The four brutes — played by Ettore Bruno, Dino Cassio, Gianni Zullo and Aldo Maccione — arrive out West to visit their uncle.
But their timing couldn’t be worse. As they march down the street, a gunfight is raging between lawful elements in town and a gang led by an outlaw named Slim, who’s just had the sheriff hanged.
Ignorant of the carnage around them, mistakenly thinking the gunfire is some sort of celebration of their arrival, the brutes pull out their pistols and start firing into the air.
And, miraculously, they wind up wiping out most of the bad guys, though Slim escapes.
Their uncle doesn’t. He dies in the hail of bullets, but the brutes wind up inheriting his funeral home. Which should be quite profitable, they’re told, since lots of people die in these here parts.
Well, that’s the chance Mabel (Emma Penella) and Tom Callahan (Darry Cowl) have been waiting for — the presence of four useful idiots to help them double cross Slim.
Emma hires the brutes to take a coffin to Fresno, Calif., for burial. What they don’t know is that the coffin will contain a very live Tom Callahan. With all the earnings from Slim’s thievery stashed in a false bottom.
The four brutes — Ettore Bruno, Dino Cassio, Gianni Zullo and Aldo Maccione — frightened by gunfire as they arrive in town in The Magnificent Brutes of the West (1964)
Alfredo Mayo as Slim, counting the profits from his thievery in The Magnificent Brutes of the West (1964)
Review:
If you’re interested in watching four comedians make like the Three Stooges for nearly two hours in a Western setting, here’s your chance.
But I sure as hell wouldn’t recommend it. Anticipate tons of silliness and overlong scenes. It takes this quartet 44 minutes of film time to get in a wagon bound for Fresno.
How gullible are our heroes? Mabel convinces them Tom’s corpse looks so alive because of Sioux medicine she’s obtained. But that to keep him looking that way, they’ll have to let fresh air into the coffin frequently on the way to Fresno.
One of the funnier gags is replicated on the poster above as the brutes pretend to be a totem pole in order to avoid marriage to four Blackfeet sisters. That’s the alternative to being burned at the stake after they’re captured by Indians.
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart is the marshal on the trail of Slim and the stolen money. Naturally, he also falls for Mabel. Spaghetti fans will spot several other familiar faces in minor roles.
Emma Penella as Mabel, explaining how the corpse she’s shipping to Fresno will occasionally need fresh air in The Magnificent Brutes of the West (1964)
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart as Sheriff Gary Smith, on the trail of missing loot, a bandit and a pretty lady in The Magnificent Brutes of the West (1964)
Directed by:
Marino Girolami
Cast:
Ettore Bruno … Artie
Dino Cassio …. Lee
Gianni Zullo … Johnny
Aldo Maccione … Pep
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart … Sheriff Gary Smith
as J.R. Stuart
Emma Penella … Mabel
Darry Cowl … Tom Callahan
Alfredo Mayo … Slim
as Alfred Mayor
Eugenio Galadini … Uncle Sal Capone
as Jim Bathlan
Julio Pena … Fresno sheriff
Ermelinda De Felice … Indian woman
as Erme Lind
Also with … Carroll Brown, George Steel, Albero Cevenini, Ignazio Spalla, Doris Clay, Paul Otho, David Dimple, Marco Mariani, Eddy Flanaghan, French Sweet, Nello Pazzafini, Ervin Zacary
Runtime: 98 min.
Music … Francesco De Masi
aka:
Badmen of the West
I magnifici Brutos del West
Los brutos en el Oeste
The four brutes — Ettore Bruno, Dino Cassio, Gianni Zullo and Aldo Maccione — eager to help a lovely lady in her moment of grief in The Magnificent Brutes of the West (1964)
Darry Cowl as Tom Callahan, about to travel to Fresno as a corpse in The Magnificent Brutes of the West (1964)
Memorable lines:
Sorry, I watched a non-English version of this film.
The four brutes — Ettore Bruno, Dino Cassio, Gianni Zullo and Aldo Maccione — turned undertakers preparing for a wagon ride to Fresno in The Magnificent Brutes of Texas (1964)
Eugenio Galadini as Uncle Sam Capone, about to meet his maker in The Magnificent Brutes of the West (1964)
Trivia:
Five singers joined forces to form what became the Italian musical comedy team I Brutos in the late 1950s. They released more songs than movies (5) and this marked their only Western. Ettore Bruno, Gianni Zullo and Aldo Maccione had been original members of what originated as a quintet. Dino Cassio joined the I Brutos the same year this movie was released.
This marked the only Euro Western for Emma Penella, who began a long career as a screen and TV actress in the early 1950s. Spaghetti fans will be much more familiar with her younger sister Elisa Montes. They starred with their third sister, Terele Pavez, in the 1963 Italian crime film La cuarta ventana.
The four brutes trying to communicate with a Blackfoot warrior who stops their wagon in The Magnificent Brutes of the West (1964)
Alfredo Mayo as Slim, threatening to slice up Mabel if she doesn’t comply with his demands in The Magnificent Brutes of the West (1964)
One of the Indian brides entices her brute to do a striptease in The Magnificent Brutes of the West (1964)
Two of the brutes trying to figure out the logistics of a funeral trip to Fresno in The Magnificent Brutes of the West (1964)
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