''Don't Touch the White Woman!'' (french: Touche pas à la femme blanche !) is a 1974
Western comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
co-written and directed by
Marco Ferreri
Marco Ferreri (11 May 1928 – 9 May 1997) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and actor, who began his career in the 1950s directing three films in Spain, followed by 24 Italian films before his death in 1997. He is considered one of t ...
.
Plot
A fictionalized version of
Custer's Last Stand, set at a real building site in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, France.
Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (28 September 1924 – 19 December 1996) was an Italian film actor, regarded as one of his country's most iconic male performers of the 20th century. He played leading roles for many of Italy's top di ...
stars as
General George Armstrong Custer.
Buffalo Bill Cody
William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), known as "Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but he lived for several years in ...
(
Michel Piccoli
Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide vari ...
) portrays a charlatan media impresario.
Ugo Tognazzi gives a fictional portrayal of
Mitch Bouyer
Mitch Boyer (sometimes spelled 'Bowyer', 'Buoyer', 'Bouyer' or 'Buazer', or in Creole, 'Boye') (1837 – June 25, 1876) was an interpreter and guide in the Old West following the American Civil War. General John Gibbon called him "next to Jim B ...
one of Custer's
Native American scouts, who runs a business selling Native artifacts made in
sweatshops by white women.
Alain Cuny
René Xavier Marie Alain Cuny (12 July 1908 – 16 May 1994) was a French actor of stage and screen. He was closely linked with the works of Paul Claudel and Antonin Artaud, and for his performances for the Théâtre national populaire and Od ...
plays
Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull ( lkt, Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake ; December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance against United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock I ...
who must defend his people when their apartment building homes are destroyed by the Union Cavalry. The film climaxes with the
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Nor ...
held in a large construction excavation where
Les Halles
Les Halles (; 'The Halls') was Paris' central fresh food market. It last operated on January 12, 1973, after which it was "left to the demolition men who will knock down the last three of the eight iron-and-glass pavilions""Les Halles Dead at 200 ...
market once was.
Cast
*
Catherine Deneuve as Marie-Hélène de Boismonfrais
*
Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (28 September 1924 – 19 December 1996) was an Italian film actor, regarded as one of his country's most iconic male performers of the 20th century. He played leading roles for many of Italy's top di ...
as George A. Custer
*
Michel Piccoli
Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide vari ...
as Buffalo Bill
*
Philippe Noiret
Philippe Noiret (; 1 October 1930 – 23 November 2006) was a French film actor.
Life and career
Noiret was born in Lille, France, the son of Lucy (Heirman) and Pierre Noiret, a clothing company representative. He was an indifferent student and ...
as Gen. Terry
*
Ugo Tognazzi as Mitch
*
Alain Cuny
René Xavier Marie Alain Cuny (12 July 1908 – 16 May 1994) was a French actor of stage and screen. He was closely linked with the works of Paul Claudel and Antonin Artaud, and for his performances for the Théâtre national populaire and Od ...
as Sitting Bull
*
Serge Reggiani
Serge Reggiani (2 May 1922 – 23 July 2004) was an Italian-French actor and singer. He was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy and moved to France with his parents at the age of eight.
After studying acting at the Conservatoire des arts cinématog ...
as The Mad Indian
*
Darry Cowl as Major Archibald
*
Monique Chaumette
Monique Chaumette (born 4 April 1927) is a French actress. She appeared in more than forty films since 1958. She was married to Philippe Noiret
Philippe Noiret (; 1 October 1930 – 23 November 2006) was a French film actor.
Life and career
No ...
as Sister Lucie
*
Daniele Dublino asdaughter
*
Henri Piccoli as Sitting Bull's father
*
Franca Bettoia
Franca Bettoia (or Bettoja; born 14 May 1936) is an Italian actress.
Life and career
Born in Rome, she made her first film appearance in ''Un palco all'opera ''(1955, by Siro Marcellini). The following year she appeared in ''Los amantes del de ...
as Rayon de Lune (as Franca Bettoja)
*
Paolo Villaggio
Paolo Villaggio (; 30 December 1932 – 3 July 2017) was an Italian actor, voice actor, writer, director and comedian. He is noted for the characters he created with paradoxical and grotesque characteristics: Professor Kranz, the ultra-timid G ...
as CIA agent
*
Franco Fabrizi as Tom (as Franco Fabrizzi)
*
Laurente Vedres as (as Vedres et Boutang)
See also
* ''
Mr. Freedom''
* ''
Blazing Saddles
''Blazing Saddles'' is a 1974 American satirical western black comedy film directed by Mel Brooks, who also wrote the screenplay with Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Alan Uger. The film stars Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder. ...
''
*
Revisionist Western
*
Cultural depictions of George Armstrong Custer George Armstrong Custer (1839–1876) was a United States Army cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. He was defeated and killed by the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Mor ...
References
External links
*
*
*
1974 films
1974 comedy films
1970s French films
1970s French-language films
1970s Italian films
1970s parody films
1970s satirical films
1970s Western (genre) comedy films
Cultural depictions of Buffalo Bill
Cultural depictions of George Armstrong Custer
Cultural depictions of Sitting Bull
Films directed by Marco Ferreri
Films produced by Alain Sarde
Films scored by Philippe Sarde
Films set in Paris
Films shot in Paris
Films with screenplays by Rafael Azcona
French parody films
French satirical films
French Western (genre) comedy films
French-language Italian films
Italian parody films
Italian satirical films
Italian Western (genre) comedy films
Spaghetti Western films
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