IL MIO NOME E NESSUNO/My Name is Nobody (1973)

There is a persistant rumour that rather than the credited director, Tonino Valeri, MY NAME IS NOBODY was actually directed by the great Sergio Leone. The interview with Terence Hill which can be found on the DVD does nothing to dispel the rumour as Hill cryptically refuses to say yes or no. What he does say - and he is absolutely correct - is that Leone had the original idea, wrote the script treatment, chose the actors and produced the film. He was on the set continually and the movie is made in his style. Whatever the truth of the official credit (and I don't want to take anything away from Valeri) this is a Sergio Leone film. Leone's idea was to take the character of Trinity which Terence Hill had played in several highly popular films and play him against the historical background of the death of the Old West and the passing of the great American hero - personified here by Henry Fonda as Jack Beauregard, an ageing gunfighter who wants to retire to Europe. As a gunfighter nobody is faster than Beauregard and Hill plays Nobody. Nobody/Trinity represents the new West - or rather the new Western (i.e. the spaghetti version) and the film emphasises this in the graveyard scene where the graves bear the names of American Western directors. Performances are excellent in what is essentially a light hearted film and besides the two leads there are nice appearances by Leo Gordon, Steve Kanaly and Geoffrey Lewis. Rating ****