on on , there occurs his famous fight against ¨Yellow Hand¨ (Mirko Ellis).

Average Pasta Western plenty of shots , go riding , assaults , up and downs pace , thrills and passable direction . However , it results to be a very mediocre Spaghetti-Schnizel Western mostly produced by Italy and German secondary participation ; it doesn't follow the Sergio Leone wake and being proceeded in American style . Being emotionally right on the mark and there's precious action . The film packs shootouts , noisy action , high body-count and overwhelming Indian attacks . It's a thrilling western with spectacular outdoors and breathtaking confrontation among badly-dressed Indians and soldiers . Acceptable action sequences with rousing Indian attacks against a Yankee fort and little realistic shootouts . The picture has a decent Mise-En-scene with bustling battles , so-so production design , spectacular outdoors and moving score by Carlo Rustichelli . Lousy cinematography filmed by Massimo Dallamano who also directed Westerns , being necessary a right remastering ; filmed on locations in Colmenar Viejo , La Pedriza, Manzanares el Real (Madrid) , as usual , and El Lacio , Rome , Italy . The motion picture was middlingly directed by Mario Costa , under pseudonym , J. W. Fordson . He was a craftsman who directed several adventure movies "Cavalier in Devil's Castle" , "Conqueror of Corinth" , ¨The son of the sheikh ¨, ¨The black pirate¨ ,"Gladiator of Rome" , "Karim, the Sheikh's Son" , "The Queen of the Pirates" , ¨The kings of France¨ and Westerns as ¨La Belba¨ and "Buffalo Bill, Hero of the West" ; many of them starred by Gordon Scott .

Other films about ¨Buffalo Bill¨ are the followings : ¨Battling with Buffalo Bill¨ (1931) by Ray Taylor with Tom Tyler , ¨The Plainsman¨ (1936) by Cecil B. De Mille with Gary Cooper , James Ellison , Jean Arthur , and the best ¨Buffalo Bill¨ by William A. Wellman with Joel McCrea , Thomas Mitchell , Mauren O'Hara and Anthony Quinn as Yellow Hand . Furthermore , ¨Buffalo Bill in Tomahawk Territory¨ by Bernard Ray with Clayton Moore , Chief Thundercloud ; ¨Buffalo Bill rides again ¨ (1947) by Bernard Ray with Richard Arlen , "Seven Hours of Gunfire" (65) by Joaquin Romero Marchent with Rik Van Nutter as Buffalo Bill Cody , Adrian Hoven as Wild Bill Hickok and Gloria Milland as Calamity Jane and the historical pastiche as well as perennial underrated ¨Buffalo Bill and the Indians¨ (76) by Robert Altman with Paul Newman who appears as a charlatan and shameless exemplar of encroaching imperialism .