East meets West, with the usual pleasures to be had in a rather typical fish-out-of-water story. Terence Hill is the jolly Britisher who arrives in Old West Arizona upon his dying father's wish that he become a cowboy. Writer-director Enzo Barboni knows just how to utilize Hill's starry-eyed charm, and the actor is very funny exercising in the morning in front of the gunslingers or riding his bicycle down tumbleweed streets. A ready-made romance is provided for our hero with a literature-minded lass into Byron (her baby-blue eyes match up well with Hill's, although his dimply prettiness is tough to beat). The film isn't much, but the English-dubbing is good and the Yugoslavian locations give it a curious and unusual look. The general handling is so amiable that viewers may become absorbed by the movie without even realizing it. It sneaks up on you, like the best kind of sleeper. ** from ****

Man of the East is a vehicle for Terence Hill, directed by Enzo Barboni and written by E.B. Clucher*. Barboni had tremendous success parodying the Italian western genre, starting with They Call Me Trinity and then following that with the even bigger Trinity Is STILL My Name!

These movies follow a pretty simple formula of Hill and Bud Spencer as a comedy duo. Every once in a while, they'd make solo films, which this one being a good example.

It's really close to the story "The Tenderfoot" from the Lucky Luke comic. Hill would go on to direct and star in an adaption of the overall comic, so this may be no accident.

Sir Thomas Fitzpatrick Phillip Moore (Hill) has come from England at the request of his father, who had to leave the country behind after an affair got him in trouble. His father wants him to see the country he had come to love, which brings our hero into the orbit of his dad's associates, stagecoach robbers Monkey Smith (Dominic Barto, Jungle Warriors),Holy Joe (Harry Carey Jr., a John Ford company actor) and Bull Smith (Gregory Walcott, Plan 9 from Outer Space).

Thomas' father - known as the Englishman - wants his hapless gang to turn his son into a man, as his head is in the clouds. He'd rather ride a bike than a horse and refuses to skip baths. However, he's great with the ladies, as he quickly woos Candida Olsen (Yanti Somer, Star Odyssey) with his knowledge of Lord Byron.

This puts him into conflict with her rich father Frank (Enzo Fiermonte, War of the Planets),who doesn't think he's good enough for her, and Morton Clayton (Riccardo Pizzuti, the creature in Lady Frankenstein),one of their ranch hands who has his eyes set on Candida.

The gang teaches Thomas how to fight, shoot and spit tobacco, which he takes to quite well and ends up winning the day. That's to be expected. What isn't is the sadness underpinning this movie, which sees the gang facing the progress of technology and realizing that soon, the west that they know will no longer exist.

Another odd thing to watch out for is the opening credits and subsequent transition shots are B-roll from Support Your Local Gunfighter.

You can get this from Kino Lorber on a new blu ray, which looks gorgeous. Here's to them releasing more little known Italian westerns!

*E.B. Clucher is...Enzo Barboni. Just look at the initials.

This Western comedy deals with the young man, Sir Thomas (Terence Hill),he's a dandy from East who goes to the West following the last wish his deceased father . His mentors are a threesome sympathetic crooks , Bull , Holly Joe and Monkey (Gregory Walcott , Harry Carey Jr, Barto). The cocky Thomas carries a bicycle and wearing elegant clothes . The veteran friends teach him the West manners and training him for shooting . Thomas Moore must fight against a nasty enemy named Morton (Ricardo Pizzuti ) who is jealous his girlfriend (Yanti Somer) , daughter of a land baron (Enzo Fiermonte) falling in love for the ingenious young.

The film contains action-Western , brawls , shootouts , fist-play , humor with tongue-in-cheek and results to be pretty bemusing . It's an entertaining film with enjoyable comedy in the wake of Trinity and Bambino , in fact , is unofficially regarded as the third part of the Trinità Trilogy . Agreeable main cast with a likable Terence Hill (though I miss Bud Spencer) as a naive East young man and Yanti Somer (Trinity is still my name) as a gorgeous girl looking for the dreamt prince riding on a white horse . Furthermore , Harry Carey Jr , as a nice preacher , he's an usual secondary of John Ford films , Gregory Walcott as a tough illiterate and , of course , Ricardo Pizzuti , Hill's habitual antagonist and whom receives the knocks and kicks . Adequate cinematography by Giordani and jolly musical score including songs by the usual Guido and Maurizio De Angelis . This is a French-Italian co-production , mostly produced by Alberto Grimaldi (PEA Productions) , famous producer of ¨Dollars trilogy¨ by Sergio Leone. The motion picture was well directed by Enzo Barboni or E. B. Clucher . He was a notorious cameraman , including classical Spaghetti Western (Django , Goobye Texas , Hellbenders) , but with the hit of ¨Trinity is my name¨ left it and turned to film-making, and directed the following ¨Trinity is still my name¨ and the third outing ¨Trinity and Bambino, the legend lives on¨, plus other Hill and Spencer vehicles .