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Post by Captain Spencer on Jan 22, 2021 21:31:11 GMT
In the late 1800s when the Old West is starting to fade and rapid progress is starting to take over, three middle-aged cowboys are introduced to the son of a recently deceased buddy. The young man, named Thomas Moore, is a proper Englishman who travelled all the way from England; he falls in love with the daughter of a cattle baron, and also runs afoul of the baron's ranch administrator. The three aging cowboys take Thomas under their wing and turn him from a sissy into a "real man". I first saw this rare spaghetti western at the drive-in when I was a kid in the 70s. I didn't see it again until several years ago when I found it on YouTube. Now I own the DVD that I ordered from Shout! Factory. Just in time, too, because it's on its way to going out of print. Man Of The East doesn't follow the usual spaghetti western formula in that it doesn't involve a lone gunslinger forced to fight a violent gang of outlaws or anything like that. Instead it's light-hearted entertainment that's a nice blend of oater and comedy, and it highly succeeds. There are no violent gun battles to be found here. The only type of violence presented is fist-fighting, which includes a long, amusing barroom brawl that also has lots of slapstick. Terence Hill is very appealing as Thomas, as is the beautiful Finnish actress Yanti Somer as his love interest. Gregory Alcott, Harry Carey Jr., and Dominic Barto are perfect as the middle-aged cowboys, and they seem to be having a grand old time playing their roles; they make their characters so damn likeable, even though they aren't entirely "good guys" per se (after all, they do occasionally rob stagecoaches). And finally, as been presented in so many other westerns of this era, there's that recurring theme of modernization in the Old West and how the older guys refuse to accept it and/or have difficulty coping with it.
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