Lemonade Joe

Lemonade Joe (Limonádový Joe, 1964) is a Czechoslovak musical western parody available to watch online on iFILM. Director Oldřich Lipský treats every American frontier cliché as raw material — the gun duel, the saloon beauty, the corrupt lawman — and runs each one through a comic mill until it breaks. Karel Fiala plays the immaculate hero: crack shot, perfect manners, strictly non-alcoholic.

Joe rides into a lawless frontier town promoting Kola-Loca Lemonade as the only drink a real man needs. His pistol does most of the convincing. The women are immediately charmed, the local toughs are immediately outclassed, and the saloon owner — played by Miloš Kopecký with maximum theatrical menace — is faced with a serious business problem.

Made at Barrandov Studios in Prague, the film is the kind of genre parody that only works when its makers genuinely loved what they were mocking. Lipský did. Watch Lemonade Joe online on iFILM.