BY FRED BLOSSER
“Man of the East,†a comedic
Italian Western starring Terence Hill and directed by Enzo Barboni as “E.B.
Clucher,†opened in U.S. theaters on May 1, 1974, as a release through United
Artists. I saw it at the old Turnpike
Cinema in Fairfax, Va., now long gone. Come to think of it, United Artists is long gone too, at least in its
1974 form. The poster outside the
theater carried comic artwork of Hill in a goofy pose on horseback. The tagline read, “The Magnificent One!,†an
abbreviated version of the original Italian title, “. . . E poi lo chiamarono
il magnifico,†which translates more or
less as, “Now They Call Him the Magnificent.†The advertising team at UA didn’t have to look far for a catchy phrase
that might remind fans, however subliminally or satirically, of “The
Magnificent Seven.†Most devotees of
Italian Westerns look down on the comic offshoots of the genre like “Man of the
East,†but on its own terms, Clucher’s picture is a better-than-average example
of its type. It even holds its own
against Hollywood’s feeble comedy Westerns of the same era, like “something
big†(1971), “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean†(1972), and “The Great
Scout and Cathouse Thursday†(1976).
In “Man of the East,†now
available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Hill’s character, Sir
Thomas Moore, travels to Arizona in 1880 at the final behest of his wealthy,
free-spirited father, recently deceased after fatally suffering “a stroke in a
bawdy house.†The elder Moore had
rejected the conformist life of a peer in Queen Victoria’s Court to drift
through the American West in company with three rambunctious pals, Bull, Holy
Joe, and Monkey (Gregory Walcott, Harry Carey Jr., and Dominic Barto), as “The
Englishman’s Gang.†Tom intends to
homestead on the land where his father built a cabin, and wants to retain Bull,
Holy Joe, and Monkey as his ranch hands. The three galoots have their own marching orders from their deceased
friend: “Tom is still a green kid. Make
a man of him, and then -- hit the saddle.†The trio feel civilization crowding in on them as the frontier shrinks,
the dominant theme of Westerns in the 1970s, American and Italian alike. They agree to stay around long enough to
toughen up their friend’s soft-spoken son by teaching him to fight, shoot,
trade his bicycle for a horse, and change out his tweeds for his father’s old
cowboy outfit. Then they’ll keep
drifting West, trying to stay one step ahead of the railroad, which for them
embodies the unwelcome idea of “progress†as it did for the characters in various
Sergio Leone movies. Leone had sufficient
budget to include real trains in his films; Clucher makes do with stock footage
of the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad under the opening credits.
Tom’s plans run afoul of
domineering cattle baron Austin, who wants the newcomer’s property. The big rancher employs his gunslinging
foreman, Clayton (Riccardo Pizzuti), to intimidate the tenderfoot into selling
out and leaving. Clayton has ambitious
eyes on his boss’s fortune through Austin’s pretty daughter Candida (Yanti
Somer), but she and Tom become romantically attracted to each other. This gives the rancher and his henchman added
incentive to drive the greenhorn out of the territory. These elements in the script (written by
Clucher) lift a little of this and a little of that from several John Ford classics,
including Ford’s sentimentality. Harry
Carey Jr., billed here simply as Harry Carey, had appeared right before “Man of
the East†in Clucher’s “Trinity Is Still My Name†(1971), but not
coincidentally, he was also one of Ford’s famous stock company of players. Clucher magnifies the slugfests from
“Donovan’s Reef†(1963) and other Ford pictures into two big, extended saloon
brawls where dozens of stuntmen crash through windows and have their heads
slammed into breakaway tables. As in
most American Westerns, the fights end with the participants stretched out on
the floor or staggering away woozily, but not critically injured. Hospital ERs probably wish that drunken bar
fights ended that harmlessly in real life.
The movie’s violence is
strictly PG, going no further than the hammy melees. Although the characters occasionally draw and
fire their guns, the only things that get riddled with bullets are a hat and a
tin can. “This is the first Italian
Western I’ve seen, the first Western I’ve seen, where no one gets killed -- no
one gets shot!†Alex Cox marvels in his audio commentary for the Kino Lorber
Blu-ray. This would have been a selling
point on movie night in 1974, when parents searched the listings for a family-friendly
Western that they could watch with their nine-year-olds. Nowadays it may be a moot point. The nine-year-olds I know are busy competing
against each other on Fortnite, to see who can rack up the highest body count
in simulated search-and-destroy missions. Still, small kids may be amused by Clucher’s broad humor, including
Hill’s daffy faces, longjohns, and hop-frog jumps during Tom’s morning
exercises. If you think Steve Martin and
Will Ferrell invented the gimmick of a normal-looking guy who gets laughs by
acting wacky, meet Hill and Clucher. There’s a gag about horse poop, ongoing verbal confusion where the
unsophisticated characters misunderstand long words, and a fleeting gay
joke. The latter is so benign that
anyone inside or outside the LGBTQ community would be hard pressed to take
offense. Even Spaghetti Western
enthusiasts who disdain comedies like this may smile in a scene where Clucher
pokes fun at Leone’s theatrics. Two
bounty hunters in black (genre regulars Sal Borgese and Tony Norton) ride up to
the ominous cello chords of Ennio Morricone’s showdown theme from “A Fistful of
Dollars.†Then, straight-faced, the two
slowly dismount in perfect unison like synchronized swimmers.
At two hours and five minutes,
“Man of the East†seemed leisurely even in 1974. As a captive audience in the theater, you
might go for a restroom break when the saloon fights ran on too long, but to do
so, you’d have to squeeze past everybody else in your row and stumble up the
aisle in the dark. Home video makes it
easier to control the dead air. Just
skip to the next chapter on your Blu-ray player when you want Clucher to pick
up the pace. The Kino Lorber disc
presents the movie in sharp hi-def at the correct 2.35:1 aspect, nicely framing
the final showdown where the two opponents face each other from the far
opposite sides of the Techniscope screen. Incidentally, to my knowledge, this is the first appearance of “Man of
the East†on digital disc in the U.S. Paramount
issued the movie on Region 2 DVD in the U.K. in 2008, but there was never a
Region 1 DVD release in the States. The
only previous edition for home viewing here was a pan-and-scan VHS
videocassette from Warner Home Video. That was way back in 1984, almost as long ago as the original theatrical
release.
In
addition to Alex Cox’s entertaining commentary, the Blu-ray includes the
original trailer as a bonus, along with trailers for several other Italian
Westerns available from Kino Lorber. SDH
captions are provided for those of us who haven’t gotten any younger since
1974.
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(Fred Blosser is the author of "Sons of Ringo: The Great Spaghetti Western Heroes". Click here to order from Amazon)