Father Jackleg (1972)

I love this movie so much

Admirable film.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

An obnoxious, repulsive family of thieves, led by bad grandpa Lionel Stander inherits a bogus goldmine deed, with all the fake seals and signatures. Stander's oldest grandson sets out to sell it for big bucks, teaming up with conman/fake monk Jack Palance to swindle as much money as possible.There's more groans than laughs in this painfully unfunny "comedy", directed by the usually entertaining Enzo G. Castellari, perhaps his worst. Palance is occasionally amusing, though mostly wasted, and probably very wasted when he accepted an offer to star in this pot of stale spaghetti slapstick.The score by Guido and Fabrizio De Angelis (who have done better also), is as embarrassingly bad as the endless sight gags.

Funny but average film with action, struggles, and shootouts by the expert Enzo G. Castell . This Spanish-Italian co-production deals with a likable man ( Timothy Brent , aka Giancarlo Priete) who inherits from his uncle a gold mine. He assumes the mine is worthless, and join forces with a hunk and joker monk (an excessive Jack Palance in frank decadence) in encounter the propriety . Thus , two men looking for the hidden gold ,they are : a cynic and fake priest chased by bounty hunters going after the reward and a young gunslinger , son of a filthy family . However, the other members of his grimy family (father is Renzo Palmer , mother is Maria Vico and grandfather Lionel Stander) aware that the gold mine is actually worth a lot of money , and they set off in pursuit to take it from him before he realizes what he has a valuable mine . Besides a greedy landowner (Eduardo Fajardo), proprietary of Grant's mine , and his band of fanatics hoodlums set out to take the precious mine . At the ending the gold turns to be hidden in the New Laredo Prison . This is a regular Faglioli-Spaghetti Western in Trinity and Bambino style and for that reason there is a cult to dirtiness with an appropriately goofy tone, customary issue in this sub-genre. The movie takes parts from Enzo Barboni movies such as ¨Trinity is my name¨ and ¨Trinity is still my name¨ . The film is plenty of action, fun, brawls , shootouts and surprise-filled entertainment. The picture contains funny gun-play along with fist-fight very much in the Terence Hill/Bud Spencer territory. The violence isn't crude but suits the light-weight comedy fun and silly slapstick like the Trinity series . It certainly has an enthusiastic cast , plenty of slapstick , some very impressive gymnastics, especially in the massive fight sequences . The highlights of the movie result to be when the family travels in a wheeled-ship such as ¨The man in wilderness (Richard C Sarafian)¨ and Jack Palance driving a hearse (Palance steals the show with his gestures , faces and excesses , including some scenes eating onions such as ¨Cipolla Colt¨) ; furthermore the silly final on a bath parlor and subsequents fights in the pool . The picture displays crazy characters with twists plots and is quite amusing . It does eventually outstay its welcome, and there are a surprising amount of fights and laughters . The movie starred by habitual Spaghetti as Timothy Brent and Jack Palance , besides usual secondaries as Italian players as Renzo Palmer , Riccardo Garrone as Spanish actors as Angel Alvarez (Django), Eduardo Fajardo (Sergio Corbucci's ordinary secondary) and Maria Vico . A really catching score musical by Guido and Mauricio De Angelis who often work with Castellari . Atmospheric cinematography filmed by Manuel Rojas shot in Camerata Nuova, and De Paolis Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy and of course Almeria , Spain . Silly screenplay with ridiculous situations written by the usual Tito Carpi and Jose G . Maesso , also producer ( he produced several Western as ¨The ugly ones , Minnesota Clay , Django , A train to Durango , Hellbenders¨) . Enzo G Castell makes a nice camera work with usual zooms and clever choreography on the showdown , fighting , slow motion shootouts and bemusing scenes . He made more Western as ¨ Johnny Hamlet , Kill them everybody and came back alone, Seven Winchester for a massacre, Cipolla colt¨ and the masterpiece : ¨Keoma¨. Some of them are serious , others are goofy and plenty of slapstick and slapdash . This is a bewildering story , funny in lots of parts and it will appeal to Spaghetti Western fans . It's a mediocre film , but still better than a lot of the ulterior spaghetti western comedies to come .

Lionel Stander stars as Stinky Manure, the patriarch of a family of old west grifters in this decidedly unfunny western comedy, directed by an out of his depth Enzo Castellari. His blue-eyed son Tedeum (Satanik's Giancarlo Prete, aka 'Timothy Brent') is given the lease to a worthless goldmine and, with the aid of crooked phony monk Santini (a gurning Jack Palance), proceeds to carry out the titular 'Sting of the West'. As bad as the film is, it's rendered far worse on Interglobal Video's horrible VHS tape, which predictably is pan and scanned to death. It does, however, feature the original MPAA rating card, which is itself badly squeezed to fit the screen.

Early western entry by one of Italy's finest directors - Enzo G. Castellari. If you're expecting something epic, like his western masterpiece Keoma, have another thought coming: this is a goofy western comedy very much in the Terrance Hill/Bud Spencer territory. Being such a juvenile movie, i'm surprised that Castellari's next film High Crime would turn out so serious.Young con man Tedeum inherits a gold mine, and knowing his con men relatives he's sure it's worthless. He teams up with a sleazy ex-con turned monk and tries to sell the worthless mine to some poor sucker. Soon his family finds out that the mine is real and full of gold: will they get to him before he sells the mine to the evil major and his henchmen?Although no Trinity, the movie works fairly good. It looks pretty good, have some pretty funny characters and a really catchy theme song (I can't get it out of my mind!). The plot is really simple, but suits the lightweight comedy fine. The movie made me laugh a few times, even though I insist that its got waaay too much slapstick humor for its own good.6/10