Lo chiamavano Trinità… / They Call Me Trinity (1970) – 3/5

One of their most known, but not one of the best, still fairly decent spaghetti western overall

„Lo chiamavano Trinità…“ or „They Call Me Trinity“ or „My Name Is Trinity“ is an Italian movie from 1970 that is mostly in the Italian language as well, almost exclusively, and if it was in English, then the number of votes would be considerably higher here on imdb I am sure. Anyway, the German title is completely different and sounds something like „The devil’s right and left hand“, which is a direct reference to the two protagonists in here and how they are called like that as we find out. It’s a nice nickname, two nice nicknames, but I feel this film kinda could have needed an elaboration or explanation why they are called like that, except that they are brothers. They could not look any more different though for brothers. Anyway, the director and one of the writers is Enzo Barboni, a highly prolific filmmaker and these almost two hours from exactly half a century ago are by far not the only movie he made with Bud Spencer and/or Terence Hill. There you already have the two big names attached to this project. Maybe you guessed already from the poster here on imdb, from this being an Italian movie and also from this being a spaghetti western. Hill is probably the one slightly more at the center of the story as it starts with him, you see him on the poster and he is also referenced in the film’s title. Interestingly enough, in the German dub his name is completely different, namely Joe. Spencer and Hill also collaborated on many other films and Spencer turned into the bigger star eventually, but this is still from their early years of collaboration. Hill is only 30 or so and he is/was still kind of the bigger star at that point you could say. Also this film is more western heavy than most of their future works that took place in the (then) now. Or films that only included Spencer in the lead and another actor sometimes being co-lead. This one here has two friends of Spencer’s character coming to help him in the second half of the film. We do not really find out anything about those. That did feel unusual. I mean his characters often make friends during the movies, but with good acquaintances from the past showing up, this one here is pretty much an exception.

Unfortunately, I would not say this film is one of my very favorites starring (either of) the duo. It gets a bit weaker in the second half, especially in terms of the fun component. But still an alright watch. I also quite like westerns, but yeah despite the dust and the gunfire etc., something was missing here for the outcome to turn into a true quality western. It was these small moments like what I mentioned earlier that an elaboration on where they got their nicknames from (other than being really fast shooters) would have been a welcome addition, maybe even through some kick-ass flashback or so. Also the antagonist, while not entirely weak or boring, did not impress me too much I gotta admit. And his huge quantity of followers and aides was just there. We do not find out anything about them specifically sadly. The two killers, even if they were gone so quickly, were still memorable and had an aura of 007 to them, especially the silent one. Getting in a gang of Mexican gangsters as additional antagonists was alright, but when they basically joined forced with the main antagonist, they also turned into nothing but forgettable aides. However, when our two heroes pose as these gangsters and take way more cattle with them than they were allowed to (actually, they weren’t allowed to at all of course), it made for some solid comedy. It was these individual scenes that I liked the most about this movie. Another very brief individual moment I can quote here is when Spencer uses a particular derogatory term for the main antagonist’s helpers. Something like chicken thieves, so it they understand that their criminal energy does not scare him one bit. And one of them stands up and asks him to repeat the word and he is outraged and well, I shall stop explaining this scene now. You have to watch it for yourself. It was hilarious I think. More hilarious than our two champs joking about the fact that they don’t need help from each other if one of them is facing only three bad guys at the same time. That was okay though too. Not everyone can be a huge winner.

So it is the fun component through which the film delivers more than really the plot and story and drama. Oh and Hill’s light blue eyes of course shine as brightly as it gets. I can very well imagine all kinds of women falling for him. No surprise he was still considered a bigger prospect than Spencer back then. Nice name for Spencer’s character here though. Great irony. The perhaps funniest moment of the entire movie was a little joke about the two protagonists‘ mother and her promiscuity and age. I will not get further into detail or use the exact word because then maybe imdb won’t allow my review. But that was fun. Also Spencer’s character’s anger directed at his brother was hilarious. How he will simply not leave. Or the final scene when Hill’s character finds out that having two women (or more) may be nice, but it comes with a huge price and boom he is gone. See, he can walk away quickly. He just does not want to when it comes to walking away from Spencer’s character. The whistling here was typical western stuff on some occasions. Another funny addition was how the bad guys end up reconsidering their choices because there is an unexpected gun barrel in their backs or right behind them. That was funny. One thing that must be said here is that this is indeed very different compared to future stuff by Spencer and Hill. This already becomes obvious through the fact that people are shot and killed here, also in a more playful manner when they fall out of a window afterwards so we don’t see the corpse, but only find out about it while listening to conversations, but still. In later movies, the bad guys get beaten up constantly, but nobody is severely injured. A bit rougher this one, also in terms of a story we hear from Spencer’s character about how he even ended up as sheriff. It may have been an accidental killing, but it still was a killing. Then again, this proxy sheriff (even if his motives were not pure, but criminal as well) is the best thing that could have happened to these settlers. Very early on, you would not have guessed that he is not really such a good guy and that Hill actually plays the good guy here, even if the latter’s reputation is apparently not a secret looking at how those headhunters react when they hear his name in the very first scene.

One more funny thing: When we see the two leads train the innocent and harmless men of God, they accidentally beat them up because they react too slowly to defend themselves. Now that was typical Spencer/Hill comedy, just like the massive brawl scene at the very end that is finally gunless as we know it from them and all the bad guys get punched and their boss in the end agrees basically to move to another state. Overall, this was a good film, but looking at how it is apparently one of the most known and best-received Spencer/Hill films (after all these years, it’s also still frequently on TV as it was today), I cannot say I really agree. There’s other stuff starring the duo (and Spencer solo too) that I prefer. Still, not really any hesitation for me in giving this one a thumbs-up. I just wish this could have stayed as good in the second hour as it was in the first. It does not. Hopefully though, things can get a little better again with the sequel that was released not much later and features the two same characters again. And hopefully Bud gets to eat more beans in that one too because here it is mostly Hill who stays memorable for that with the fairly funny scene very early on, but hey look at their proportions. They need to fix that. Oh yeah, I must also mention the song you hear at the very beginning and end. Had to add it to my MP3 player. So nice and catchy. Tarantino agrees. Okay, that is all. Go watch this movie, just don’t expect a Sergio Leone movie. This one here is a completely different approach: more comedy, but also certainly possible to appreciate it. Recommended and of course it is also once again nice to see Riccardo Pizzuti in here. He has almost no material in here, but is once again very easy to identify playing one of the bad guys as usual. Pizzuti has appeared in so many Bud Spencer films, also long after the western days. Even nicer to see he is still alive at the time I am writing this review. I hope it stays that way for a little longer. Same thing I am wishing for when it comes to Terence Hill obviously. Definitely a hero from my childhood. That would be all.