Deaf Smith & Johnny Ears / Los amigos (Paolo Cavara, 1973)

Absolutely. It’s a real shame. I was surprized to see they had done a movie together and I had yet to see it…now I know why it is so obscure and little known.

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This was actually released by MGM in English speaking territories … and was given the poster and trailer treatment, as though it was a major action adventure film - I remember as a kid it played quite often on UK TV in the 1970s … but it’s a dog alright.

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This movie’s page in the SWDb has been updated to the new “SWDb 3.0” format .
Please have a look and let us know if there’s something you can add (information, trivia, links, pictures, etc.).

I’d love to see ‘Deaf Smith…’ released on bluray.

The trailer doesn’t do it justice…the narration sounds like it’s done by someone with nothing better to do…

I’ve only seen it once, on Youtube, about 8 years ago. It was crap quality, but I thoroughly enjoyed it at the time. I remember the interaction between Franco Nero and Anthony Quinn being rather wonderful. After all, we are talking about two distinguished actors at their peak…
When I last viewed it, the magic of the inspired pairing shone through.

The main theme was, and still is, extremely memorable…whether you pick the vocal or instrumental version - both, IMHO - are brilliant. To my mind, it’s a ‘feel good’ theme, and a great way to start the day. :cowboy_hat_face:

This ‘buddy’ film deserves better treatment than it has received on any format… :unamused:

Note: The ‘Deaf Smith and Johnny Ears’ theme is sung by Ann Reid Collin; who also sang the main theme to ‘Shoot the Living, Pray For the Dead’.

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Was shown on TCM in HD this sunday with a runtime of 105min

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This one falls into that peculiar category of films that I had high hopes in before my first watch. Then it turns out to be very different than expected, my expectations are not met, I’m disappointed and I don’t like it. Then, years later, I revisit the film with very low expectations, and I’m suddenly surprised how much I enjoy the movie.

Happened to me with a handful of films.

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I really enjoyed it, too

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Damn, I wish I knew that prior. Hopefully a rip turns up on the internet somwhere :crossed_fingers:


Italian newspaper ads

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Saw this today for the first time -source was a TCM recording of the English version.

Generally I thought it was tedious. No proper plot and lots of padding including the entire subplot between Nero and Tiffin. Scenes in the brothel went on for ages. There was also a sequence in which the bad guy gun store owner discovers Smith is deaf which had no follow up and therefore pointless. Whole scene of abortive attempt to ambush the wagon convoy also pointless and didn’t affect plot (where did those kids come from as they were in the middle of nowhere). Probably about enough material for a 40m movie. The ending shoot out delivered the goods but was very similar to A Reason to Live A Reason to Die which I saw a few weeks ago and had been released several months earlier.

Lots of anachronisms for 1836 as noted in most postings. The custom made machine gun is the obvious one (Gatling gun invented in 1861) but there are loads others. Town set looked like typical 1860s-1880s period as were costumes. Not a musket or flintlock in sight; the pistols all look like Colt Navy (probably the same ones as in TGTBTU) or Colt SAR invented decades later. Dynamite used - proper dynamite sticks too - but not invented until 1867. The foreign power - referred to as Germans but Germany didn’t exist as such until 1871 so they should have been Prussians.

The print I saw must have been the USA one since the BBFC cinema and video cuts were in tact (2 horsefall trips cut for Uk video). The cuts made by the Italian censors for a 14 rating were still missing. In particular the shooting of children at the beginning and also when Smith kills a fort guard with a noose were obviously cut. Can’t understand how this was 18 rated by the Italian censors originally given that virtually everything else from 1971-73 got an unrestricted rating. The 14 - which you can see on the posters - still looks very harsh. Only got an AA in the UK.

Good points - I thought Quinn was making an effort and I liked the soundtrack going silent at times to mimic his deafness. Nero I found a bit irritating. Liked the contemporary pop song over the credits as well.

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