El blanco, el amarillo y el negro

After Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci is probably Italy's best known spaghetti Western director. Most of his films - that I have watched, some I have not - are quite dour, even gory. In contrast, "Bianco, il giallo, il nero" has some wonderfully comic moments, with Thomas Milian as a Japanese sword-bearing samurai rocking up in the middle of the West to engage in such diverse activities as putting sheriff Eli Wallach to sleep, and giving Giuliano Gemma a lesson in fighting with a sword. The saloon scene with Eli, Giuliano and Thomas dressed as tarty can can dancers is one of the movie's finest slapstick highlights.

It seems to me that the three must have had a great time, notably during the inevitable bar room fight sequence.

Not that the story makes much sense, but the photography is more than adequate for a spaghetti Western, and Milian gets to deliver the most memorable line in the movie when they arrive in an inexplicably empty town. Thinking that it might be due to a religious holiday, Milian points out that "America is full of prostitutes"... meaning Protestants, of course.

The self-parodying approach runs right through the movie. I found it refreshing and at times quite inspired. 7/10.