Now They Call Him Sacramento (1972)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Blistering performances.

In the 1970s, the spaghetti western was in a decline, both in the amount that were being made every year, but also in the average quality. "Now They Call Him Sacramento" is proof of the latter, a spaghetti western so bad that it has to be one of the worst ever made. It's a cheap enterprise; evidently 90% of the budget was reserved for the climatic sequence of a western town being destroyed. I'll admit this destruction looks kind of impressive, but the sixty minutes that run before it are extremely threadbare, with tacky production values, such as the evident fact that the Italian filmmakers couldn't afford to shoot in Spain but shot in the green and lush Italian countryside. The rest of the movie is just as bad. The story makes no sense, with characters (a number who are never even named) with confusing motives and alliances. And while the movie aims to be comic, the various gags (including a lot of slapstick fighting) have no grace or comic timing. An AWFUL movie!

Michael Forest teams up with a comedic father and son duo in order to beat a gang of train-robbers out of their loot, only to find out that the money belongs to an all-female collective farm (!), targeted by an unscrupulous banker and his henchmen, the original thieves.Now They Call Him Sacramento is basically an uninspired, low-budget knock-off of My Name Is Trinity and Trinity Is Still My Name, with Fernando Bilbao looking like and blatantly (and obnoxiously) ripping off Trinity co-star Bud Spencer's earlier performances.Made during the declining years of the spaghetti western, this displays all the trademarks I've come to dread about films of this period, things like talky scripts, crumbling western sets, insufferable music, and bone-headed attempts at "comedy". The destructive climax is too little, too late and too corny to be fully enjoyed.

Writer & director Alfonso Balcázar's derivative Spaghetti western "Now They Call Him Sacramento" is loaded with a fistful of laughs and explosions in the tradition of the Terence Hill & Bud Spencer "Trinity" oaters. Michael Forest stars as the title character Sacramento and Fernando Bilbao co-stars as his partner Jim in this superficial but amusing oater about two itinerant gunslingers who ride the outlaw trail in the American southwest with their Hispanic sidekick Tequila (Luigi Bonos)who claims to be Jim's father. Moreover, Tequila claims that he taught them everything that they knew. Our heroes rob the villains who were planning to rob a train so that their unscrupulous boss, the local town banker Mr. Cray (Antonio Molino Rojo of "For a Few Dollars More")cannot foreclose on the ranchers and appropriate their valuable acreage. You can tell that this Italian/Spanish co-production qualifies as a slapstick farce because nobody dies from a gunshot. The cheroot smoking Forest isn't as quite as charismatic as Terence Hill, but Bilbao does a good job of mimicking Bud Spencer, right down to the single, crushing blows that he delivers with devastating result to his opponents. The action opens and closes with the running gag that Sacramento cannot ride his horse because the steed refuses to carry a saddle. Of course, in between these scenes, Sacramento manages to stay astride his horse. Interestingly enough, Luigi Bonos played the guy who cooked Trinity his first skillet of baked beans in "They Call Me Trinity."

This is a serviceable comic spaghetti western which doesn't take itself too seriously. Three bandits rob the train of the settlers' money (allowing their cohort, the evil local banker (is there any other kind in spaghetti westerns?), to seize the settlers' land). Our three not so upright heroes rob the robbers but, needless to say, get distracted by the settlers' womenfolk.When I watched this film my first impression was that it was an absolute rip-off of the Terence Hill/Bud Spencer westerns (i.e. They Call Me Trinity). Only here we have Michael Forest in the laconic never ruffled Terence Hill role and Fred Harrison, bringing his fist down on the top of people's heads, in the Bud Spencer role. Once you get by the comparison you can accept Forest and Harrison's generally good natured approach to the roles. I found Paolo Gozlino to be a bit aggravating as their sidekick but mugging for the camera is an honored practice in spaghetti westerns. Malisa Longo is very attractive, but largely wasted, as the head of the settlers. The three not so bright bandits are played very broadly.There is no surprises in the plot (i.e. the money keeps passing back and forth between the bandits and our heroes). The comedy is more good natured than original (although Michael Forest and his horse should be seen). The movies ends with a rousing 15-20 minute fight/tear the town down scene that will leave spaghetti western fans satisfied.I came across this movie on DVD under the title "Now They Call Him Sacramento" (which isn't a title listed in IMDb). Technical credits on the DVD were excellent.