User Reviews

A comedy western but one that verges on the surrealist. Certainly a far cry from the dependable fare put out by Spencer and Hill. Tomas Milian plays this bizarre playboy bounty hunter who keeps turning in the same criminal for a cash reward in each of the states. The guys bumble along for a while before coming up some real opposition in the form of a corrupt sheriff. The humour and jokes don't generally work too well although there are a couple of inspired 'live action cartoon' type gags that do.

"Death Rides A Horse" director Giulio Petroni's "Life Is Tough, Eh Providence?" is a slapstick Spaghetti western comedy that is nothing like his other westerns. Genre stalwart Tomas Milian plays a mustached bounty hunter named Provvidenza. He reminded me of a Cuban version of Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp character. He wears his hat so low that he crimps his ears with comic results. He speaks with a weird nasal lisp and appears incredibly buffoonish in his elaborate suit and tie with gloves. The gloves have holes in them. He travels around the west in a modified Wells Fargo stagecoach. Petroni orchestrates one extended humorous scene with Provvidenza exploiting all his outlandish gadgetry in an effort to thwart a posse riding hard on his heels. At one point, he kindles an endless plume of black smoke, and those pursuers emerge from the smoke looking like minstrels. Of course, this joke is no longer politically correct, but in its day it was almost inspired. Then to add insult to injury, he launches one pie after another at them. Watch out, this coach features more gimmicks than James Bond's Aston-Martin. Paunchy American character actor Greg Palmer of "Big Jake" co-stars with Milian in his silly frontier saga. He plays a thick-headed outlaw called 'the Hurricane Kid.' Six scenarists, including Franco Castellano, Günter Ebert, Antonino Marino, Giuseppe Moccia, Antoinette Pellevant , and Piero Regnoli, along with Petroni himself have fashioned a lowest common denominator comedy along the lines of the "Trinity" movies. Palmer makes a perfect Bud Spencer type, while Milian hams it up as an umbrella-toting bounty hunter who wields a derringer with deadly accuracy. He may look small, but he is pretty sharp. He displays his vast knowledge and his uncanny ability to count money just by the feel of it. While they are playing everything for laughs, Petroni and company appropriate the plot from Leone's "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" as Providence brings Hurricane in for the reward money and then engineers Hurricane's subsequent escape so they can pull the same stunt again. "Life Is Tough, Eh Providence?" appears to have been lensed in Italy rather than Spain since we never see any of those distinctive Spanish mountains that loom up around Almeria. In other words, most everything looks lush and green.

Tomas Milian plays a character like you've never before seen him as in a Spaghetti western. Mind you, he is heroic as well as scheming, but he is never murderous or ravenous. Gregg Palmer and he actually have chemistry. Incredibly, this heavily contrived but clever oater boasts a musical score performed by the great Ennio Morricone. The soundtrack has a comic sensibility to it, and it is a catchy tune that accentuates the silly comedy. There are some interesting gags, especially the game of pool. Lenser Alessandro D'Eva captures everything evocatively with his widescreen compositions, while "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" editor Nino Baragli makes the pool scenes look and sound snappy. Difficult as it is to believe this hilarious farce actually spawned a sequel the following year in director Alberto D. "Here We Go Again, Eh Providence?" Milian and Palmer both reprised their roles. Italian tough guy stunt man Giovanni Cianfriglia plays a card-sharp thug who is roundly trounced in that hilarious pool tournament with Providence. Mind you, only fans of the Marx Brothers will appreciate a gag about tw0-third of the way through the film that is a variation on a Frank Tashlin gag from "A Night in Casablanca." Harpo is leaning against a building when a French policeman asks him if he (Harpo) thinks he is holding up the building. Harpo nods with an impish grin, steps away from the building, and the edifice collapses. Hurricane is leaning against a tree when Provvidenza asks him a similar question. Hurricane steps away from the tree, and it keels over and hits the ground. Altogether, "Life Is Tough, Eh Providence?" shows not only Tomas Milian playing a character other than an illiterate Mexican peon, but also director Giulio Petroni in an entirely different light. "Death Rides A Horse" and "Tepepa" (which also starred Milian) were serious, violent oaters, whereas "Life Is Tough, Eh Providence?" is as light-hearted as it is light-headed. As Italian horse operas go, this nimble farce serves up more laughs than most, but only Spaghetti western completists may want to suffer through its shenanigans. American Spaghetti western fans can find this movie on an 8-pack from Echo Bridge Entertainment simply entitled Spaghetti westerns.