This is a very silly Italian Western, along the lines of the Trinity films, but with a difference: it's loaded with references to the commercial Italian film industry (at the time) and satirical pokes at the Catholic Church.
When we first meet our hero (Mark Damon of "Black Sabbath" and "Fall of the House of Usher" fame), he's trying to shoot a fly off his toe with none of the panache or flair of Jack Elam in "Once Upon a Time in the West." His name is Slim McFilthy, which is indicative of the level of "subtle" humor in this film. He hooks up with an Italian immigrant out to start a pizza business in the West, but who winds up imitating a priest in order to scam the locals (with McFilthy's help).
Along the way there are some clever gags, like McFilthy punching bad guys after a "wind up" like a baseball pitcher ("Here's a knuckleball!"), but there are more dumb ones like McFilthy in drag in bed with the villain, and first arriving in town using a startlingly tasteless imitation of a cripple to scam the townspeople.
What makes this uneven comedy interesting, though, is the references to the Italian film industry: the pizzamaker's two daughters tell him he's "like Hercules ..." "...or Maciste" when he defeats a couple of bad guys; later a townsman shows up with a hand-held Gatling Gun (a la Django) that breaks and won't stop shooting, etc. Even more intriguing are the pokes at the Catholic Church: Baptism, Confession, curses, miracles and even reincarnation are not too gently ridiculed.
All in all, this is not a great Italian Western or comedy, but for nearly every dumb moment in the film, there is a clever one. The direction is haphazard, and Damon's no Terence Hill, but the film is fun.
When we first meet our hero (Mark Damon of "Black Sabbath" and "Fall of the House of Usher" fame), he's trying to shoot a fly off his toe with none of the panache or flair of Jack Elam in "Once Upon a Time in the West." His name is Slim McFilthy, which is indicative of the level of "subtle" humor in this film. He hooks up with an Italian immigrant out to start a pizza business in the West, but who winds up imitating a priest in order to scam the locals (with McFilthy's help).
Along the way there are some clever gags, like McFilthy punching bad guys after a "wind up" like a baseball pitcher ("Here's a knuckleball!"), but there are more dumb ones like McFilthy in drag in bed with the villain, and first arriving in town using a startlingly tasteless imitation of a cripple to scam the townspeople.
What makes this uneven comedy interesting, though, is the references to the Italian film industry: the pizzamaker's two daughters tell him he's "like Hercules ..." "...or Maciste" when he defeats a couple of bad guys; later a townsman shows up with a hand-held Gatling Gun (a la Django) that breaks and won't stop shooting, etc. Even more intriguing are the pokes at the Catholic Church: Baptism, Confession, curses, miracles and even reincarnation are not too gently ridiculed.
All in all, this is not a great Italian Western or comedy, but for nearly every dumb moment in the film, there is a clever one. The direction is haphazard, and Damon's no Terence Hill, but the film is fun.
