Sing, Cowboy, sing

This is another East German foray to cowboy films. I've seen several and so far most of the films have portrayed the plight of Indians in the hands of ruthless white people with genocide in their minds. These films have underlined the capitalistic and imperialistic ways of the western world.

This film is quite a lot away from those. The few moments of violence is comical (think "Bud Spencer") and while few gunshots are fired they don't hit anyone. There's no Indians and no ideology is shoved down our throats as the earlier, though admittedly better, films did. The banter is mild, acting is intentionally comical, and an obnoxious kid is thrown in to help the protagonists. Every evil character is an exaggerated stereotype - easy for the kids to identify... All in all this is as family friendly as "Little House on the Prairie".

Quality-wise this is competently made and is quite unspectacular in any sense - any mediocre spaghetti would be a good comparison. The sets and props are mostly OK, the acting is OK, the story is weak. Because Dean Reed was apparently a major country star in his time, he performs a handful of c&w songs, some of them catchy. (hence the Finnish title Preerian Elvis, "Elvis of the prairie", quite apt I'd say) The songs are of course the only moments in the film where English is heard. Everyone speaks of course German and if you're accustomed to subtitled spaghetti westerns the language shouldn't be a problem here either.

All in all this is not a must-see, more of a curiosity. East German cinema wasn't after all widely seen in its day...

Most memorable moment: shooting pool on horseback!