Sonny and Jed (1972)

Tomas Milian plays Jed, a bandit who rides into town one day to trade a piglet for a cow.

But he spots an expensive cigar on the ground outside the barn, a tip-off that an ambush might be waiting.

Sure enough, a longtime nemesis named Franciscus is about to spring a trap.

Jed flees and gets a helping hand from a young girl named Sonny. She hides him in a coffin in the back of her buckboard and smuggles him out of town.

But this isn’t any ordinary young woman. Sonny wants $100 for her trouble.

She plans to buy a gun and become an outlaw just like Jed. In fact, she’d love to tag along with him for a while to learn the trade.

He takes her up on her offer, having her play dead to stop a stage they intend to rob. But when she can’t stand the idea of shooting the passengers, Jed abandons her.

Sonny’s facing a long stint in prison when she lands in the hands of Franciscus, partly because she refuses to tell him where to find Jed.

Jed comes to the rescue of course, and the two begin a successful string of holdups.

Along the way, Sonny falls for the rascal. But Franciscus is still on their trail.

Review:

Wow, it’s hard to believe this comedic mess was directed by Sergio Corbucci, who’s most recent Westerns at that point had included “The Great Silence,” “Django,” “Companeros” and “The Mercenary” – considered among the genres best.

This is far from the best. Oh, it has moments when you’re likely to chuckle. Like when Jed tries to mount his horse while holding two rifles and a bag of loot from the aforementioned stage holdup and finds it impossible.

And like when Sonny and Jed get married, then rob the priest.

Just as often, you’re likely to wonder what Corbucci was thinking. Like when Jed steals a cow and gets thirsty. He halts, lies under the cow and starts sucking on one of its teats while Sonny looks on.

You’re also likely to wonder what she sees in him, an unkempt, brute who puts her down at every turn and orders her to walk three steps behind him, like a dog following its master.

We eventually find out why Franciscus is intent on catching Jed, and making him die a slow death, even after the bounty hunter has lost his vision.

Seems Jed was locked up in a territorial prison when he escaped by setting a fire that killed 12 guards. Franciscus was in command of that prison.

Directed by:
Sergio Corbucci

Cast:
Tomas Milian … Jed Trigado
Susan George … Sonny
Telly Savalas … Sheriff Franciscus
Eduardo Fajardo … Don Garcia Moreno
Rosanna Yanni … Lidia, Don Garcia’s wife
Franco Giacobini … Aparacito
Laura Betti … Dona Aparacito / Irene
Herbert Fux … Merril
Victor Isreal … Felipe

Also with: Alvaro de Luna, Werner Pocath, Dan Van Husen, Gene Collins, Simon Arriaga, Jose Canalejas, Raphael Albaicin, Alvaro de Luna, Lorenzo Robledo, Francesco Arcuri, Lius Aller, Pilar Climent, Mario Talleri, Ruggero Fedozzi, Jose Riesgo

aka:
J. and S. – storia criminale del far west
Bandara Bandits
Far West Story
J&S: Criminal Story of an Outlaw Couple
The Gang of the Far West

Song: “Sonny”
Performed by I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni
Score: Ennio Morricone

Runtime: 92 min.

Memorable lines:

Jed: “If I have to steal to live, I’ll steal. At least when I steal, I do it with a sense of justice … I never steal from anybody who isn’t rich. Besides, what can you steal from a poor man?”

Franciscus, checking out the coffin in Sonny’s buckboard: “Kin?”
Sonny: “My uncle, Jeremy. I’m going to bury him.”
Franciscus: “Why don’t you get a grave digger?”
Sonny: “He was the grave digger.”

Jed, when Sonny demands $100 for sneaking him out of town: “What’s a snot like you going to do with my money?”
Sonny: “I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m gonna get myself a gun and be just like ya.”

Sonny, as the women in the whorehouse haggle over the jewelry he’s stolen: “Whoever invented spaghetti was a genius. He must have made a damn fortune.”

Jed, after Linda has talked about all the bounty hunters likely to be after the $500 reward on his head: “What do I have? A diamond in my ass?”

Franciscus to Jed: “I could put the next bullet between your eyes. But you’re not going to die that easy, punk.”

Jed to Sonny: “You want to be an outlaw, huh? You can’t shoot. You cannot screw. You can’t run. I bet you can’t even spit.”

Jed, as Sonny ponders killing her first man: “I know how you feel, but I was luckier than you. I killed 12 men the first time. Twelve. And you can’t feel for 12 what you feel for one. It’s like love. You remember the first one, but from the second one on, you don’t feel anything because they are pretty much the same.”

Don Garcia’s wife: “Do you always kidnap your women?”
Jed, glancing down at her cleavage: “You’re more than a woman to me. You’re like a shower of milk from heaven.”

Sonny: “Do you hear me? I’m not an animal.”
Jed: “You’re worse. You’re a god-damned female.”

Trivia:

Susan George plays a young woman in this film. In truth, she was 22 when the film was released and had been performing in TV shows and films since being a young teen. The year before, she had starred in Sam Peckinpah’s “Straw Dogs” as Dustin Hoffman’s wife, who is raped in the film’s most controversial scene.

This was one of five Spaghetti Westerns featuring Telly Savalas, a run that began with “Land Raiders” (1969) and ended with “A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die” (1972). The next year, he would become a TV star courtesy of “Kojak.”