THE SHERIFF & THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL KID (1979) – I’m often asked about movies that are safe to watch with children around at Christmas time. Here are TWO such films, both starring gruff but likable Spaghetti Western icon Bud Spencer (Carlo Pedersoli) and, of all people, Cary Guffey – the little kid from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
The first film, The Sheriff & The Extraterrestrial Kid is also called The Sheriff and the Satellite Kid. Three years BEFORE Steven Spielberg’s E.T. Guffey played an alien child who gets stranded on Earth and meets modern day law enforcement figure Sheriff Hall (Spencer), who helps keep him out of the hands of sinister government officials who want to study the unearthly child.
Cary Guffey’s character is named H7-25 and possesses an alien device similar to a television remote control device. That device lets H7-25 rewind time and other miraculous acts to help Sheriff Hall against their pursuers. The kid often uses it to rewind unpleasant events for the bad guys during the many, many chase and fight scenes.
Sheriff Hall is, typically for Bud Spencer, a brute with a soft heart and muscles of steel whose action scenes are like a hybrid of a Three Stooges short and an old Popeye cartoon.
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