My Name is Nobody

By Christina VanGinkel

Last year, during the holiday shopping season, I purchased several older movies on DVD when I came across a store having a blowout sale of older movies. Amongst the mix, that I picked up were several of what I have often heard referred to as spaghetti westerns. A spaghetti western is a term used to refer to a series of comedic western movies filmed mostly during the 1960's into the early seventies by a wide range of movie studios, mostly Italian though, thus dubbed as the spaghetti westerns of the 60's and 70's. One such movie is the show My Name is Nobody, and was among those I bought that day. This same show also happened to be my first ever spaghetti western that I ever watched, and has continued to be one of my favorite, maybe due to the cast of characters, or possibly just due to the nature of the film itself.

If you have never watched this type of Western before, but generally enjoy a good old-fashioned Western romp on film, then I recommend that you give this type of Western a try. My Name is Nobody is a classic example of what this genre of film is all about, a mix of classic Western style, with plenty of comedy, sometimes subtle, but nonetheless funny, tossed into the mix for good measure. With many big name stars getting in start in such films, you also never know whose name you might come across as the star either of the show or as a supporting character.

My Name is Nobody was filmed in 1973, and released in 1974 and stars Terence Hill, Henry Fonda, and Geoffrey Lewis. Three men who had their fair share of starring roles in both spaghetti westerns and many other genres of film both before and well after the making of My Name is Nobody. My Name is Nobody also happens to be the last western that Henry Fonda ever starred in, bringing to a close the end of an era, or so it seemed to many of the fans who followed both his career and the careers of many of the stars of the spaghetti western shows. Personally, Terrance Hill was my favorite. His Trinity films are considered classics, and whiling away an afternoon or two watching his films is not very difficult to do.

The film, My Name is Nobody, follows the character of Jack Beauregard, portrayed by Henry Fonda, as a legendary gunfighter who covets one thing, retirement. He wants to leave the American West and all it has meant to him, behind, and retire in some peaceful location where no one knows who he is, and Europe seems like the ideal spot for such a place. Too bad all the other outlaws do not feel the same way. They all want their own blaze of glory and that includes shooting dead the legendary gunfighter Jack Beauregard.

Here is where Nobody steps in. Nobody idolizes the fastest gun in the west, Jack Beauregard, and thinks that stepping into retirement quietly would not do justice for his hero. He wants Jack to go down in a blaze of glory, befitting his legendary status. The Wild Bunch, a marauding gang of thieves and villains that numbers 150 members, seems like the perfect opponent for Jack Beauregard to go up against, or so Nobody thinks.

Nobody plots to bring the two forces together, with a bit of help and ingenuity of his own tossed in for good measure, defeating two purposes at once; killing off as many members of the Wild Bunch as he can with the help of Jack Beauregard, and helping Jack retire peacefully. He plans to achieve this by faking a gunfight where Nobody wins, and Jack is supposedly killed, thus allowing him to slip off to a boat that will carry him away to the peaceful retirement Jack was in search of.

If you have ever been a fan of Henry Fonda, (Once Upon a Time in the West, There Was a Crooked Man, Cheyenne Social Club) Terence Hill, (Ace High, Boot Hill, My Name is Trinity, Trinity is Still My Name, Rita of the West) Geoffrey Lewis, (High Plains Drifter, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Shoot the Sun Down, Bronco Billy), or any of the Spaghetti Western styles of comedic films, then My Name is Nobody is a must see film.