This has to be one of the oddest Spaghetti Westerns out there: it’s actually the second entry in Tomas Milian’s “Providence” series – which, coming fairly late in the game, took the by-then prevalent spoofy route; in fact, there’s even a scene in which our Chaplinesque hero, itself an eccentric novelty, visits an old folks’ home peopled by the protagonists of previous Westerns – and not just Spaghetti icons such as Django, Sartana and Trinity, but also Valdez the Half-Breed who now refers to himself as half-wit!
The titular figure (he’s not only a fast-draw but also has a penchant for corny proverbs a' la Charlie Chan) travels in a hybrid of coach and train driven by an Oriental who also cooks for him – the latter is a nod to the Martial Arts action flicks that came to prominence around this same time, a style which got woven into the Spaghetti Western milieu on a couple of occasions (incidentally, Milian himself would play an Easterner in THE WHITE, THE YELLOW AND THE BLACK [1975]). Gregg Palmer’s character is basically a stand-in for Bud Spencer – he and Milian, then, are involved in a very funny bar-room brawl which is the film’s undeniable comic highlight; though underused, “Euro-Cult” starlet Carole Andre' is a radiant presence throughout. At best, the film is an average effort in the subgenre – surprisingly tolerable (thanks largely to an infectious score by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai) but, ultimately, inconsequential.
The titular figure (he’s not only a fast-draw but also has a penchant for corny proverbs a' la Charlie Chan) travels in a hybrid of coach and train driven by an Oriental who also cooks for him – the latter is a nod to the Martial Arts action flicks that came to prominence around this same time, a style which got woven into the Spaghetti Western milieu on a couple of occasions (incidentally, Milian himself would play an Easterner in THE WHITE, THE YELLOW AND THE BLACK [1975]). Gregg Palmer’s character is basically a stand-in for Bud Spencer – he and Milian, then, are involved in a very funny bar-room brawl which is the film’s undeniable comic highlight; though underused, “Euro-Cult” starlet Carole Andre' is a radiant presence throughout. At best, the film is an average effort in the subgenre – surprisingly tolerable (thanks largely to an infectious score by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai) but, ultimately, inconsequential.
