They Call Me Trinity (1970)

Directed by | Enzo Barboni
Written by | Enzo Barboni
Gene Luotto (English dialogue) (dubbed version)
Starring | Terence Hill
Bud Spencer
Farley Granger
Elena Pedemonte
Steffen Zacharias
Running time | 109 min.
Language | Italian, English (dubbed)
Followed by | Trinity Is STILL My Name!

They Call Me Trinity, (Lo chiamavano Trinità) also known as My Name is Trinity, is a 1971 spaghetti western movie starring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. A sequel, Trinity Is STILL My Name!, was later produced.
This film took Terence Hill and Bud Spencer to the level of international stardom.

Plot summary
In the first scene, Trinity (Terence Hill) comes into view accompanied by the movie's song. His horse is dragging him around in a travois. He is filthy, yet he seems perfectly content as the horse drags him across the desert and through puddles. When the horse stops nears a dwelling, Trinity gets up and walks inside.

It is a restaurant and the Mexican owner, noting Trinity's wretched appearance, tells him he will give him a plate of beans if he has money to pay. Trinity takes the frying pan along with the plate, scraping the beans from the plate back into the pan and proceeds to eat from the pan with gusto, punctuated by occasional loud burping. The eating scenes are a frequent comedic element of the movies where the team of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer appear.

There are two white men also in the restaurant, along with an injured Mexican prisoner. The two men are bounty hunters and are disappointed to see that Trinity's face does not appear in their batch of Wanted posters. After he has eaten every scrap in the pan, Trinity gets up, strolls over to the men's table, and calmly relieves them of their prisoner. When they ask him his name so they'll know what to put on the headstone, he answers, "They call me Trinity." The resulting double-take foreshadow Trinity's notoriety. Trinity offers them a disarming grin when they refer to him as "the Right Hand of the Devil" and tell him that it's said he has "the fastest gun around."

As he walks outside with their prisoner, the men stick their rifle through the window in preparation to shoot Trinity, but in one smooth movement from behind his back and apparently without aiming, Trinity drops both the men in their tracks instantly. It's a zen move showing his effortless, almost mystic skill with a gun. He casually gives the injured Mexican his spot on the travois as he perches himself backwards on the horse so the men can converse as they travel.

Soon they reach a small town where an enormous man with a sheriff's star on his chest is seated outside his office, apparently trying to read the newspaper. He is being harassed by three local toughs standing in the street loudly demanding that he release their friend from jail. Trinity stops to watch the developing gunfight, predicting to the Mexican that the toughs will be "stiff before they can draw." When the enormous man quickdraws them with his left hand and outshoots them without blinking, the Mexican asks Trinity who the fast gun is and is told the enormous man is the "Left Hand of the Devil."

It quickly becomes apparent that Trinity and the enormous man, comically called Bambino, are brothers. Bambino (played by Bud Spencer) is merely posing as the sheriff of the small town while he awaits the arrival of his gang from the penitentiary from which he escaped. He is not happy to see his troublemaking brother. However, the two form a temporary partnership to deal with Major Harriman (Farley Granger), who is attempting to run a group of pacifist Mormon farmers off their land with the intention of using their property to graze his own horses. The fact that these horses are both valuable and unbranded explain Bambino's grudging willingness to work with his little brother even though he considers Trinity to be a lazy bum without ambition or merit.

Trivia

* The film is considered to be in the public domain in the United States, and many poor quality DVDs have been made of it. Hen's Tooth Video is officially releasing this film and its sequel on DVD in the US on September 4, 2007. Both are new digital transfers from the original negatives.

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modified: 2007-10-24 00:47:09