Thursday, March 16, 2017

Lucky Luke

Some older people might remember Lucky Luke the comic book and TV cartoon character who was faster on the draw than his shadow. Terence Hill brings him to life in a 1991 comedy movie I ran across.  It is mostly funny though that stretches a point in a place or two.  The story is narrated by Roger Miller the voice of Luke's horse, Jolly Jumper. Nancy Morgan plays Lotta Legs, the love interest and Ron Carey is Joe, the leader of the Dalton Brothers.

Luke becomes the sheriff of Daisytown and cleans up all the bad guys to the point that the town is soooo boring.  The Daltons try to stir up the Indians by showing them what their country will be like in 100 years - tourists, freeway interchanges, factories pouring out smoke etc.

The Daltons have prices on their heads: Joe at $5000, William $4000, Jack $3000 and Averell $20, marked down to $2. The Indians are deliberately very white, in fact when Prairie dog and Luke shake hands, Luke's arm is quite brown and Prairie Dog's deathly pale.

In true cowboy fashion, Lucky Luke leaves Lotta Legs and Daisytown, riding off into the sunset.

I love Terence Hill's movies.  Especially when he teams up with Bud Spencer in My Name is Trinity and My Name is Still Trinity, made some 20 years earlier than Lucky Luke.  They are truly funny.




I can't find the entire movie on Youtube but this is one scene from They Call Me Trinity.




From a comment on the video clip: Just for the sakes of it these movies were completely Italian, with Italian actors (Terenzo Collina and Bruno Pedersoli AKA Terence Hill and Bud Spencer), interior scenes were all shot in Cinecittà-Roma and in both card trick scenes the hands are of 1970s Italian magician Tony Binarelli :-)


12 comments:

  1. Spaghetti westerns! That's a whole genre unto itself.

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    1. I love Spaghetti Westerns, especially any with Eastwood. The others are pale imitations. But they do make me laugh. Villages are located in absolute barren desert ares with no obvious means of sustenance. There is never a blade of grass and horses are always saddled. The number of people killed in the non-comedies is phenomenal.

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  2. I love spaghetti westerns! Once Upon a Time in the West is my favorite.

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    1. Great movie. Charles Bronson westerns are fabulous.

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  3. he had the bluest eyes and never heard of lucky luke..I do remember Big John and Sparky and the B-B Riders.

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    1. He did have BLUE eyes, didn't he? Like Paul Newman or Mel Gibson

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  4. I don't watch much in the way of TV or movies, but even I have seen Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns. I also used to be a huge Lone Ranger fan as a kid.

    Right now I'm laughing at your comment above, about the towns with no visible means of sustenance. I never even thought of that. Guess I just accepted it as "part of the genre". ;-)

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    1. Yeah, all the action in westerns takes place in towns pretty much. Little mention of cattle in most of them. Cheaper to shoot that way, I guess.

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  5. I've never seen a Lucky Luke comic.

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    1. Maybe the comics were more in Europe?
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Luke

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  6. hehe I had forgotten all about spaghetti westerns, thanks for reminding me! I'm not familiar with Lucky Like, I guess I grew up in the wrong country.

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    1. He was never very famous, like some of the real Western heroes - Roy Rogers, the Lone Ranger etc.

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