The Sheriff (1959 film)

{{short description|1959 film}} {{Infobox film | name = La sceriffa | image = La sceriffa.jpg | alt = | caption = | director = [[Roberto Bianchi Montero]] | producer = [[Guido Paolucci]] | writer = [[Mario Amendola]] | screenplay = | story = | based_on =  | narrator = | starring = [[Tina Pica]]<br>[[Tina De Mola]]<br>[[Ugo Tognazzi]] | music = | cinematography = [[Sergio Pesce]] | editing = [[Ettore Salvi]] | studio = Betauno Film | distributor = | released = {{Film date|1959|08|16|df=yes}} | runtime = 91 minutes | country = [[Italy]] | language = Italian | budget = | gross = }} '''''La sceriffa''''' (''The Sheriff'') is a 1959 Italian Western comedy in black-and-white, directed by [[Roberto Bianchi Montero]].<ref name="GiraldiLancia2006">{{cite book|last1=Giraldi|first1=Massimo|last2=Lancia|first2=Enrico|last3=Melelli|first3=Fabio|title=100 caratteristi del cinema italiano: gli interpreti "minori" che hanno fatto grande il nostro cinema|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=146bfQNz_5sC&pg=PA109|accessdate=21 August 2012|year=2006|publisher=Gremese Editore|isbn=978-88-8440-383-4|page=109}}</ref> It stars Italian comedy star [[Ugo Tognazzi]]. It was released on 16 August 1959. The film starred several comedians and spawned a number of western comedies which followed.<ref name="Fridlund2006">{{cite book|last=Fridlund|first=Bert|title=The spaghetti Western: a thematic analysis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PRruAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=21 August 2012|year=2006|publisher=McFarland & Co.|isbn=978-0-7864-2507-5|page=7}}</ref>

==Plot== A sheriff is killed and his widow (Tina Pica) takes up his job to find the killers.

==Cast== * [[Tina Pica]] as Carmela Esposito, 'la Sceriffa' * [[Ugo Tognazzi]] as Colorado Joe * [[Livio Lorenzon]] as Jimmy Jesse * [[Tino Scotti]] as The Judge * [[Alberto Sorrentino]] as Brutto Tempo - the Native American * [[Anita Todesco]] as Nuvola Rosa - Brutto Tempo's Daughter * [[Carlo Pisacane (actor)|Carlo Pisacane]] as Nick * [[Carlo Sposito]] as Gennarino - aka Gen * [[Annie Alberti]] as Connie Dallas * [[Franco Balducci]] as Jimmy Jesse's Brother * [[Stelio Candelli]] as Bruno Carotenuto * [[Elio Crovetto]] as Jack - the Texan drunk * [[Tina De Mola]] as Dolly - the singer * [[Fanfulla]] as Ciccio - Sceriffa's assistant

== Criticism == This is an “inconsequential western that tries in vain to poke fun at relevant American genre films; neither entertaining nor funny.”<ref>{{Citation |last=Montero |first=Roberto Bianchi |title=La sceriffa |date=1959-08-16 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053248/ |type=Comedy, Western |publisher=Betauno Film |access-date=2022-03-29}}</ref> According to the dictionary of international film. The Italian colleagues complain that the film was shot "with little resources and too hasty", although it could have been "more pleasant with more care and attention".<ref>{{Citation |title=McNamara, Air Vice-Marshal (retd) Frank Hubert, (4 April 1894–2 Nov. 1961), RAAF, retd |date=2007-12-01 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u54583 |work=Who Was Who |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u54583 |access-date=2022-03-29|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Christian Kessler notes that the director's 23rd film is exemplary of "the comedies of the time that attempted to revitalize the already worn-out ways of the local comedy class by adding genre-parodic elements".<ref>{{Cite journal |date=July 2002 |title=Willkommen bei www.DerInternist.de |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s001080200004 |journal=Der Internist |volume=43 |issue=7 |pages=858–859 |doi=10.1007/s001080200004 |pmid=27518612 |issn=0020-9554|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The film is "reasonably entertaining" despite the non-transferability of the dialect jokes prevalent in the original.

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb title|id=0053248|title=La sceriffa}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sceriffa}} [[Category:1959 Italian-language films]] [[Category:1959 films]] [[Category:1950s Western (genre) comedy films]] [[Category:Films directed by Roberto Bianchi Montero]] [[Category:Italian black-and-white films]] [[Category:1959 comedy films]] [[Category:1959 Italian films]] [[Category:Italian Western (genre) comedy films]]