How to Turn Lee Van Cleef into a Sheriff, a Savior, and the Most Charismatic Thief in the West
It’s 3:15 AM. My eyes feel like they’ve been rubbed with coarse sandpaper, the cold pizza on my desk is starting to look back at me, and I am currently watching Lee Van Cleef, sporting a mustache so incredibly sharp it probably violates local safety ordinances, squinting his eyes into the desert sun while trying to decide whether he should rob a massive silver shipment or protect it as the town’s newly appointed sheriff.
Welcome, my friends, to the dusty, sweaty, and wonderfully cynical world of Giorgio Stegani.
If you’ve never heard of Beyond the Law (originally titled Al di là della legge), congratulations: you’ve only watched the standard Clint Eastwood trilogy and missed out on the real, deep-cut Italian Western gold. For the uninitiated, this Spaghetti Western features the legendary Lee Van Cleef. But instead of playing his usual role as a cold, calculating, silent bounty killer, the filmmakers had a brilliant, highly entertaining strategy:
- Take the ultimate Hollywood bad guy and let him play a charming, fast-talking bandit with a heart of gold.
- Put him in charge of protecting a town’s silver, knowing full well his character’s original plan is to steal every single ounce of it.
- Surround him with a human mountain of a man (Bud Spencer) and a raspy-voiced sidekick (Lionel Stander) to create the ultimate, morally gray heist squad.
The result? Beyond the Law (1968).
The “Plot” (If we can even call it that)
Billy Joe Cudlip (Lee Van Cleef) is a clever, pragmatic outlaw who, along with his gang, robs a stagecoach carrying a payload of silver. During the heist, he befriends Novack (Antonio Sabàto), a naive, idealistic young mining engineer who is determined to get the silver to the local town of Silverton so the starving miners can get paid.
Through a series of bizarre coincidences, the town’s citizens mistake Cudlip’s tough-guy swagger for heroic bravery and appoint him the new town sheriff. Cudlip accepts the badge, secretly planning to use his new authority to pull off the ultimate inside-job heist on the next silver shipment.
But as he gets to know the townspeople, Cudlip begins to actually care about his new role. He has a massive moral crisis when a group of psychotic bandits (led by a wonderfully unhinged Gordon Mitchell) shows up expecting Cudlip to hand over the keys to the vault.
Why You Need to Watch This Tonight
- Lee Van Cleef is Having the Time of His Life: If you only know Van Cleef as “The Bad” from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, your mind will be blown. Here, he smiles! He laughs! He tricks people with card games! He wears a sheriff’s star! It is like watching Darth Vader suddenly decide to run for local mayor on a platform of community safety and public parks.
- Pre-Comedy Bud Spencer: Before he became a global slapstick legend in the 1970s alongside Terence Hill, Bud Spencer was a serious, imposing physical presence. Here, he plays Cooper, a tough-as-nails local freighter who doesn’t take anyone’s nonsense. He is a human brick wall, and watching him play it straight is fantastic.
- The Sweat and Dirt Aesthetic: Every single character in this movie looks like they haven’t seen a bar of soap since the American Revolution. The close-ups on sweaty, sunburnt faces are so intense you can practically feel the desert grit blowing through your screen.
- Lionel Stander’s Gravel Voice: Legendary character actor Lionel Stander plays “Preacher,” Cudlip’s outlaw sidekick. Stander speaks in a raspy, gravelly voice that sounds like a concrete mixer chewing on a handful of marbles, and he steals every single scene he is in.
The Verdict
Is it a good movie? It is an incredibly fun, fast-paced, and highly underrated Spaghetti Western. It features a killer, horn-heavy soundtrack by Riz Ortolani, fantastic shootout sequences, and a surprisingly touching story about redemption and honor among thieves. It is Lee Van Cleef at his absolute, most charismatic peak.
My Rating: 4 out of 5 shiny silver bars hidden in a preacher’s wagon.
Wanna see the ultimate anti-hero take the law into his own hands?
Dim the lights, grab a cold drink, and search for this classic late-sixties Italian Western on your favorite retro cinema or B-movie platform. Because it has slipped into the public domain, you can watch Billy Joe Cudlip protect (and plot to rob) the town of Silverton completely free and legally.
[WATCH “BEYOND THE LAW (1968)” ON YOUTUBE (Opens in a new window)]
