Spaghetti Comedies: Seven Guns for the MacGregors/Life is Tough, Eh Providence?

As long as there have been Spaghetti Westerns, there have been spoofs. 1964 saw not only A Fistful of Dollars but Two Gangsters in the Wild West, a comedy starring the popular duo Franco and Ciccio. As the genre repeated itself to the point of exhaustion, parodies proliferated. Many sent up genre tropes, but too many fell back on the slapstick and flatulence formula popularized by Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. Not that audiences cared: They Call Me Trinity and Trinity is Still My Name became Italy's highest-grossing films of all time.

This article considers two of the form's best examples. Seven Guns for the MacGregors (1966) is less comedy than playful romp, and all the better for it. Life is Tough, Eh Providence? (1972) bites off more than it can chew, but generates laughs through sheer absurdity. Those seeking an alternative to Trinity and Bambino's fart parade should check them out.

Seven Guns for the MacGregors (1966, Franco Giraldi)

Leone protege Franco Giraldi directed this early comic Spaghetti. Seven Guns for the MacGregors (1966) provides a lighthearted atmosphere, contrasting with the genre's cynical ultraviolence. It's an enjoyable romp, short on plot but highly entertaining.

The MacGregor clan are Scottish immigrants who make rough-housing a way of life. Early on the family's elder members repulse a raid led by Miguel (Fernando Sancho), a bumbling bandit. The seven younger MacGregors pursue the bandits, who've murdered Perla''s (Perla Cristal) family. Gregor MacGregor (Robert Woods) acts as leader, infiltrating Miguel's gang and finds crooked Santillana (Leo Anchoriz) pulling the strings. The MacGregors usurp Santillana's planned robberies, leading to a bloody showdown.

Seven Guns for the MacGregors gets points for originality, at least. The Scottish characters provide eccentric color, though the effect is decidedly odd. There's something to be said for the surrealism of Italo-Spanish actors dubbed into English with broad Scottish brogues. Not to mention Ennio Morricone's faux-Celtic title ballad, sung in Glasgow-by-way-of-Rome accents!

Fortunately, MacGregors offers much more than unintentional silliness. Girardi goes for good-natured goofiness rather than broad gags. One funny bit has Gregor faking a gunfight with his brothers with Miguel's bandits. In another effective scene, a straight-laced banker says he's never had so much as playing a criminal! The movie plays off genre tropes (especially Manco's shenanigans in For a Few Dollars More) but remains its own work rather than a parody.

Girardi mixes the playfulness with excellent action scenes. The movie opens with an exciting siege, the elder MacGregors using a crank-fired gun rack and a swivel gun named Queen Anne to repel Miguel's bandits. Girardi matches this with several full-blown bar brawls and a finale which cleverly inverts the opening. But MacGregors retains an edge, as Santillana proves his psycho credentials dragging captured enemies through bonfires. It's tongue-in-cheek but serious enough to invest viewers.

Robert Woods makes a stiff but appealing hero. He's more Giuliano Gemma than Clint Eastwood, a straight-laced hero with guile and sardonic humor. Fernando Sancho plays another boorish bandito, but he's overshadowed by the sadistic Leo Anchoriz. That the other Macgregors are fairly nondescript provides a minor damper on a breezy, surprisingly fun flick.

Life is Tough, Eh Providence? (1972, Giulio Petroni)

This oddity came much later in the Spaghetti cycle. Giulio Petroni's associated with darker fare like Death Rides a Horse, so a picaresque comedy is a marked turn. Life is Tough, Eh Providence? is more funny in moments than the whole, but Tomas Milian's clever Charlie Chaplin impression makes it worthwhile.

Bounty hunter Providence (Tomas Milian) hunts the Hurricane Kid (Gregg Palmer) across the Old West, capturing him time and again, only to see the crafty outlaw escape. During their travels the duo match wits with a duplicitous saloon girl (Janet Agren), a rabble of Southern renegades and assorted riffraff. The two team up when they discover crooked Sheriff (Maurice Polli) has conned them out of money.

Providence impresses with its go-for-broke style. There's plenty of slapstick violence, with Providence clobbering villains with umbrella and pool cues, along with more conventional action like a thrilling stagecoach chase. Nor does Petroni shy away from playful anachronism. Early on, when Hurricane disguises himself as Providence, a criminologist sees through the ruse by staging an Old West trivia game. When Providence isn't slugging villains or chattering like a squirrel, he engages in headscratching non-sequitirs. "My mother may not have been all she should, but I pay my taxes," he assures Hurricane.

With its wacky humor and nonexistent plot, Providence is alternately funny and cringe-worthy. Two of the movie's big set pieces - the encounter with Confederate soldiers and especially the long pool game - drag without generating many laughs. Indeed, the repetitive cartoon fights and Looney Tunes-inspired sight gags quickly grow old. Petroni does avoid the scatology of the Trinity films, save an idiotic moment where Hurricane kills a river full of fish with B.O. Providence's style of humor plays better in small doses than at feature length; fortunately, at 95 minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome.

Tomas Milian keeps Providence afloat with a spirited turn. The intense actor lets loose in a role that indulges every ham antic imaginable. Besides his Little Tramp garb and mustache, Milian giggles girlishly, imitates animals (sporting), cold-cocks a villain with his hat brim and sings a romantic ballad. Gregg Palmer makes a decent foil and Janet Agrin plays a crafty femme fatale, but it's Milian's show all the way.

Life is Tough, Eh Providence? earns a cautious recommendation. It's too repetitive to be a classic, but one respects Petroni's overreaching absurdity. Milian revived the character for an even wackier sequel: Here We Go Again, Eh Providence? (1973)