Any Gun Can Play

Rating:
Summary: A fun stylish little western.
Review: Enjoyable for spaghetti westen and non-disciminating western fans. Funny, stylish, well acted, slighlty violent (at times shoddy looking) Sergio Leone homage.

Rating:
Summary: Any Gun Is Much Fun
Review: I watched this today after not having seen it since it was released in 1968. It was a lot of fun, but admittedly it is not the equal of the Sergio Leone works, or even those of Sergio Corbucci - although both are spoofed here.

In the opening scene we see a trio that as two resembling Eastwood and Van Cleef's characters in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE and another who is clearly based on Franco Nero's Django. Clearly here Castellari is letting us know that he's going to have some fun at the expense of what had preceded him in the spaghetti western canon. George Hilton's bounty killer dispatches these three and we're informed that his next target is Monetero, played by veteran Gilbert Roland, then in his early 60s and still the epitome of machismo elegance. At this point he had been in the business for 40 years, and with the slightest of gestures, blows away his younger cast mates.

Monetero and his gang rob a gold shipment from a train loaded with the cavalry as well as Edd Byrnes playing a bank employee. Kookie, Kookie, lend me some money. His gang gets away with the loot, but the money gets away from Monetero. The bank man is after Monetero for the gold shipment, Hilton's character ("They call me the Stranger" - a nod to Tony Anthony's films?) is after him for the reward, and the rest of the film play out a series of crosses and double-crosses, all with a fair dose of humor. The film even anticipates some of the later spaghetti westerns - particularly Gianfranco Parolini's "Sabata" films which also relied heavily on circus-styled gymnastics. Byrnes' character Clayton gets into some Faibanksian-styled gymnastics fights with both Hilton and later about six members of Monetero's gang, and then later both Byrnes and Hilton take on many of the same gang in a bathhouse.

None of this is to be taken any more seriously than Terence Hill's antics in MY NAME IS NOBODY, it's probably just that this early in the game, it wasn't obvious that it was a spoof as the sub-genre was barely around for four years. A scene where Hilton and an insurance man spot each other through binoculars tips its hat to a similar scene in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, and the overall tale of three men and the search for hidden gold is obviously based on THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. But the best homage comes at the end, a face-off among the three main characters that satirizes the similar scene in the latter film. Only the music fails to make the point here, whereas in other scenes the score is appropriate - as long as one keeps in mind that this is just an affectionate spoof, and on its own, it is an appealing film. The leads are more than capable - although the looping is often flat, and the production design quite attractive. Even at 105 minutes, the film moves quickly and never runs out of steam.

Rating:
Summary: Good Spaghetti Western
Review: Leonard Molten gave Any Gun Can Play a bomb rating. Why? There are far worse movies that have gotten far better reviews.

The Bad - The voices and ambience sounds are flat. The music ranges from a fair but clichéd imitation of Morricone to sounding like the soundtrack to a bad travelogue (especially during the some action scenes.) The worst is that the music often has terrible wow and flutter; it fades in and out and breaks up. There is an embarrassing clichéd opening song. There are some cheap looking props. (Cowboys crash into cardboard bathtubs painted to resemble some sort of wood. You'll want to adjust the color on your TV) There are some very silly scenes: Hilton wears Red underpants fist fighting a prancing Ed Byrnes in a river. The fight looks like it might end with a kiss. Later Ed meets George in a bathhouse... (What is going on with these two?!) There are a few too many cutesy grins, especially by Hilton. There is corny dialogue " They call me (dramatic pause) The Stranger" There is an out of place female Mexican Bandit who looks like Jane Meadows. It also appears the film makers forgot to insert the opening credits. A train steams through the desert with bad theme music for two minutes where the credits should have been rolling. There are far too many zoom-in shots. The film stock has a [inexpensive] look about it. That's it.

The Good

It appears the cast and film makers never intended to be taken seriously and knew they owed everything to Sergio Leone. It's pretty obvious when Lee Van Cleef, Clint Eastwood and Franco Nero look-a-likes are plugged in an opening scene that mimics A Fist Full of Dollars. The binocular/telescope scene the same scene from For Few Dollars More. There is a parody of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly graveyard showdown - with a humorous twist.

The plot is from The Good the Bad and The Ugly. Again three guys holding part of the answer to where the gold is hidden. The big difference is there is no sadism.

The acting is above average for a spaghetti western and at least Ed Byrnes and Gilbert Roland use there own voices. Gilbert Roland's Mexican stylish bandit has intelligence, dignity and sense of humor. Pretty unusual compared to the way most Mexicans are played in these film.

Castallari's camera is an important a character in the story. Castellari make scenes interesting with angles, close ups and colors. Caslellari likes to put his camera on the ceiling, he shoots a cowboys mouth and chin from over the brim of his hat, he films bad guys from a reflection in spilled whisky, or he shows blazing guns fired from a black silhouette in front of a blood red wall. Casterelli understands what's best about the spaghetti western style and works far better then most in the genre. His main fault is in the budgets and postproduction work -such as dialogue inserts, quality of film stock music and sound effects.

I recommend Any Gun Can Play as an absolute must to all Spaghetti Western fans.

The VCI DVD has very little extras - but the price is great. I wish someone would clean up the sound problems but I doubt anyone will be issue a better-looking version of this film.