Buffalo Bill, le héros du Far-West

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-

When the sword and sandal films in the Roman Cinecitta were threatening to go out of fashion, genre star Gordon SCOTT (1927-2007), who had been married to the Hitchcock star Vera MILES in Hollywood, switched to the emerging wave of Westerns .

His performance as Buffalo Bill is based on his life story, but is overall too convoluted and lengthy.

The only interesting thing is that: with Ingeborg SCHÖNER (*1935), Jan HENDRIKS (1928-1991) and Hans von BORSODY (1929-2013) there are also three film stars from the German-speaking film industry of those years.

You can take a look, but you don't have to!

A note about Catherine Ribeiro (cast as "Moonbeam" );her film debut was Godard' s "Les Carabiniers" ;in the mid-sixties,she wound up in this spaghetti western : her acting is quite disastrous, a wig is not enough to make us believe she's an Indian ;Primarily a Chanteuse ,she became a leftist well-respected Latin progressive rock singer,in the seventies ,along with her group "Alpes" ;She was then one of our best French artists - her peak is arguably her 1972 album ,"Paix",which contains her most memorable track " Un Jour La Mort" .

The hero is called "Buffalo Bill ",but they could have chosen Davy Crockett or Hopalong Cassidy or any legendary wild west character;after Tarzan and the sword and sandals flicks,and before becoming ,in the wake of James Bond ,a secret agent ,Gordon Scott (essentially remembered for his part opposite Steve Reeves,in an estimable "Romolo E Remo")was cast as the fearless horseman ,on the right side of the law ;here he is friend with the Indians (particularly Moonbeam and her father "Wise Fox" ),the good ones that is :some of them buy weapons from a white villain.(Buffalo Bill supported the native American rights )

The movie borrows a little from many American movies :of course ,there's a fort with a bossy colonel who does not want his daughter to marry a nice captain -because marrying a military man would make her a widow too soon;a final fight between Bill and the nasty Indian is the Pièce De Résistance of a harmless entertaining western,with a rather nice cinematography and a good sense of space which makes up (a little) for the triteness of the plot.

Buffalo Bill Cody (Gordon Scott) fights Indians, led by rival Yellow Hand and spends time looking for the unscrupulous white men who are selling them rifles and whiskey.

Just plain bad, bad acting combines with bad dubbing, bad costumes and a generally kooky atmosphere to make this one of the silliest spaghetti westerns ever made. Seriously, this is as sophisticated as watching eight-year-olds playing cowboys and Indians in the backyard, trying hard and failing to turn Buffalo Bill into a beefcake action hero, via former TV-Tarzan Scott. The highlight of the film is a knock-down, drag-out fight between Scott and plus-size spaghetti western superstar Mario Brega.

Directed by J.W. Fordson (wow, John Ford's son?!), this has the nerve to directly steal one of it's sub-plots from Fort Apache. If only they really were related, Ford Sr. could have and should have taken him to the woodshed for that one!

One's enjoyment of this one depends solely on his or her desire to see really bad movies or their tolerance of mindless action. I really can't recommend this.

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 .