Terrible Sheriff (1962)

Walter Chiari is Bull Bullivan and Raimondo Vianello is his brother Jonathan, wandering shysters who figure Golden City might be the perfect spot to find some unsuspecting victims.

But they arrive in Golden City to find a town cowering in fear thanks to a bandit known as Black Boy.

And Black Boy is working for Mayor Fats Missouri as part of a plan to chase residents away and get them to sell their land cheap because Golden City sits on an oil field.

A bit of time in the mayor’s crooked saloon, and the Bullivan brothers walk out penniless.

But one meal of the chickens a local farmer has been drugging with a special tonic provide the brothers with superhuman strength. Not to mention courage they don’t otherwise possess.

In fact, it might turn them into the heroes needed to wrest Golden City from the corrupt mayor’s grip.

As long as the Bullivans stay away from beer, an antidote that will rob them of the strength and courage that comes from eating albino chickens from Sacramento.

Walter Chiari as Bull Bullivan, shocked by the disappearance of Black Boy in Terrible Sheriff (1962)

Raimondo Vianello as Jonathan Bullivan, trying to help his brother cheat at cards in Terrible Sheriff (1962)

Review:

A fairly entertaining comedy Western that features a corpse that won’t stay put, a villain with a toothache and two likeable leads.

It also features one of the more bizarre gunfights you’ll find in a Western as Bull and Jonathan square off against two of the mayor’s henchmen with shovel blades.

As bullets whiz their way, the brothers use the shovels like tennis rackets, batting them right back at the bad guys.

There’s also a running gag featuring an ambush party watching for the Bullivans that keeps ambushing the wrong approaching riders.

Maria Silva and Licia Calderon play the pretty young ladies who wander the streets looking for donations to clean up Golden City and wind up intertwined with the Bullivan boys.

Licia Calderon as Suzanne and Maria Silva as Clementine wonder what the Bullivan boys are up to in Terrible Sheriff (1962)

Aroldo Tieri as Fats Missouri, nursing another sore tooth in Terrible Sheriff (1962)

Directed by:
Alberto De Martino
and Antonio Momplet

Cast:
Walter Chiari … Bull Bullivan
Raimondo Vianello … Jonathan Bullivan
Aroldo Tieri … Fats Missouri
Licia Calderon … Suzanne
Maria Silva … Clementine
Antonio Molino Rojo … Smith
Felix Fernandez … Barnun, chicken farmer
Antonio Vico .. Macister, hotel owner
Rafael Luis Calvo … Tornado
Miquel del Castillo … Card player
Fernando Hilbeck … Black Boy
Alfonso Rojas … Dice game player
Claude Marchant … Bailarin
Emilio Rodriguez … Missouri henchman

Also with: Antonio Padilla, Maruja Tamayo, José Riesgo, José Villasante, Xan das Bolas, Pedro Fenollar, Ángela Pla, Venancio Muro, Claude Marchant, Bruno Scipioni, Juan Cazalilla, María Pinar, Belinda Corel, Jose Luis Galicia

Runtime: 91 min.

aka:
Due contro tutti
Two Against All

Music: Gianni Ferrio, Manuel Parada
Songs: “The Bullivans,” “Cotton Twist”

Antonio Vico as Macister, owner of a hotel that’s nothing but a facade in Terrible Sheriff (1962)

Aroldo Tieri as Fats Missouri with his top henchman, Antonio Molino Rojo as Smith in Terrible Sheriff (1962)

Memorable lines:

Bull Bullivan, after Jonathan summons a horse with a whistle and they hop aboard: “He’s not moving.”
Jonathan, in explanation: “He’s a one-person horse.”

Bull Bullivan, as he and Jonathan, carrying shovels, approach two bullies: “Guns against shovels. This showdown will become famous in the history of the West.”
And then they use the shovels like tennis rackets, batting the bullets back at the bad guys.

Fats Missouri: “Who will warn them?”
Smith: “Pink Jim.”
Fats: “Wasn’t he Red Jim?”
Smith: “Yeah, but he’s old and his color has faded.”

Maria Silva as Clementine, Walter Chiari as Bull and Licia Calderon as Suzanne when Black Boy makes an apparent return from the dead in Terrible Sheriff (1962)

Walter Chiari as Bull Bullivan and Raimondo Vianello as brother Jonathan find more strangeness in Golden City in Terrible Sheriff (1962)

Trivia:

Raimondo Vianello married actress Sandra Mondaini the same year this film was released. They appeared in several comedies together and in a long-running comedy series — “Casa Vianello” — on Italian TV about their domestic adventures.

Licia Calderon appeared in just one other Euro Western, 1968’s “I Want Him Dead.” But she later married actor Jesus Puente, a supporting actor in more than a dozen such films, including “Apache Fury” (1964) and “Adios Gringo” (1965).