Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West Review

And ill-fated western with an obscure genesis. It’s listed by some sources as a 1962 production, but according to director Mario Costa filming started in March ‘63, which still makes it one of the earliest Italian western productions from the sixties. Due to a conflict with his producers, Costa lost six precious weeks and for some reason the film was not released before the end of next year, November 1964 (1). In the meantime Leone had redefined the European western and in Italy nobody was interested in a heroic story about the Great Buffalo Hunter and friend of all Indians. The film did better abroad, where it probably wasn’t identified as an Italian western. In has gained some notoriety for a series of incidents happening on the set, resulting in Mario Brega’s right hook breaking Gordon Scott’s nose. More about this later.

Even if director Mario Costa calls himself John Fordson and the main character is a traditional American hero (whose legacy belongs as much to history as to folklore), the movie owes little to Hollywood. It feels more like an Italian effort to create some kind of Karl May western. It’s largely set in and around a cavalry fort, but Gordon Scott’s Buffalo Bill acts more like Old Shatterhand than any of the characters Audy Murphy played in his cavalry westerns. The story offers the usual conspiracy of a greedy white villain and a renegade Indian, in this case a ruthless arms dealer hungry for gold, and a Sioux warrior, thirty for liquor. William Cody, alias Buffalo Bill, is ordered, by no other than president Grant, to find out why the great Sioux chief Wise Fox has broken the peace treaty he had signed shortly before. He’s soon on the right trail, but then the villains kidnap the chief’s daughter and put the blame on the soldiers from the fort …

Costa has claimed that his film was the first real Italian western (from the 60s), but this delay due to a difference with his producers, hurt the film’s chances. Let the man speak for himself: “In the meantime Sergio Leone had realized Per un Pugno di Dollari, a shamesless copy of Yojimbo (…) Buffalo Bill was not released before May ’65. It was a beautifully made, grandiose movie. It also did well at the box-office, but it had arrived second, not first, and therefore never got the praise it deserved (…) Leone was not the great director many people thought he was. He was lucky and his luck simply continued.” (2). Nearly every word is nonsense. Of course Bufalo Bill can’t hild a candle to Fistful, but there were also more films in production in those days, and Leone’s first Dollar movie wasn’t the first Italian western. And there’s more: Buffalo Bill, l’eroe del Far West was released much later than planned. Much later, not just six weeks. What had happened?

Costa had a difference with his producers about filming locations. Costa didn’t like the idea of travelling to ex-Yugoslavia for some outdoor scenes (such as the Indian attack on the fort), but yielded to the pressure. The town scenes were shot in the western town of the Elios studios. The first film shot in the Elios studios, was Albert Band’s The Tramplers, in the summer of ’63. So the scenes for Buffalo Bill were shot later, possible much later, after directors like Sergio Bergonzelli (Jim il Primo) had done some shooting in the interiors of the Elios studios. It looks like Costa had lost his place in the queue due to this six weeks delay. He had lost some of his crew members too: Gordon Scott would also appear in The Tramplers, and Leone hired both Mario Brega (more than just a supporting actor in Costa’s movie) and cinematographer Massimo Dallamo. This must have caused a lot of frustration. After the relatively brief delay, Costa wasn’t able to finish his movie, and when he finally was, it was too late, at least for this (type of) movie (3).

And then the famous punch that broke Scott’s nose. There a various versions of the incident. According to Brega (credited as Richard Stuyvesant) Scott and he didn’t get along very well and eventually came to blows. Others, like assistant-director Gianfranco Baldanello think the fatal blow wasn’t launched during a quarrel, but simply while filming the fistfight in the saloon. Brega had misunderstood an instruction, and instead of blocking a punch, he launched one himself … (4). Those stories are far more interesting than the movie. It is predictable and dull and even lacks the charm of the average sauerkraut western. For a friend of all the Indians, Buffalo Bill kills an awful lot of Indians, if you ask me. Dallamano’s cinematography is great. In another article I have stated that it was Dallamano who created the visual idioms for the spaghetti western along with Sergio Leone in the first two Dollar movies. Buffalo Bill is shot in a more traditional way, but there are a few low angles or otherwise unusual perspectives. The best jokes come from the dubbing department : some of the Indians speak with British accents.

Notes:

(1) There’s a lot of confusion here. Giusti says it was completed in ’64, released in ’65 (he seems to rely on Costa who mentions may ’65 in a interview). Western all’italiana, Bruckner and our database mention 19.11.’64 as release date. Italian author Gianfranco Casadio says 1963. I guess the production was started in March ’63, then delayed and postponed, and completed in 1964. I think Costa is mistaken about the release date.
(2) Marco Giusti, Dizionario del Western all’italiano
(3) Marco Giusti, Dizionario del Western all’italiano, Introduzione p. LXIII (Set e villagi western). See also: p. 557 (Gli Uomini dal Passo Pesante), p. 243 (Jim il Primo). Giusti says Leone also filmed some interiors for A Fistful of Dollars in the Elios studios, but the English and Italian credit sequences only mention Cinecittà.
(4) The link shows Mario Brega telling (and illustrating) his version. The clip is not subtitled, and Brega only spoke Romano, the accent of the city of Rome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYyv0F3R3y4

--By Scherpschutter