Doc West (2009)

Terence Hill plays Doc West, who begins trailing two bandits who have made off with some of his gambling money and winds up in the town of Holy Sands, where his quest for justice forces him to confront his past.

These days, he makes his living as a card player, sending part of his winnings to a Boston boarding school to support a young girl named Estrella.

She’s the daughter of a woman who died on his operating table while he was trying to remove a bullet.

He was drunk at the time, and hasn’t picked up a drink or a scalpel since.

The good folks of Holy Sand know he’s more than an expert poker player because of the way he pops a young boy’s dislocated shoulder back into place, by the advice he gives a sheriff to help his aching back and by the remedy he recommends for a woman suffering heart problems.

But there are also bigger problems in Holy Sand — namely a land feud between the Mitchells and the Bakers.

Doc West immediately clashes with the Mitchell men, especially head henchman Garvey.

He’s more sympathetic to the Baker boys.

And he only hangs around Holy Sand because he suspects the outlaw he’s seeking might be somewhere in town.

Review

Paul Sorvino turns in a fine performance as the sheriff caught between the feuding families. Silver is the young boy Doc saves. Maria is the young girl who returns from the East and tries to foster peace between her family (the Mitchells) and the Bakers, partly because she’s falling for Burt Baker.

The film is too trite in spots to be wholly successful. We’ve seen the card tricks and the training to box sequences so many times. And the plot device that forces Doc to take up doctoring again … well, it’s not exactly novel.

But at a time when so many Westerns are simply low-budget crap, this film scores high marks for charm. And it marked the refreshing return of Terence Hill in a role that’s nothing like the slap-stick Spaghetti outings that made him a star.

Apparently, the Italian version of the film is 180 min. and was shown in two parts.

Directed by:
Giulio Base
Terence Hill

Cast:
Terence Hill … Doc West
Paul Sorvino … Sheriff Roy Basehart
Boots Southerland … Nathan Mitchell
Alessio Di Clemente … Garvey
Adam Taylor … Victor Baker
Micah Alberti … Burt Baker
Linus Huffman … Jack Baker
Ben Petry … Silver
Kisha Sierra … Maria
Clare Carey … Denise Stark
Darrian Chavez … Estrella Ramos
Gisella Marengo … Dana Mitchell
Maria Petruolo … MIllie Mitchell

aka:
Minnesota West

Score: Maurizio De Angelis

Runtime: 97 min.

Memorable lines:

Sheriff, of West: “As far as I can tell, he’s a card sharp but not a cheater.
Mitchell: “That ain’t what my men say.”
Sheriff. “Hah. Your men would say my horse drinks out of its behind.”

Silver, a young boy nearly bitten by a copperhead: “That snake, you should have got him in the head.”
Doc West: “Then how could he tell his friends to leave kids like you alone?”
Silver: “You didn’t kill him on purpose?”
West: “Better to change the minds of many than getting rid of just one.”

Multiple residents of Holy Sand: “I thought you left town.”
Doc West: “I did. But now I’m back.’

Linus Huffman as Jack Baker, skeptical of Millie’s plan to bring peace to Holy Sand in Doc West (2009)

Adam Taylor as Victor Baker, the rancher feuding with Nathan Mitchell in Doc West (2009)

Ben Petry as Silver, the young boy Doc West befriends in Doc West (2009)

Gisellas Marengo as Dana Mitchell, the step mom Millie disapproves of in Doc West (2009)

Mercedes Leggett as Gloria, tending bar in Holy Sands in Doc West (2009)

Maria Petruolo as Millie Mitchell, not too upset or surprised to find the Baker boys spying on her bath in Doc West (2009)