It Can Be Done Amigo

Bud Spencer wanders the west, finds time to help a young orphan/landowner targeted by greedy villains, and keeps having his bacon saved by Jack Palance. However, Jack's motives are anything but altruistic, as he blames poor Bud for allegedly deflowering his sister and plans on marrying her off to him before making her a respectable widow!

Lots of Rowdy fights and amusing gags, including the hilarious oil-soaked climax, keep this breezy, lightweight spaghetti western moving along quite nicely.

It Can Be Done... Amigo features what is probably Spencer's best solo performance, apart from his films with frequent on screen partner Terrance Hill, though A Reason To Live, A Reason To Die, which featured him as part of an ensemble cast, was a better film.

Meanwhile, Palance portrays the same black clad, chuckling, chain-smoking weirdo you've come to know and love from a lifetime of similar western roles. Needless to say, fans of these two won't be disappointed.

One thing that I found odd though, was Palance's changing accents. Sometimes he talked using his own voice, other times he spoke with a southern accent, and still others with a Spanish accent!

Coming too late in the Italian Western cycle to get a significant American release, this tiresome Bud Spencer vehicle tries to be picaresque, as the big lug wanders around having borin on-adventures. A cute young boy is thrown in for sentimental value.

In a parallel world where Hollywood big-screen Westerns had not gone out of style, it could have been perhaps a homegrown vehicle for Dan Blocker to provide old-0fashioned family entertainment following his meteoric success starring on tv in "Bonanza". But as ersatz cornball entertainment it comes up as zero.

Despite having a great cameraman Aldo Tonti, who shot epics like "Barabbas" and classics like Fellini's "Nights of Cabiria", it's a mess, with annoying, inappropriate music and even some dubbed dialog that echoes.

Released in 1972 (but not in the USA until 1974), "It Can be Done… Amigo" is an Italian oater starring Ben Spencer as a gentle giant, Coburn, saved from unjust hanging. He becomes the caretaker of a little boy who's the heir of a remote ranch that many people are interested in obtaining for some reason. Jack Palance plays a comical gunfighter/pimp who insists that Coburn marries his nagging sister (Dany Saval) because he was previously intimate with her.

In spirit, but not plot, this is basically an early 70's Euro version of 1963's "McLintock!" Unfortunately it was lost in translation for me. Obviously a lot of effort was put into it, but it failed to engage. It's also marred by the limitations of most Spaghetti Westerns, like dubious dubbing. Plus there should've been more prominent women (Saval is likable, but she just grates on the nerves after a while). Still, the movie's likable; it's just very eccentric, which limits its appeal, but I'll give it another try in a few years.

The film runs 109 minutes and was shot in Almería, Andalucía, Spain.

GRADE: C- (4.5/10 Stars)

Hiram Coburn is not the typical spaghetti western protagonist. He doesn't use a gun, instead opting to pound his opponents silly with his fists, and although he is as powerful as an ox, he is mellow and laid back to an annoying degree. He takes some getting used to, but by the end of the film I found myself liking this character. Jack Palance plays Sonny, an eccentric gunslinger (what Palance does best). He is very entertaining, and I would have liked to have seen more of him in the film. The weirdest thing about him is that his accent keeps changing. Sometimes he sounds like he is from the southeastern US, other times he sounds Mexican, and other times he sounds like he's from Chicago or something. I don't know if this is intentional or not, but it sure is odd, and odd is a good thing in a spaghetti western.

The music score by Bacalov is excellent. It reminds me of some of Morricone's work, which is pretty much the best compliment one could give.

The story is great, and just about the most original one I've ever seen in a spaghetti western. The movie is a comedy, but not to the extent that it becomes completely unbelievable. I may have given this movie a higher rating if I saw it in a more complete, widescreen version. The version I saw, which I assume is the most commonly available, is approximately 98 minutes long if I remember correctly, and it feels like it's been edited somewhat to shorten its length.

All in all, this one's a must-have if you are a spaghetti western nut like me.

I like spaghetti westerns, and I also like Bud Spencer movies. So I thought I would like this spaghetti western starring Bud Spencer (as well as Jack Palance.) Unfortunately, I have to report that even if you like spaghetti westerns and/or Bud Spencer, chances are you'll find this movie a bore like I did. The movie has very little story, and it moves at an unbelievably slow crawl. The comedy is mostly lame, though Bud's instant charisma lifts the humor from level zero, even though Bud seems to be doing this movie in his sleep. Jack Palance gnashes his teeth so much that he seems to be in pain doing this movie. And the director often shoots the actors so that the tops of their heads are cut off at the top of the screen! (The pan-and-scan presentation of the movie makes things even worse.) Not recommended.