Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Beautiful, moving film.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

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.

Affable con artist Tedeum (a robust and likable performance by Giancarlo Prete) inherits the deed to a goldmine which he automatically assumes is worthless. Tedeum joins forces with wily fake priest Buck Santini (delightfully essayed with deliciously hammy relish by Jack Palance) and tries to sell the deed to some suckers. Meanwhile, Tedeum's madcap no-count family also attempt to gain possession of the deed. Director Enzo G. Castellari, who co-wrote the cheerfully inane and eventful script with Tito Carpi and Jose Gutierrez Maesso, relates the nutty story at a constant zippy pace and maintains an amiably silly tongue-in-cheek tone throughout. Moreover, the lively cast play their broadly caricatured parts with tremendous lip-smacking enthusiasm: Prete and Palance display an engagingly loose and easy chemistry as our charming outlaw protagonists; they receive fine support from Francesca Romana Coluzzi as sassy lass Betty, Mabel Kim as sweet, fetching Southern belle Wendy, Eduardo Fajardo as crooked banker Grant, Lionel Standler as cranky and hearty patriarch Stinky Manore, Renzo Palmer as the oafish Rags Manore, and Maria Vico as the haggish Ma Manore. This film reaches its sidesplitting comedic highlights with a couple of wild anything-goes rough'n'tumble fist fight scenes. The smooth, fluid cinematography by Manuel Rojas and the infectiously jaunty score by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis (the catchy theme song is a total groovy gas!) both further enhance the entertainingly wacky screwball merriment. A pleasingly breezy hoot.

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