Anything for a Friend (1973) Poster

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3/10
Pretty low quality comedy-western from Italy
Red-Barracuda17 July 2017
A couple of con-men discover gold in the desert. They have to ward off a gang of bandits who, needless to say, also want the booty.

This quite tiresome film is of the specific sub-bracket that can best be described as the comedy-spaghetti-western. These seemed to rear their ugly heads in the 70's, once the main sub-genre was beginning to run out of ideas. It's a typical tactic for film-makers to add comedy to a genre to try and revive it. It rarely does anything of the kind of course and in the case of the Italian westerns it certainly produced little in the way of memorable movies. Anything For a Friend feels like the combination of a spaghetti western with the British TV sitcom 'On the Buses'. The only problem with this idea is that I have never come across any evidence that suggests that anyone actually was waiting for a combination of a spaghetti western with the British TV sitcom 'On the Buses'. To this end it almost goes without saying that in this one the action is extremely minimal, while the humour is broad and plentiful. Not very funny though and that's the main problem. The overall result of this nonsense is a very inconsequential film indeed whose comic emphasis makes it a little more distinctive, while at the same time ensuring that it is even less good than normal.
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4/10
Undistinguished spaghetti western favours comedy over plot
Leofwine_draca18 January 2017
Warning: Spoilers
ANYTHING FOR A FRIEND is a low rent comic spaghetti western with a largely unknown cast and not much of a story to see it through either. It involves a couple of characters who go up against a gang of bandits in a film better known for broad comedy and character-based humour than any kind of action or involving incident. When one of the most interesting things about the film is the scenery then you know you're in trouble.

The main roles are taken by Ettore Manni and Paolo Rosani, hiding behind the pseudonyms of Red Carter and Bud Randall respectively. Manni was a long-serving character actor in Italian cinema but Rosani was unfamiliar to me; it seems he had a very short career in the spaghetti western genre before disappearing into obscurity. One of the most interesting things about the film is the presence of the former sword and sandal star Gordon Mitchell but sadly his generic villain character is given very little to do.
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1/10
The Two Stooges.
hitchcockthelegend29 July 2017
An outright attempt at a comedy spaghetti western by director and co - writer Demofilio Fidani, Amico mio... frega tu che frego io (Anything for a Friend) is quite simply awful. It's poorly edited, poorly written and just poorly constructed. There may be those who would argue that the intentions of the makers was met, but we are not talking a case of so bad its fun territory here. It's painful, period.

A number of screwy inconsequential scenes are stitched together in the hope of entertaining somebody, with a musical score fresh out of nursery school for accompaniment. The odd scene briefly raises a modicum of interest, as our two lead protagonists screwball their way to retrieving finances they lost, but come the end, if you have managed to stay that far, you may want to set fire to your TV set. 1/10
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6/10
Not really good but funny movie
garko8028 July 2004
This is one of this bad and low budget made but very funny western from Demofilo Fidani but this time it is a real comedy.

This comedy is not so funny than his "hard" western but it has it's moments and Ettore Manni and "Bud Randall"(whoever he is) are a good "buddy" team. You can also see a lot of actors who you can also see in the most of the other Fidanis like his daughter Simonetta Vitelli (in her last movie), Frederico Boido, Benito Pacifico, Luciano Conti and the greatest of all: Gordon Mitchell.

You have to like trash to like this movie but it's a good little movie for rainy afternoons.
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