5/10
There's no business like show business, but this seems like a good motivation to get out.
3 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Don't expect 100% comedy in this western about the trials of an acting troop making their way through the old west. It's not all feather boas and sequins in this sometimes light- hearted but often dangerous lifestyle where troop leader Anthony Quinn, leading lady Sophia Loren and the remainder of their ensemble face bill collectors, irate or amorous hotel proprietors and Indians as they go from gig to gig. Often, there's a lit more lustful eyes made at the voluptuous Loren with Quinn struggling to keep it altogether.

Among the supporting cast are Margaret O'Brien as a supposed 16 year old girl with a mother (Eileen Heckart) who seems to want to sell her off to matrimony, Edmund Lowe as the company villain and Steve Forrest who makes a gamble for Loren's heart.

Moderately entertaining, it often switches gears as it goes through various mood swings. I wanted to like it more than I did, although this is a subject matter that doesn't crop up as part of major western plots. The look on the audience's eyes as they watch the goings on stage is thrilling however while the confrontation with the natives is rather frightening.

O'Brien seems to be trying to remind everybody that she was "Meet Me in St. Louis's" Tootie, obviously not 16 as Heckart insists and certainly not 20 as she claims to be. Heckart gets some good lines, but I wouldn't call this one of her better parts. Loren, as a platinum blonde, is still enticing, while Quinn just seems to get sexier as he ages. It's colorful but unremarkable, high one moment then disappointing the next.
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