''La sceriffa'' (''The Sheriff'') is a 1959 Italian Western comedy in black-and-white, directed by

Roberto Bianchi Montero Roberto Bianchi Montero (7 December 1907 - 7 December 1986) was an Italian actor, director and screenwriter. Life and career Born in Rome, Bianchi Montero started acting as a teenager on stage and he was a member of an amateur theater group w ...

. It stars Italian comedy star

Ugo Tognazzi Ugo Tognazzi (23 March 1922 – 27 October 1990) was an Italian actor, director, and screenwriter. Early life Tognazzi was born in Cremona, in northern Italy but spent his youth in various localities as his father was a travelling clerk fo ...

. It was released on 16 August 1959. The film starred several comedians and spawned a number of western comedies which followed.

Plot

A sheriff is killed and his widow (Tina Pica) takes up his job to find the killers.

Cast

Tina Pica Tina Pica (31 March 1884 – 15 August 1968) was an Italian supporting actress who played character roles on stage. Her film debut came in 1935 with '' The Three-Cornered Hat''. In the 1950s, she became a celebrity thanks to her role as Carame ...

as Carmela Esposito, 'la Sceriffa' *

as Colorado Joe *

Livio Lorenzon Livio Lorenzon (6 May 1923 – 23 December 1971) was an Italian actor who was mainly active during the 1950s and 1960s. Biography He played minor roles in some memorable commedia all'Italiana movies directed by the likes of Dino Risi and ...

as Jimmy Jesse * Tino Scotti as The Judge * Alberto Sorrentino as Brutto Tempo - the Native American * Anita Todesco as Nuvola Rosa - Brutto Tempo's Daughter *

Carlo Pisacane Carlo Pisacane, Duke of San Giovanni (22 August 1818 – 2 July 1857) was an Italian patriot and one of the first Italian socialist thinkers. He argued that violence was necessary not only to draw attention to, or generate publicity for, a c ...

as Nick *

Carlo Sposito Carlo Sposito (1 May 1924 – 9 September 1984) was an Italian character actor, sometimes credited as Carletto Sposito. Born in Palermo, he was among the most active actors in the post-war Italian genre cinema. He was also pretty active on stag ...

as Gennarino - aka Gen * Annie Alberti as Connie Dallas *

Franco Balducci Franco Balducci (23 November 1922 – 7 June 2001) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 75 films between 1947 and 1978. He was born in Umbria, Italy. Selected filmography * '' Bullet for Stefano'' (1947) - Giacomo * ''Tempesta su Pari ...

as Jimmy Jesse's Brother *

Stelio Candelli Stelio Candelli (born 28 March 1931) is an Italian film, stage and television actor. Life and career Born in Trieste, the son of civil servants, in 1954 Candelli enrolled at the Accademia d'Arte Drammatica in Rome, graduating in 1957. The sam ...

as Bruno Carotenuto * Elio Crovetto as Jack - the Texan drunk * Tina De Mola as Dolly - the singer *

Fanfulla Luigi Visconti, better known by his stage name Fanfulla, (26 February 1913 – 5 January 1971) was an Italian actor and comedian. Life and career Born in Rome, Visconti debuted at very young age on stage alongside his mother, the actress Merc ...

as Ciccio - Sceriffa's assistant

Criticism

This is an “inconsequential western that tries in vain to poke fun at relevant American genre films; neither entertaining nor funny.” According to the dictionary of international film. The Italian colleagues complain that the film was shot "with little resources and too hasty", although it could have been "more pleasant with more care and attention". Christian Kessler notes that the director's 23rd film is exemplary of "the comedies of the time that attempted to revitalize the already worn-out ways of the local comedy class by adding genre-parodic elements". The film is "reasonably entertaining" despite the non-transferability of the dialect jokes prevalent in the original.

References

External links

* 1950s Italian-language films 1959 films 1950s Western (genre) comedy films Films directed by Roberto Bianchi Montero Italian black-and-white films 1959 comedy films 1950s Italian films {{1950s-Italy-film-stub