Tomas Milian is back as the ingenious bounty hunter Providence, but he’s hit sort of a rough patch. Bounties seem to be plummeting.
Then he learns an old friend named the Hurricane Kid (Gregg Palmer) is on trial. If he can only get Hurricane convicted, sentenced to death, then help him escape, the bounty on Hurricane’s head should skyrocket.
Providence manages that, only to have his plan ruined by an amnesty bill. So he takes a long weekend, giving Hurricane time to get in trouble again.
That’s when a beauty named Countess Pamela de Ortega enters his life. Providence rescues her from drowning, falls in love with her, then steams his way to Wisconsin in a steam-powered contraption to meet her father.
But winning Pamela’s hand in marriage won’t be easy. Her father owes a $500,000 debt to a cavalry officer named Barton. If Providence doesn’t come up with the money in a week, the officer gets Pamela for a wife.
With Pamela as an incentive, Providence joins forces with Hurricane and turns to a life of crime.
Not as good as the original Providence film, but it’s still much better than most Spaghetti comedies. And I dare anyone to avoid smiling when Providence’s mode of transportation shows up on screen for the first time.
Tomas Milian carries the film, of course, looking even more like Charlie Chaplin than the first time around. Gregg Palmer makes for a solid comic sidekick, and Carole Ande lights up the screen, though she disappears for a large portion of the film.
Among the funniest scenes are a series of challenges between a gunfighter played by Federico Boido and Providence. Among the funniest lines is a nun at the Jesse James Foundation for Retired Bandits telling an aging gunman named Trinity that he must clean his hands before eating.
If the film has a drawback, it’s the over-reliance on large, choreographed scenes that keep getting more and more outrageous.
Directed by:
Alberto De Martino
Cast:
Tomas Milian .. Providence
Gregg Palmer … The Hurricane Kid
Carole Ande … Countess Pamela de Ortega
Luciano Catenacci … Count de Ortega
Manuel Gallardo … Captain Barton
Yu Ming Lun … Chiao
Angel Ortiz … Sergeant
Federico Boido … Blonde shotgun
as Rick Boyd
Dante Maggio … Judge
Ettore Geri … Trading Post owner
Cesare Nizzica … Vito Escolone
Luigi Antonio Guerra … Vito’s messenger
Carla Mancini … Hospice nun
Runtime: 125 min.
aka:
Ci risiamo, vero Provvidenza?
Here We Are Again, Providenza
Another Try, Eh Providence?
Music: Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai
Memorable lines
Judge to The Hurricane Kid: “You are hearby charged with the following — armed robbery of the bank in Yuma, settin’ fire to Fort Worth, hittin’ an officer of the jaw with a bottle, rustlin’ in Tuscon usin’ a pornographic branding iron, holdin’ up the Denver stage, destruction of a saloon in Sacramento, illegal entry and burglary of the Fresno gambling hall … I sentence you to 140 years, six months and 32 days.”
Hurricane Smith: “Why’d you have me sentenced to death?”
Providence, after shooting the rope from which Hurricane was hanging: “How else could I have saved you?”
Nun, at the Jesse James Foundation for Retired Bandits: “Trinity, how many times must I tell you? You must wash your hands before eating.”
Providence: “When I read my horoscope this morning, it said to exercise, to be happy, to have faith in the future and I will have a very nice encounter.”
Whereupon, Providence and Hurricane encounter Blackfoot Indian tracks.
Hurricane Smith: “What are they going to do now?”
Providence: “Can’t you guess? We are two prisoners in a fort, standing up against a wall. In front of us, there are a dozen soldiers with guns pointed at us. Idiot. What do you think they’re going to do?”
Hurricane: “Kill us.”
Providence: “You’re very clever.”
Providence: “When you’re in an awkward plight
“And no rescue is in sight
“Who’s around to save you salsa?
“No one but …”
Hurricane and Chiao; “Providenca!”
Trivia:
This was the sequel to 1972’s “Life is Tough, Eh Providence?” In that film, we met Tomas Milian ingenious, mischievous Charlie Chaplin like character Providence and Hurricane Smith, the small-town outlaw he captures, turns in for a bounty, then rescues, repeating the process over and over again as they travel from state to state.
Lovely Carole André was just 20 when this film was released and had already appeared in two Spaghetti Westerns, “Death Rides Alone” and “Face to Face” (both 1967). She also appeared in 1973’s “White Fang.” Tom Betts of Westerns … All’Italiana! reports that she later quit acting, attended Harvard Business School and opened a public relations firm in Rome.