It's both sad and ironic that Terence Hills portrayal 'Lucky Luke' had nothing in common with the comic-character but the name and Jolly Jumper, the talking horse. Ironic because Hills parade-roles, 'Trinity' and 'Nobody', both owned more to Lucky Luke than probably actor and director (Enzo Barboni) would care to admit.Many "Trinity" fans consider "Man of the East" an unofficial prequel: here Hill plays Sir Thomas Fitzpatrick Phillip Moore, a textbook Greenhorn who has arrived in the rugged Wild West claim his father's inheritance. The inheritance consists of a ram shackled old farm and three of his fathers cronies, who've taken it upon themselves to turn Thomas into gun-totting cowboy.Having mentioned Lucky Luke, only at the end does Terence Hill (of course) turn into the faster-than-your-shadow, damsel-saving gunslinger but originally his character, Sir Thomas, is taken straight from the Lucky Luke comic book "The Greenhorn" – an archetypical bowler hat wearing, tea totting English gentleman, blissfully unaware that this is the West and not Kensington.At first, the absence of Hill's "Trinity"-partner Bud Spencer is painfully obvious. However, Bull Schmidt (Gregory Walcott), the jovial friar Holy Joe (Harry Carey Jr) and Monkey Smith (Dominic Barto, who had previously played a steel-eyed killer in "Trinity"), playing Hills mentors and surrogate fathers, make a quirky trio, soon compensating for the absence of Spencer. Plus, we have director Enzo Barboni who knows the terrain of the spaghetti western comedy like the back of his palm.The movie has all the elements necessary to please fans of early Hill/Spencer/Barboni co operations but never quiet reaches the high level of mentioned "Trinity"- and "Nobody" films. Still, far better than anything Hill was starring in the past 15 years and infinitely better than the dreadful "Lucky Luke" films.

East meets West, with the usual pleasures to be had in a rather typical fish-out-of-water story. Terence Hill is the jolly Britisher who arrives in Old West Arizona upon his dying father's wish that he become a cowboy. Writer-director Enzo Barboni knows just how to utilize Hill's starry-eyed charm, and the actor is very funny exercising in the morning in front of the gunslingers or riding his bicycle down tumbleweed streets. A ready-made romance is provided for our hero with a literature-minded lass into Byron (her baby-blue eyes match up well with Hill's, although his dimply prettiness is tough to beat). The film isn't much, but the English-dubbing is good and the Yugoslavian locations give it a curious and unusual look. The general handling is so amiable that viewers may become absorbed by the movie without even realizing it. It sneaks up on you, like the best kind of sleeper. ** from ****

I saw this film as the opening film at a drive-in many years ago, and found it to be more entertaining and enjoyable than the feature, which I don't even recall. If this is available on home video, it is a Must-See, especially for fans of Spaghetti Westerns.

The Man from the East. My husband and I along with another couple saw this movie when it was originally released at the theater in the 1970's. We have never forgotten it. We all thought it was extremely hilarious! We have been trying to find in on video for the last 10 years because we thought it was one of Terence Hill's best, and we are big fans of his. We hope it will be released soon on video.