JOHNNY WEST

1965
Italy/Spain/France
aka Johnny West il mancino (I)
Director : Gianfranco Parolini
Story & screenplay: Gianfranco Parolini, Giovanni Simonelli, Jerez Aloza, Robert De Nesle
Music : Angelo Francesco Lavagnino
Cinematography : Francesco Izzarelli
Cast : Dick Palmer [Mimmo Palmara] (Johnny West), Diana Garson [Dada Gallotti] (Ginger), Mike Anthony [Adriano Micantoni] (Jefferson), Mara Cruz (Anne Rose), Roberto Camardiel (Dusty), Roger De La Porte (Don Trent), Andre Bollet (Brad McCoy), Barta Barry (McCoy), Bob Felton (Jimmy Bryan), Angeles Lee, Fernando Bilbao, Jospeh Matthews [Giuseppe Mattei], Alfonso Rojas, Alfonso De La Vea, Audry Fisher, Jospehina Serratosa, Edy Dentine, Polly Grouck, Spean Convery [Spartaco Conversi]

While Sergio Leone certainly wasn't the only director to be making westerns on European soil in the early to mid-sixties, the lack of attention paid to other Euro-westerns by "respected" film historians would make it seem that way. However, on the fringes of Italy's anarchic studio system films were being made in an effort to match the success of Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari, 64). Regrettably, during this early period they were more often than not poor or, at best, mediocre. It took a while for other directors to wake up, sniff the cappuccino and stamp that Italian style onto the western genre. Until that time came however, the genre wallowed in a murky grey area between American B-movie rip-offs and whacked-out spaghetti-spectaculars.

Parolini's experience in westerns is a textbook example of how this transformation took place. Before he went on to author Sabata and Sartana, there were lesser films like Johnny West which desperately needed far more innovation and a lot less conversation to reach the dizzy heights of his later westerns. Before the introduction of his two most famous characters his westerns were all too often too dull and lacked any surprises, a far cry from the box of tricks unleashed by Sabata and Sartana.

Johnny West (Mimmo Palmera) rides around during the opening credits and is joined by a wee dog which he names Gypsy. However, the titular hero takes a back seat to the antics of Mr. McCoy and his two business associates. We see them as they try to cross a bridge only to end up in a slapstick fight with an old rival Mr. Trent. Being sellers of pots and pans, McCoy and co. bang their heads a lot in a familiar routine later perfected by Messrs Reeves and Mortimer. The film veers to more serious stuff as Johnny sees a stagecoach violently ambushed and shoots dead the posse who robbed it.

We follow McCoy and co.'s actions as they enter a saloon and end up getting into another fight but not before hamming it up in the worst possible way. The rather stupid activities of McCoy and his friends are in stark contrast to the tribulations of Johnny West who pays dearly for his dealings with the stagecoach bandits. His girl, Juanita, is killed and his famous left-hand is smashed in with a pistol butt.

The plot centres on the inheritance of a vein of gold and the dirty dealings employed to get that inheritance. The Jefferson brothers, who were responsible for the stagecoach ambush and Johnny's punishment, want the gold and have the gold's owner Mr. Bryan incarcerated in an old mine outside of town. All the townsfolk believe that the old man fell into a canyon and died. Jim Bryan has the shock of his life when the Jefferson brothers (bastards the lot of them) take young Jim to see his father. When the Jeffersons threaten to kill Jim, his father naturally signs over the gold.

Mr. McCoy is back to the old routine of having fights with people. This time it's a re-match with Mr. Trent in a barber's shop but the two old enemies end up joining together for a bout of fisticuffs with the Jefferson brothers. A bad move one would think but they survive as the Sheriff (himself a bit of a bungler) arrests them and gives the Jefferson family member a telling off. After more silliness in jail, McCoy and his gang team up with Johnny West who helps to bust them out of prison. The sheriff manages to get a posse together to hunt them down. While on the run Johnny tells the story of his father who was shot, unable to defend himself because, as a god-fearing man, he couldn't carry a gun. His mother, a Cherokee, was also killed. Johnny and his new friends stay at an Indian village where McCoy and co. pay tribute to Benny Hill by acting the arse in front of the village's most beautiful squaws. But the party is spoilt by the arrival of Jefferson. Johnny shoots Jefferson at the village to avenge Juanita's death but spares his life for now. A young squaw falls for Johnny but he has no time for love.

The film doesn't end there though. Oh no, there's more as there's a chase through the mine and finally Johnny, McCoy, Jim Bryan and all face the Jeffersons and his greed-crazed bully boys in a final (at last) showdown.

Sandwiched between two Kommisar X romps, Parolini made his debut in the western genre with this rather obscure entry and handles all the expected elements reasonably well but alas, there's not much to inspire the emotions. Veering wildly from Johnny's wrath to the outright stupidity of the McCoy trio's slapstick, the script, which Parolini had a hand in, seems rather ill-conceived.

The same lack of originality can be said for Sardinian-born leading man Mimmo Palmara (here credited as Dick Palmer). Although as sturdy and rugged as one comes to expect from their Spaghetti Western protagonists he fails in the charisma department. It took Franco Nero as Django for Italy to introduce a "good-guy" cowboy to be truly proud of and it's always of interest to see others in their attempts to take Eastwood's crown. Palmara appeared in King Vidor's 1956 adaptation of War And Peace (56) as a French officer before grazing in the peplum stable in a number of Hercules movies as well as Leone's Colossus of Rhodes (I Colosso di Rodi, 61) and Robert Aldrich's Sodom and Gomorrah (62). He was a regular face in the western genre with perhaps his most startling role as the very Roman-looking Indian Joe in Black Jack (Un Uomo per cinque vendette, 68). Perhaps the star's lacklustre approach stems from a similar approach to the film's conception. The title's English translation is "Johnny West, The Left-Handed" and this notion is never fully exploited. How less inspired by an idea can a writing team be? Johnny simply has his left hand smashed to smithereens but uses his right hand instead for the remainder of the film. It seems to work just as well so there doesn't seem to be any point bragging about the power of his other hand.

With a sprinkling of familiar genre faces, most memorably Roberto Camardiel as McCoy's hell-raising sidekick Dusty, it's a shame that the film couldn't offer more meat to chew on. As it stands Johnny West isn't a particularly bad movie, it just never gets off the ground and as it became bogged down in complications I found my patience stretched waiting for the final gunfight. Even with a cute dog, I didn't even find myself particularly concerned about Johnny's fate. However, as a rudimentary ride through the mechanics of western film-making it suffices. Parolini spent a little more time in the western wilderness before really staking his claim as a great Spaghetti Western director (albeit disguised as Frank Kramer) with Sartana (Sono Sartana, il vostro becchino, 69), an outright classic in which he introduced a gleeful inventiveness to Italian westerns. From hence on, in Parolini's world, a man could no longer trust hats, hankies or banjos - just himself.

Clark Hodgkiss

The half Cherokee and totally miserable Johnny West (Dick Palmer) stumbles across a stage-coach robbery being undertaken by Fred Jefferson (Mike Anthony) and his band of sleazeballs. Without much trouble he manages to both make fools of them and foil their scheme, leaving them smarting for revenge as he makes off with the loot himself.

Jefferson and his brother Chris are also involved in another scheme. By kidnapping and threatening to kill Jimmy (Bob Felton), they force his old prospector pa to sign of his secretly accumulated stash of gold. The lucky recipient: 'Melrose Charity Association' - a company that they happen to own.

The chance soon comes for these villains to mix business with pleasure when they run into Johnny again, mangle his shooting hand, kill his girl and frame him for murder. Figuring that too much is never enough, they also stage a robbery and plant some of the cash on him. A posse soon sets off to catch the apparent murderer, including several of the Jefferson gang - who are under express orders to make sure that he is killed before he can be captured. However, they haven't figured that he can also shoot pretty damn well with his right hand.

Johnny West is a reasonable if unspectacular western that betrays it's relatively early date by the debt that it owes to its American forebears. Although there are a few touches of the Italianesque, there are also far too many scenes of upstanding individuals doing the upstanding thing. At first displaying dubious morals, Johnny himself becomes a typical hero figure who even manages to have pretty young girls stare lovingly into his eyes. Despite sharing certain similarities with Corbucci's 1966 productions, Django and Navajo Joe (both 66) (the gratuitous appendage mutilation and having a vengeance driven half-breed hero respectively), it couldn't be a more different film - neatly demonstrating the way that the genre developed in such a short time.

Admittedly, it does pick up after a somewhat weak start but never really overcomes it's traditional origins. A further crippling factor is the annoying trio of 'comedy characters' who keep on popping up to dilute the tension at inopportune moments.

Possibly the best approach is to look at Johnny… as a premonition of the glorious things to come. Parolini parades some of his trademarks such as bizarre gadgets, multiple twist storylines and a character called Dusty (I wonder if he had a thing for Ms Springfield - a fellow traveller down the highway of camp). The initial premise isn't too dissimilar to that of Sartana, and in fact the first scenes are almost identical. Best of all, perhaps, is an eminently peculiar ending shoot-out, which is seriously downplayed, around an upright trick coffin in the middle of the town square.

Matt B