The Friends

Another movie that was on the Watch TCM app that I hadn't heard of before was a spaghetti western that got distributed in the US largely because of the presence of Anthony Quinn in the cast. That movie is Deaf Smith and Johnny Ears.

Apparently, the movie is based on real events, as Erastus Smith (played by Quinn) was a real person and, like "Deaf" Smith in the movie, was a deaf mute. The movie is set in 1836, not long after the Americans who streamed into Texas from points further east (ie. from the southern US) had gained Texas' independence from Mexico. However, there are a still people in Texas who don't care for the new regime, and some of them are apparently plotting a coup against president Sam Houston. So Houston calls upon Smith, and his interpreter nicknamed Johnny Ears (Franco Nero) to go south and investigate.

What they find is that an envoy from somewhere in the German-speaking lands -- the movie says Germany although it would still be a couple more decades before Germany was unified -- is trying to agree with the rebels on the importation of materiel for the rebels, led by Gen. Morton, to use against Houston. Meanwhile, Gen. Morton has killed the people he thinks are the spies giving Houston the information about the possible rebellion, and this includes his own father-in-law. This makes his wife interested in helping out Smith and Johnny Ears when they show up trying to find out what Morton's plans really are.

It wouldn't be a western without a love interest, and that is provided by a prostitute named Susie (Pamela Tiffin), who is bedded by Johnny Ears and eventually runs away with Deaf and Johnny after they defeat Morton. Or at least, that seems to be what happens, as the action is fairly muddled.

And that's the big problem with the movie, that it seems like there's a whole lot of nothing going on, without much in the way of character development. The print TCM showed was dubbed into English, although I'd guess that it was the production company's intention to have all the dialog redone in both Italian and English versions in post since that was not uncommon for spaghetti westerns.

I didn't much care for Deaf Smith and Johnny Ears, but perhaps people who like other spaghetti westerns will like it.