The Republic of Texas has just gained its independence from Mexico. Erastus "Deaf" Smith, who is a deaf mute, and his partner Johnny Ears are sent by President Sam Houston to stop general Morton, who plots against the annexation of Texas by the USA. They find their contact McDonald and his family massacred by Morton and his men. McDonald’s daughter Hester is married to Morton, and when Smith convinces her of the truth, she helps them overhear a conversation where a German diplomat promises Morton new weapons. They have a saloon fight with Morton's gang. At a brothel, Johnny recognizes a prostitute he saw bathing in a river, Suzie Q. Deaf pays so he can spend a night with her. Later he is jealous of her other customers, but when she suggests that they leave together using her money, he says that Deaf needs him. Later he refuses to go on with the dangerous mission because he is in love and hits Deaf. Deaf steals dynamite in Morton’s fort but is almost given away by a garter with bells that he was given by a prostitute and has forgotten that he still keeps in his pocket. He is then pursued by three men and kills one of them in a sneak fight in a cave, by throwing a knife against his gun blaze. As Deaf came out of the cave, he saw the dead bodies of the other two men who were killed by Johnny who came to rejoin him. Deaf gestured in jest that Johnny owes him a punch. They set a trap with explosives to blow up the weapons transport to Morton, but stop the explosion when they see children playing near the wagon train. Instead they infiltrate Morton's fort and killed his men with explosives and with the new weapon, a machine gun that Deaf can handle because he could read the lips of the instructor. Johnny gave his gun to Morton for a shoot out with Deaf. Morton is killed. Susie leaves together with Johnny and Deaf. In the morning the deaf mute is gone, leaving Johnny his watch. Johnny cries out his name.
Cast
Production
Director Paolo Cavara did not consider the film a spaghetti Western, instead calling it a "psychological western". He used a portable 35mm Arriflex camera.
Reception
In his investigation of narrative structures in Spaghetti Western films, Fridlund discusses this film as a variation of the partnership plot that was used in many Spaghetti Westerns following the success of For a Few Dollars More. Compared to the latter story, where the bounty killer partners at first have a fight and one of them later turns out to have a secret vengeance motive, the two protagonists of Deaf Smith & Johnny Ears form a steady pair from the beginning. Johnny acquires a secondary motive—a love interest—and in the end their partnership is dissolved. Otherwise this is basically a professional story that concentrates on the problems and the methods of the heroes to reach their goals, especially the conditions arising from Smith's deafness.
