Saturday, 18 September 2021 19:26

Cannon, The





THE CANNON

Italy, 1975, 100 minutes, Colour.
Paul L. Smith, Michael Coby, John Ireland, Woody Strode.
Gianfranco Parolini.

The Cannon is yet another spaghetti western. The different is that the leads called Paul Smith and Michael Coby are imitations of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. They do not match the originals with their humour even though they look alike, act in similar ways and perform humorous and knockabout tricks.

The material is conventional - the knockabout heroes are set up by the American government to track down gun-smugglers to Mexico. There are gambling sequences, action sequences, humorous riding and fights. Needless to say, the two friends discover the process of the smuggling of the guns and the Americans come in and save the day. The Terence Hill look-alike is the smart one - setting up his slow-witted friend for prison, making him think he has killed a guard, getting him to escape so that he can help him in his mission. There is, as always, colourful scenery and, this time, a song in English for the theme. Neither better nor worse than so many others of its kind - but showing the long popularity of the spaghetti western and the propensity of the Italian film industry to ape American styles and themes.

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