Buffalo Bill (1964) User Reviews (11)

This regular Western contains a story full of emotion , adventure , thrills , crossfire and Indian attacks

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 8 March 2017]

Light as well as colorful mini-biopic about the mythical hero taking on Indians and Cheyenne chief Yellow Hand . This ¨Buffalo Bill¨ by Mario Costa boasts a nice Italian/German cast with Hans Von Borsody , Roldano Lupi , Mario Brega , Ingeborg Schöner , Mirko Ellis as Yellow Hand and Gordon Scott as Buffalo Bill . This is an entertaining chronicle of the noted frontier explorer , nowadays as an Army high officer . A simple story of William "Buffalo Bill" F. Cody (Gordon Scott) , legendary westerner , whose adventures made him a hero , this is a fictionalized account of the life and career from his days as an army Major . Buffalo confronts renegade Indians , and smugglers (Mario Brega) who are selling weapons . Bill must battle hostile Indians and some outlaws intent on gunrunning . As Buffalo Bill is sent to stop the arms trading and avert an Indian war led by Chief White Fox (Fiodor Chaliapin) . Along the way Bill delivers justice by confronting nasties and brawls at the Gold Dust saloon , whose owner is the suspicious Monroe (Jan Hendriks) . Later on on , there occurs his famous fight against ¨Yellow Hand¨ (Mirko Ellis).

Average Pasta Western plenty of shots , go riding , assaults , up and downs pace , thrills and passable direction . However , it results to be a very mediocre Spaghetti-Schnizel Western mostly produced by Italy and German secondary participation ; it doesn't follow the Sergio Leone wake and being proceeded in American style . Being emotionally right on the mark and there's precious action . The film packs shootouts , noisy action , high body-count and overwhelming Indian attacks . It's a thrilling western with spectacular outdoors and breathtaking confrontation among badly-dressed Indians and soldiers . Acceptable action sequences with rousing Indian attacks against a Yankee fort and little realistic shootouts . The picture has a decent Mise-En-scene with bustling battles , so-so production design , spectacular outdoors and moving score by Carlo Rustichelli . Lousy cinematography filmed by Massimo Dallamano who also directed Westerns , being necessary a right remastering ; filmed on locations in Colmenar Viejo , La Pedriza, Manzanares el Real (Madrid) , as usual , and El Lacio , Rome , Italy . The motion picture was middlingly directed by Mario Costa , under pseudonym , J. W. Fordson . He was a craftsman who directed several adventure movies "Cavalier in Devil's Castle" , "Conqueror of Corinth" , ¨The son of the sheikh ¨, ¨The black pirate¨ ,"Gladiator of Rome" , "Karim, the Sheikh's Son" , "The Queen of the Pirates" , ¨The kings of France¨ and Westerns as ¨La Belba¨ and "Buffalo Bill, Hero of the West" ; many of them starred by Gordon Scott .

Other films about ¨Buffalo Bill¨ are the followings : ¨Battling with Buffalo Bill¨ (1931) by Ray Taylor with Tom Tyler , ¨The Plainsman¨ (1936) by Cecil B. De Mille with Gary Cooper , James Ellison , Jean Arthur , and the best ¨Buffalo Bill¨ by William A. Wellman with Joel McCrea , Thomas Mitchell , Mauren O'Hara and Anthony Quinn as Yellow Hand . Furthermore , ¨Buffalo Bill in Tomahawk Territory¨ by Bernard Ray with Clayton Moore , Chief Thundercloud ; ¨Buffalo Bill rides again ¨ (1947) by Bernard Ray with Richard Arlen , "Seven Hours of Gunfire" (65) by Joaquin Romero Marchent with Rik Van Nutter as Buffalo Bill Cody , Adrian Hoven as Wild Bill Hickok and Gloria Milland as Calamity Jane and the historical pastiche as well as perennial underrated ¨Buffalo Bill and the Indians¨ (76) by Robert Altman with Paul Newman who appears as a charlatan and shameless exemplar of encroaching imperialism .

Gordon Scott's second of three Westerns

[Wuchakk · 6/10 · 28 January 2017]

Released in 1965 and directed by Mario Costa, "Buffalo Bill, Hero of the West" stars Gordon Scott as the title character who is commissioned to avert an Indian war by stopping renegade Indians, led by Yellow Hand (Mirko Ellis), who are illegally sold guns by Big Sam Donaldson (Mario Brega). Roldano Lupi plays the rigid colonel of the local fort and Ingeborg Schöner his beautiful daughter while Feodor Chaliapin Jr. plays Chief White Fox and Catherine Ribeiro his daughter, Silver Moonray.

Gordon Scott's acting career only lasted a dozen years from 1955-1967. He was tall with a lean waist but with muscular bulk and a likable, almost innocent disposition (think Brendan Fraser with big muscles). He's perhaps best known for playing Tarzan six times in as many years from 1955-1960, but also known for sword & sandal roles, like Goliath, Samson, Remus and Hercules. I was curious to see how he'd do in a Western and was pleasantly surprised.

While this is a Spaghetti Western, it was made in 1964 and Sergio Leone's Man With No Name trilogy was just starting to skyrocket to popular success. As such, don't expect the items usually associated with Spaghetti Westerns, except badly dubbed dialogue, Spanish locations substituting for the American West and Spaniards playing Native Americans. Beyond these factors, this is more akin to American Westerns, like John Wayne ones and, of course, 1944's excellent whitewashing of the same Western icon, "Buffalo Bill," where Joel McCrea played the hero. Unlike that movie, which is biopic, this version is a slice-in-the-life of Buffalo Bill. Actually, the character of Yellow Hand was taken from that earlier movie, being based on the real-life Cheyenne chief Yellow Hair whom Cody shot, stabbed and scalped three weeks after Little Big Horn (!), or so he claimed.

At any rate, this ain't no cheapo flick. Yes, the Native dialogue is a tad stereotypical, but that was typical at the time and it's not as bad as you would think, like, for instance, in Elvis' "Flaming Star" (1960). The locations and sets are excellent, such as the Western town and the fort; and the costuming is quite good as well. On top of all this, Scott shines as the winsome protagonist and you'll find yourself rooting for him and his sidekick. Not to mention the two women are quite fetching. The only problem I had with this movie is the poor dubbing and the washed-out (non) colors of the public domain DVD I viewed. To add insult to injury it's a pan & scan version where one person talking in a scene might be totally off camera but, thankfully, I only really noticed that in one scene near the end. I would love to see a widescreen version with brighter colors.

The movie runs about 90 minutes and was shot in Spain and Elios Studios, Rome.

GRADE: B-

Watchable if unmemorable Winnetou-inspired western

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 12 September 2016]

BUFFALO BILL, HERO OF THE FAR WEST is a typical western that has more in common with the Winnetou films coming out of West Germany than the new-fanged spaghetti westerns that followed in the wake of A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. It stars former Tarzan and peplum actor Gordon Scott as the upstanding titular hero, who must tackle a sinister plot that involves renegade cowboys and ruthless Indians, and offers plenty of bang for your buck.

This is a film which is neither particularly good nor particularly bad. It just sort of exists, and remains watchable thanks to an emphasis on action. The requisite shoot-outs are present and correct, but there's a greater focus on drawn-out and dragged-out slug-fests between Scott and the villains. Mario Brega makes for a great hulking brute and Scott's endless fist fight with him is a highlight, as is the climactic battle. Elsewhere there's time for a little romance and time for a little plotting, alongside the usual trappings of gorgeous scenery and bad dubbing (including that of Scott himself).

Hey ,Buffalo Bill,what did you kill?

[dbdumonteil · 16 July 2016]

A note about Catherine Ribeiro (cast as "Moonbeam" );her film debut was Godard' s "Les Carabiniers" ;in the mid-sixties,she wound up in this spaghetti western : her acting is quite disastrous, a wig is not enough to make us believe she's an Indian ;Primarily a Chanteuse ,she became a leftist well-respected Latin progressive rock singer,in the seventies ,along with her group "Alpes" ;She was then one of our best French artists - her peak is arguably her 1972 album ,"Paix",which contains her most memorable track " Un Jour La Mort" .

The hero is called "Buffalo Bill ",but they could have chosen Davy Crockett or Hopalong Cassidy or any legendary wild west character;after Tarzan and the sword and sandals flicks,and before becoming ,in the wake of James Bond ,a secret agent ,Gordon Scott (essentially remembered for his part opposite Steve Reeves,in an estimable "Romolo E Remo")was cast as the fearless horseman ,on the right side of the law ;here he is friend with the Indians (particularly Moonbeam and her father "Wise Fox" ),the good ones that is :some of them buy weapons from a white villain.(Buffalo Bill supported the native American rights )

The movie borrows a little from many American movies :of course ,there's a fort with a bossy colonel who does not want his daughter to marry a nice captain -because marrying a military man would make her a widow too soon;a final fight between Bill and the nasty Indian is the Pièce De Résistance of a harmless entertaining western,with a rather nice cinematography and a good sense of space which makes up (a little) for the triteness of the plot.

Nearing The Bottom Of The Spaghetti Barrel

[FightingWesterner · 3/10 · 15 June 2014]

Buffalo Bill Cody (Gordon Scott) fights Indians, led by rival Yellow Hand and spends time looking for the unscrupulous white men who are selling them rifles and whiskey.

Just plain bad, bad acting combines with bad dubbing, bad costumes and a generally kooky atmosphere to make this one of the silliest spaghetti westerns ever made. Seriously, this is as sophisticated as watching eight-year-olds playing cowboys and Indians in the backyard, trying hard and failing to turn Buffalo Bill into a beefcake action hero, via former TV-Tarzan Scott. The highlight of the film is a knock-down, drag-out fight between Scott and plus-size spaghetti western superstar Mario Brega.

Directed by J.W. Fordson (wow, John Ford's son?!), this has the nerve to directly steal one of it's sub-plots from Fort Apache. If only they really were related, Ford Sr. could have and should have taken him to the woodshed for that one!

One's enjoyment of this one depends solely on his or her desire to see really bad movies or their tolerance of mindless action. I really can't recommend this.

From Sword and Sandal to Spaghetti Western with Gordon SCOTT and Ingeborg SCHÖNER

[ZeddaZogenau · 5/10 · 20 March 2024]

When the sword and sandal films in the Roman Cinecitta were threatening to go out of fashion, genre star Gordon SCOTT (1927-2007), who had been married to the Hitchcock star Vera MILES in Hollywood, switched to the emerging wave of Westerns .

His performance as Buffalo Bill is based on his life story, but is overall too convoluted and lengthy.

The only interesting thing is that: with Ingeborg SCHÖNER (*1935), Jan HENDRIKS (1928-1991) and Hans von BORSODY (1929-2013) there are also three film stars from the German-speaking film industry of those years.

You can take a look, but you don't have to!

Maciste Out West

[Steve_Nyland · 7/10 · 31 March 2009]

Handsome Euro western genre film here, kind of straddling two genres at once. Gordon Scott is well cast & appropriately larger than life as the Indian fighter turned US Army scout Buffalo Bill Cody, trading in his Samson tunic for a buckskin jacket + goatee. Not sure if the Italian, French & Spanish filmmakers who made this followed much of Buffalo Bill's actual history for their plot, but then again that isn't really the point of the film.

Which was to find a wholesome heroic good guy for Gordon Scott to play in an early spaghetti western. And he plays Cody pretty much as he played the Son of Hercules: Strapping, brawny, beefy, but surprisingly intelligent, insightful, and considerate of even the guy whom he beats the stuffing out of in a bar room brawl. He is almost insufferably good, working for the native Indians to live side by side with his fellow Palefaces and keep the two sides from massacring each other.

Once you get down to it the basic premise of the film has been lifted more from the Winnetou/Old Shatterhand films from Germany & Yugoslavia which precipitated the Italian/Spanish spaghetti western boom. Gordon Scott's appearance and mannerism is almost a dead ripoff of Lex Barker's Shatterhand, though there's no Winnetou analog. Instead the film seems to want to experiment with putting this Shatterhand surrogate into some of the trappings of what would become the spaghetti western approach.

Which is one of the things that makes the film unique -- a genuine Hero, rather than an ambiguous Anti-Hero, and Scott was well prepared for the undertaking. Sure, it's silly and potentially offensive to see Spanish supporting actors dressed up like Injun braves and dubbed by voice actors with mid-Atlantic quasi British accents. What the film may lack in terms of authenticity it makes up for with wide-eyed innocence, and they even have Scott ride off waving to the crowd in the end to the applause & cheers of those he had saved, just like in his Maciste films. Not something you'd see Clint Eastwood do, that's for sure.

The film was most likely made in 1964 as the Italian Peplum sword & sandal era was coming to an end, and from the looks of it the producing studio apparently figured that by bringing along one of their most popular Peplum matinée stars they'd be able to translate the medium into a western and be guaranteed a hit. The production standards of the film are respectfully robust and there's quite a large supporting cast; they spent some money on this one, and while voters on the IMDb may not have thought much of the results it's a shame that they didn't get a little film series out of the effort.

One of the problems was Gordon Scott, who made one more Euro western for Albert Band, the tragic Spanish romantic range drama THE TRAMPLERS which isn't nearly half as much fun as this one. Rumor has it that while preparing to make a third western Scott's nose was broken by co-star Mario Brega (who plays a Bud Spencer-ish lummox rogue in this one) and found the disfigurement ruinous to his photogenic looks. Scott made two more action/adventure films of the spy genre ilk and abruptly retired from the industry in late 1965, the year this film was released.

The spaghetti genre itself had also changed by the time this film was circulating, with the more stylish approaches of DJANGO and Sergio Leone's "Dollar" films making the more traditionalist approach seen here look a bit old fashioned by comparison. And that's exactly why I adore it: Here's a spaghetti western from the infancy of the genre when they were still making movies about good guys & bad guys, Injuns and the cavalry, and a do-gooder hero designed to be rooted for like he was Audie Murphy or something. The change of pace is quite refreshing.

7/10: Something Weird Video apparently has a widescreen English version on VHS & DVD-R, which you can order directly from their website. Take a look.

Enjoyable comic strip style western

[coltras35 · 8/10 · 20 February 2021]

Muscleman Gordon Scott swaps his loincloth/tunic for a buckskin fringe jacket, jeans and a six gun in this entertaining euro western. It classed as a spaghetti western, but it eschews the gritty and anti-hero elements of that ilk. This western is a traditional shoot-em up a la John wayne-style with colourful locations, and there's plenty of intense action. Every western lexicon is covered here: barroom brawls, saloon shoot em ups, and exciting staged Indian fort attack. There's a naive charm about it with a lot of colour and energy.

Tarzan Rides!!!

[zardoz-13 · 7/10 · 7 March 2014]

Former "Tarzan" star Gordon Scott swapped his loin cloth for Levis and joined a short list of famous actors who have portrayed the legendary frontier scout and showman. "Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West" epitomizes the Italian western before Sergio Leone revolutionized the genre. Indeed, most of the pre-Leone westerns resembled conventional 1950s era Hollywood horse operas, and "Buffalo Bill" proves no exception. Mind you, Scott is more than rugged enough for the larger-than life role and his goatee imparts a roguish appearance. Our buckskin clad hero is investigating the illegal sales of Winchester repeating rifles to renegade redskins. For the record, this was "Gladiator of Rome" director Mario Costa's first and only cavalry versus the Native American epics. Costa doesn't let his actors stand around and chew the scenery. He stages quite a bit gunplay, and "A Fistful of Dollars" lenser Massimo Dallamano makes everything look spectacular. The big showdown at the end of the action takes place in a cavalry fort with the Indians scaling the walls and giving our heroes hell to pay. The chief suspect is an obnoxious hulk named Sam (Mario Brega of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly") and at one point, he trades blows with brawny Scott. Reportedly, Brega smashed Scott's nose and neither man got along with the other. Unlike later Spaghetti westerns, Scott is not working for himself to obtain vast sums of money like the bounty hunters who would come to dominate the genre. Instead, he is on a mission of mercy authorized by the President to root out injustice. The scenery, the dames, and the tough dudes all look exciting. This made-in-Spain shoot'em up boasts lots of action, but everything is formulaic with few narrative surprises. My chief complaint is the voice that they have used to dub Scott so that he sounds like an older man. Our hero has no romantic love interest, but he runs into several pretty ladies. Gordon Scott fans will savor this sagebrusher.

Italian Westerns (no pasta)

[PlasticActor · 9/10 · 12 July 2021]

There is a reason why this is ranked so highly; because it is more authentic than most of the Hollywood propaganda. Realistic sets, costumes and storyline scripts - - even the dubbing is good and it does not have to match up. Ideally somebody should reissue this in original Italian dialogue with English subtitles. Last but not least, I'm in love with Ingeboerg Schoener. PS/I'm glad Italy won Euro 2021 - - bless those poor English fans! They wuz robbed.

So-so spaghetti saga

[Wizard-8 · 22 November 2012]

Although "Buffalo Bill, Hero Of The West" is a western made by European filmmakers, it isn't quite like what you usually associate with spaghetti westerns. The movie plays out like it was made by American filmmakers, from the standard western plot right down to the musical score. That doesn't mean that spaghetti western fans won't find anything to enjoy here. For starters, this movie clearly had a budget; there are dozens of extras, as well as a complete replica of an army fort built. Also, the action sequences, from hand-to-hand combat to gun battles, are pretty well done. However, the story, despite the presence of the colorful wild west figure Buffalo Bill, is often kind of flat and predictable. Still, if you are a spaghetti western fan, the movie has enough interesting elements to make it worth a look. However, if you do decide to watch it, seek out a copy that presents the movie in its true widescreen format - the pan and scan editions frequently cut off speaking characters photographed to the far left and right.