Planet Spaghetti Western

Happy 65th Birthday Jan Spitzer

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:17:00 +0000

Jan Spitzer was born on May 17, 1947 in Sangerhausen, Germany. He received his acting training from 1965 to 1968 at the Academy of Dramatic Arts “Ernst Busch” in Berlin. Even as a drama student, he played the lead role in the 1967/68 produced film “Farewell”, a film adaptation of novel by Johannes R. Becher. Other film and television roles soon followed.

Spitzer has also worked as a stage actor. He had engagements in plays at Altenburg, Halle, Schwerin, at the Deutsches Theater Berlin and the Munich National Theatre and the Berliner Ensemble. Since the 1990s, he’s worked primarily as a voice actor and voiced among others, James Remar, Chris Cooper, Jon Voight, Ted Levine, Danny Trejo, Joaquim de Almeida, Brad Garrett and Alan Arkin’s voice. He appeared in one Euro-western as Andrew in “Blue Hawk” (1979). Since 2009, Spitzer has been a speaker at the Störtebeker Festival. Today we celebrate Jan Spitzer’s 65^th birthday.

New DVD Release

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:46:00 +0000

Italowestern-Encyclopedia No. 1 (4 DVDs)

“Cowards Don’t Pray”, “Roy Colt and Winchester Jack”, “A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof” and “Gentleman Killer”

Directors:

Giulio Petroni

Mario Bava

Mario Siciliano

Giorgio Stegani

Starring:

Mario Adorf

Giuliano Gemma

Anthony Steffen

Label: Koch
“Koch Media Italowestern Enzyklopädie” No.1

Languages: German, Italian, English

Subtitles: German

Format: 2.35:1 / 1.85:1 (16:9)

Sound: Doly Digital 2.0

Extras: Interviews with cast and crew, German trailer, Original trailer, Alternative title credits, image galleries with rare promotional material

Available July 27, 2012

Who Are Those Guys? – Leonard Bell

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:44:00 +0000

Leo Belotezki was born in Pennsylvania on February 27, 1925. As Leonard Bell, he began his acting career in 1950 appearing in “The Clock” TV series. Little is known about the actor except that he would appear in mainly TV series and films during a 20 year acting career between 1950 and 1970 he appeared in 26 films and TV appearances. During his career he made only one appearance in a Euro-western and that was 1968’s “Four Rode Out” with Sue Lyon’s, Pernell Roberts and Leslie Nielsen, as the hotel clerk. Bell died in Hollywood, California on August 18, 1995 at the age of 70.

BELL, Leonard (Leo Belotezki) [2/27/1925, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. - 8/18/1995, West Hollywood, California, U.S.A.] – TV actor.

4 Rode Out – 1968 (hotel clerk)

Guido Lollobrigida Interview

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:58:00 +0000

Thanks to Matt Blake and his website Wild Eye for allowing me to reprint the English translated interview with Guido Lollobrigida from he found from March 26, 2009.

Here’s the translation of a brief interview Matt found with familiar Italian character actor Guido Lollobrigida – a regular in Spaghetti Westerns, Spy and Crime films – on www.altravocenews.it. It’s mostly about his career as a racing driver (which Matt never knew about), but interesting nonetheless. Lollobrigida acted in the Euro-westerns under the pseudonym Lee Burton and is probably best remembered for his performance as Thomas Caine in “Cemetery Without Crosses” (1968).

Interview with Guido Lollobrigida, actor and racing driver

Thursday, March 26, 2009 14:36

In the eyes of the less attentive he might seem like an ordinary person, but look at him for a moment and you see the light in his eyes, the flame that you see in only those who are thirsty for life and which makes you eager to relive it and get involved with their memories. This is the chameleon like Guido Lollobrigida, whose surname he shares with his cousin Gina, who made pure adrenalin his prime motivation in life. An actor and pilot, he became passionate about driving at an early age: “I was only 11 when my father let me drive around the block. I drove instinctively, without trouble, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.”

Lollobrigida grew up, passionate about machinery and eager to experience the wind blowing on his face at 300 miles an hour. Therefore he became a professional driver, a career that lasted for about 10 years and in which he won many victories both nationally and internationally. In 1955 he realized the dream of a lifetime by participating in the Grand Prix of Venezuela, the world championship, in the presence of the most important teams of the time: Maserati, Ferrari etc. The young and reckless Lollobrigida remembers big names such as Moss and Mussi. And this race would become a metaphor for his life, during which he’d fly around the world both in his career as an actor and a driver.

In 1960, Lollobrigida moved to North America where he took part in international competitions: 12 Hours at Sebring, Daytona, Bahamas, Speed Week. And what is most striking about him is the passion that years later can still be read in his words and expressions: “Racing for me,” he says, “brought an emotion that I don’t think I could explain in words. A struggle between fear, of being aware of the dangers that my colleagues and I were running, and of wanting to win, and not to give up. The nicest thing though was that despite getting so excited before starting, while I was racing it was different, I became one with the car and instinct took precedence of any other feeling. I believe we are born with this passion and with the ability to race, pushing ourselves to the limits of our capacity.”

If you look at the races, you can’t help but notice that the drivers were much less protected than today; the tires were standard and the drivers wore their own clothing, the spent all day without special suits or protection of any kind. Lollobrigida explains: “I think that the racing drivers of that time were real professionals, as well as driving fast you had to have the ability to control the car, change gears etc. I remember the wind on my face, it took possession of me, every part of my body, giving me a feeling that only someone who has done something similar can understand. Racing was my purpose in life and to pursue this passion I made big sacrifices.”

He led a life full of emotions, feelings and experience, countless private weddings, adventures around the world which would require a whole book to do them justice. Today Guido lives in Cerveteri, a quiet destination. When we ask him if with hindsight he’d sacrifice everything he’d personally accomplished in order to achieve his dreams, he doesn’t hesitate. “Of course, nothing could make me feel the same chill down my spine. I wouldn’t hesitate.”

Wild Eye website link: http://www.thewildeye.co.uk/blog/

Makin a Man of Him

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:56:00 +0000

Making a Man of Him – U.K. title

A 1912 British production [Urban Trading Co. (London)]

Producer: Charles Urban

Director: F. Martin Thornton (Floyd Martin Thornton)

Story: ?

Screenplay: ?

Cinematography: ? [black & white]

Running time: 168 meters

Cast: ?

Story: A stockbroker sends his son to his brother’s ranch.

Textos roubados | Blood, guts and bullets

Por um punhado de euros (P. Pereira) — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:46:00 +0000

Death scenes tell you everything you need to know about spaghetti westerns, the most brutal and inventive of all film genres. Alex Cox picks his 10 favourite on-screen exits.

For some reason I thought it would be fun to gather all the Italian-made western DVDs and tapes I could lay my hands on, and watch them in the order they were made. An interesting experiment, which maybe I could turn into a book, or a long article on the development of one of the most peculiar and popular cinematic sub-genres.

Some 200-odd spaghetti westerns later, the experiment is complete, but I am not sure what I have learned from it. Spaghetti westerns are violent, sexist, homophobic, intermittently racist, sometimes funny, most often boring and repetitive – like all westerns, or films generally. Yet I still love the spaghetti western, for its anarchic politics, for its surrealism, for its stoic heroes and diabolical villains, and for its many macabre murders and massacres. Here, then, follow my Top 10 Italian Western Deaths.

1 & 2 For a Few Dollars More

Sergio Leone’s second western (his first was a remake of Kurosawa’s samurai film, Yojimbo) features the most horrible deaths of all. Both happen off-screen. It’s early in the film, and we’re getting to know the principal villain, El Indio (played by the wonderful communist actor Gian Maria Volontè – blacklisted till Leone made him a star again). Escaping from prison, Indio kills his cell-mate, numerous guards and the warden, but doesn’t really establish himself as the Most Diabolical Western Villain of All Time until the following scene. This takes place in an old church. Indio and his gang of outlaws have caught up with one Tomaso (played by Spanish actor Lorenzo Lorenzon), who turned Indio over to the law a couple of years ago. Indio remarks that the amount of time he spent in prison is the age of Tomaso’s young child: “You took the reward money and used it to start a family.” El Indio wants to kill Tomaso in a duel, so, in order to give Tomaso more of an incentive, he decides to do something really nasty to him. He orders his men to take his enemy’s wife and baby outside. Two shots ring out. If this were a Hollywood film of the period, mother and child would not be killed. Such things didn’t happen in American films: the shots would have been fired in the air, the baby would be safe. Not in For a Few Dollars More, where Tomaso weeps because he knows his family is dead. Here is the hideous genius of Leone and the other masters of the Italian western: they weren’t bound by a self-imposed censorship regime, known as the Hays Code. Unlike American westerns, spaghettis could include mercy killings, prolonged scenes of sadistic cruelty, and the murders of whole families in order to provoke revenge. And so they did.

3 Django

Sergio Corbucci was Leone’s friend and rival. His first westerns were uninspiring. In the wake of For a Few Dollars More, he directed a truly remarkable one: Django. Much emulated (there were at least 50 sequels), Django is a truly original and demented film. The hero, played by Franco Nero, is a shell-shocked veteran of the civil war. He has no horse, and drags a coffin through fields of mud. Inside the coffin is a machine gun that he hopes to trade for gold. He fetches up in a ghost town dominated by two rival gangs: Mexican bandidos and southern racists. Of the two sides, the Confederates are the worse. They run a protection racket in the town’s only business, a brothel. The collector of the protection money is a protestant priest, the black-cloaked Brother Jonathan (Gino Pernice). It’s Brother Jonathan’s demise that earned Django trouble with the censor, and a worldwide reputation. Jonathan is caught by the Mexicans, who accuse him of being a spy. To make their point more clearly, the Mexican bandit chief cuts off the preacher’s ear … and makes him eat it. This is truly bizarre, utterly unexpected. And then they shoot him! Talk about over-egging the pudding. Corbucci was a hard-line leftist, and had no time for priests or pacifists, who are frequently murdered in his western films. But the death of the obnoxious pastor Jonathan is one of the high points of spaghetti history.

4 Requiescant

A fine, crazy western by the prolific and talented Carlo Lizzani, Requiescant has as its hero a Mexican killer-priest (played by the Uruguyan actor Lou Castell) who prays for the souls of his victims. His adversary is a white racist, Fergusson (an American, Marc Damon).The film’s best moment comes when Requiescant (for that is his name) recovers his lost memory, and runs through the desert graveyard where his family was massacred, uprooting their rib cages, skulls and bones. Fergusson is memorably effete and manic, murdering his wife and dallying with the houseboys. In the final showdown, wounded, he begs the hero to let him die like a gentleman. “I don’t know how a gentleman dies,” Requiescant replies. He shoots Fergusson several times, after which a large church bell falls and crushes him.

5 Quién Sabe?

Quién Sabe? – also known as A Bullet for the General – is one of a number of spaghetti westerns set in Mexico during the Revolution. Leone’s Duck, You Sucker! is set in this period, as are two or three of Corbucci’s westerns. But Quién Sabe? – directed by Damiano Damiani – is by far the best. It is a time of liberation, yet all of its characters are trapped. El Chucho, the revolutionary peasant played by Gian Maria Volontè, is imprisoned by his own vanity and stupidity; Bill Tate, the gringo assassin portrayed by Lou Castell, is trapped by his lack of understanding and his obsessive love for Chucho. The whole messed-up situation is visible in one scene, early on, when the revolutionaries stop a military train carrying arms. How to do this? Simple: capture an army captain and crucify him on the railroad tracks. The train, under the command of a lowly sergeant, won’t be able to proceed unless the captain orders it to do so, crushing him in the process. This he won’t do. So the train is pinned down and Chucho’s guerrillas are able to decimate its guards. By the time the order is given to move the train forward – killing the captain – the battle is already lost.

6 The Big Silence

Corbucci found himself in an interesting quandary. When he made films he didn’t care about – such as Minnesota Clay with Cameron Mitchell, or feeble comedy-westerns such as Ringo and His Golden Pistol, aka Johnny Oro – the films were picked up by American studios and distributed around the world. When he made a film he liked, such as Django, it got limited distribution or was banned. Nevertheless, incensed by the deaths of Malcolm X and Che Guevara, Corbucci embarked on a new, anti-authoritarian western with a mute hero called, yes, Silence (the French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant) set in the snow. The Big Silence is his masterpiece: a great, pessimistic, bitter western by a director who had once loved, and now hated, westerns. The film features many cruel deaths, none more awful than that of the hero himself. Earlier in the movie, Silence – the mute, killer-of-bounty-killers – is jumped by the villains, who stick his hand into a burning brazier. Now he can no longer use his gun. But, when the innocent farmer-renegades are captured by the villainous banker’s mercenaries, and their leader, Loco (Klaus Kinski) challenged him to a duel, Silence is obliged to respond. The death of Silence – shot in the most cowardly and offhand manner, by subsidiary villains, through the saloon windows – is one of the saddest moments in any spaghetti western. It confirms Corbucci’s pessimistic genius. And – thus annoying the American studio which had acquired the rights – The Big Silence remained unseen for many years.

7 Once Upon a Time in the West

Leone’s art western features many memorable deaths. As in For a Few Dollars More, an entire family is slaughtered – simply to prove the villainy of Henry Fonda’s bad guy, Frank. There is also an unforgettable death-by-flashback, in which the hero witnesses his brother’s lynching. But for the jaded enthusiast, the most remarkable demise is that of Morton, the crippled railroad magnate. Throughout this long, angst-ridden film, Morton, writhing in physical agony, has survived due to his determination to reach the Pacific Ocean. This is why he’s hired Fonda’s character, the killer Frank, “To remove small obstacles from the track” – so that Morton may see the sea. But Morton mixes his meetings, and attempts to have Frank killed. Frank returns to the train to settle their account, but finds only a host of corpses … and the dying Mr Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti) scrabbling in the brackish, trackside ditch. Ennio Morricone adds to the irony with a delicate piano score; Leone’s sound design includes waves, crashing on the Pacific shore that Morton will never see.

8 Day of Anger

This is a modest western by one of Leone’s assistants, Tonino Valerii. It pairs Lee Van Cleef, the venerable American character actor, with Giuliano Gemma, sexiest and most muscular of all Italian leading men. Van Cleef’s character trains Gemma’s to be a gunfighter. A predictable scenario ensues. But the film has two high points: a manic cameo by a recently-arrived Canadian actor, Al Mulock (who sadly fell out of a window during the filming of Once Upon a Time in the West) and a great showdown between Van Cleef and veteran Italian stuntman, Benito Stefanelli. Stefanelli plays a self-assured, somewhat theatrical bounty hunter who’s after the gunfighter played by Lee Van Cleef. Their gunfight – with rifles, aboard galloping horses – is simply splendid: a moment of epic drama (which ends badly for Stefanelli’s character) in a mediocre film.

9 Don’t Touch the White Woman!

A French western directed by an Italian, Marco Ferreri, and starring a Buñuelian repertory cast including Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, and Catherine Deneuve. This is the story of the battle of Little Big Horn, in which General Custer fields the US cavalry against the working-class citizenry of Les Halles. Shot during the destruction of the famous market, the film draws a parallel between Custer’s genocidal mission and the 60s urban planners’ loathing for the communities they were determined to “regenerate”. It’s all insane, all over the top, but very well done, and mysteriously unknown, given its outrageousness, its substantial budget and its all-star cast. Deneuve plays a simpering southern belle, flawlessly clad in pristine white, who has the hots for Custer (Mastroianni). Her death – an arrow through the throat as she professes banal love for Le Général – is notable slice of spaghetti savagery.

10 Django Kill

Django Kill belongs with the complete works of Buñuel and David Cronenberg’s Shivers in the awesome armoire of surrealist cinema. Its director, Giulio Questi, didn’t like westerns; when, at the height of the spaghetti boom, a producer friend asked him if he had any western scripts, Questi wrote a fantasy based on his own experiences as a teenage anti-fascist resistance fighter during the second world war. Unlike any other war film, or any other cowboy film, Django Kill – which the director prefers to call If You Live, Shoot! – is a catalogue of murder, hypocrisy, and perversion. There are no good characters in the film: the worst of those present is one Hagerman, sometimes called the Alderman – played by Piero Lulli, an Italian who specialised in highly-strung maniacs. Hagerman locks up his wife, insisting she is mad and will burn down the house. Django, the hero, doesn’t believe this and lets the woman go. But she is mad, and she does set the house on fire. Returning to find the Hagermans’ home ablaze, Django watches as Hagerman races through the flames to the attic, where his gold is stored. But when he opens his strongbox and upends it, he discovers that the gold has melted with the heat of the blaze. Molten gold, one of Middleton’s revenge mechanisms in Women Beware Women, pours forth all over his head and hands. Blind and ablaze, Hagerman, covered in melted gold, staggers through his collapsing, burning mansion.

Nota:

Artigo escrito pelo conhecido entusiasta do western-spaghetti, Alex Cox. Originalmente publicado no Guardian. Link directo: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/apr/17/spaghetti-westerns-death-scenes

Intel Ultrabook commercial

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:06:00 +0000

Intel – Inside Scoop

By Marcia Hansen

In April we marked the launch of the new Ultrabook™ TV campaign entitled “Desperado” (See the YouTube link at the end of this post). The TV commercial pits the cutting edge technology of the new, ultra-sleek, ultra-fast Ultrabook against other computers in a Western saloon setting… proving that “everything else seems old-fashioned.”

We are pre-releasing the campaign on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and Inside Scoop before the ads air on TV!

Behind the Scenes – Shooting “Desperado” TV Ad for Intel

The “Desperado” TV ad from Intel was shot in Almeria, Spain at Oasys Theme Park in Mini-Hollywood, a setting for many popular movies, including “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” with Clint Eastwood and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” with Harrison Ford. Movie buffs may be interested to read more about Mini-Hollywood.

We went to great lengths to find the locations and cast that worked best, including extras.

YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0qxELBH5co

Happy 75th Birthday Lloyd Battista

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:04:00 +0000

Lloyd Battista was born on May 14, 1937 in Cleveland, Ohio. He’s spent a lifetime in theater and film which has produced an impressive list of credits. As an actor he has been seen on and off Broadway well over a dozen times ranging in vehicles as diverse as “Sexual Perversity” in Chicago to “The Homecoming” with The Royal Shakespeare Company. On television he has guest starred on countless prime time shows ranging from “Here’s Lucy” and “Mission Impossible”, to “Perry Mason” and “Walker, Texas Ranger”. He has been seen in over a dozen movies made for television, plus Spelling Entertainment’s mini-series of James Michener’s “Texas”. Battista is also recognizable from being a regular for five years on CBS’s classic daytime drama, “Love of Life”. In film appearances he’s been killed by John Wayne, hit over the head by Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, been the President of Nicaragua, been a brother to Ringo Starr and rode into the sunset in several Spaghetti westerns where he always wore a black hat. Perhaps his favorite action sequence was his underwater struggle with Flipper in “Flippers New Adventure”. His voice is easily recognized from the long running radio drama, CBS Mystery Theatre of the Air. He’s directed for the theater and radio, written screenplays for films and written poetry and is a restaurant critic. He appeared in and wrote screenplays for four Euro-westerns “The Silent Stranger” (1968), “Blindman” (1971), “Get Mean” (1975) and “Comin’ At Ya!” (1981). Today we celebrate Lloyd Battista’s 75^th Birthday.

Posters | Vado… l’ammazzo e torno (1967)

Por um punhado de euros (P. Pereira) — Sun, 13 May 2012 23:00:00 +0000

Mother’s Day 2012

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Sun, 13 May 2012 13:27:00 +0000

THE MAGNIFICENT WEST

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Sun, 13 May 2012 13:08:00 +0000

Une corde a l’aube – French title

Il magnifico west – Italian title

El Oeste magnifico – Spanish title

My Name is Texas Bill – English title

The Magnificent Texan – U.K. title

Magnificent West – U.S.A. title

A 1972 Italian production [Dinmanica (Rome)]

Producer: Elio Ottaviani

Director: Gianni Crea

Story: Gianni Crea

Screenplay: Gianni Crea

Cinematography: Giovanni Raffaldi [Eastmancolot, widescreen]

Music: Stelvio Cipriani

Running time: 84 minutes

Cast:

Texas Bill – Vassili Karis (Vassili Karamesinis)

Lefty Jim – Lorenzo Fineschi

Fred – Derio Pino (Dario Pino)

‘Pistola’ – Italo Gasperini

Sam Gun – Gennarino Pappagalli

Martin – Gordon Mitchell (Charles Pendleton)

Mary – Fiorella Mannoia

Bearded henchman – Emilio Messina

With: Enzo Pulcrano (Vincenzo Pulcrano), Sergio Scarchilli, Pino Mattei (Giuseppe Mattei), Mimmo Raffa (Domenico Raffa)

A young gunslinger named Texas Bill and his faithful friend Pistola save an innkeeper and his daughter Mary from the hands of two outlaws just a few years after saving two brothers, Fred and Jim, from an unjust hanging. Their dual action raises the ire of Martin, a gang leader who dominates, with terror the city of Tucson. He tries to get rid of Texas by having him jailed, but the young gunman, with the help of Pistola, escapes and joins a group of farmers who had settled in a village a few miles from Tucson. Anticipating a showdown with Martin’s men, they are prepared to meet the gang head-on and when the do attack are soundly defeated. Martin’s rule is reduced to impotence, Texas along with Mary, rides off to new adventures.

Happy 70th Birthday Ada Pometti

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Sun, 13 May 2012 13:06:00 +0000

Nunzia Agata Pometti was born in Catania, Italy on May 13, 1942. Known in films as Ada Pometti and also under the pseudonyms Priscilla Benson and Ada Pomeroy, she has been a character actress since her first appearance in “Tabula rasa” (1968). Among her most interesting works have included the participation in the movies, “Lady Frankenstein” directed by Mel Welles and Aureliano Luppi, “The Cat o’Nine Tails” directed by Dario Argento (both 1971) and “Watch Out We’re Mad! (1974) directed by Marcello Fondato and starring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. Among the 50+ films she’s appeared in have been four Euro-westerns: “His Name Was King” (1971), “Jesse and Lester, Two Brothers in a Place Called Trinity” (1972), “Court Martial” (1973) and “White Fang and the Kid” (1977). Her last appearance was in the 2007 TV mini-series “Il capo dei capi”. Happy 70th Birthday today to Ada Pometti.

Free Access to a Spaghetti Western related article

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Sat, 12 May 2012 16:20:00 +0000

Of particular interest to the members of the Spaghetti Western Web Board.

Access to Lee Broughton’s recent fan cultures article about an on-line Spaghetti Western fan community and their location hunting trips to Almeria, Spain — ‘Crossing borders virtual and real: a transnational Internet-based community of Spaghetti Western fans finally meet each other face to face on the wild plains of Almeria, Spain’ — is free until the end of May via the link below:

http://tandfonline.com/toc/rmli20/11/4

New CD Release

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Sat, 12 May 2012 13:10:00 +0000

Un uomo, un cavallo una pistol (The Stranger Returns)

(1968)

Director: Luigi Vanzi

Starring: Tony Anthony, Dan Vadis, Daniele Vargas

Composer: Stelvio Cipriani

Label: GDM #GDM4154

Tracks: 22

Total time: 53:60

Limited Edition 500 copies

Available: May 23, 2012

Track Listing:

The originally assembled album mock-up

01. Un uomo, un cavallo, una pistola

02. Una canzone per la luna

03. Faccia a terra

04. Carrozza d’oro

05. *Il buon pastore

06. Le pistole attendono

07. Zoccoli nella polvere

08. Sentiero rosso

09. La sentenza

10. Esterno saloon

11. Viaggio nella prateria

12. Notturno per colt

*Bonus tracks

13. Un uomo, un cavallo, una pistola (Titoli versione film)

14. Viaggio nella prateria (Versione film)

15. Una canzone per la luna (Versione film)

16. Viaggio nella prateria (Versione film)

17. Zoccoli nella polvere (Versione film)

18. Un uomo, un cavallo, una pistola (Versione film)

19. Viaggio nella prateria (Versione film)

20. Zoccoli nella polvere (Versione film)

21. Un uomo, un cavallo, una pistola (Finale versione film)

22. Un uomo, un cavallo, una pistola (Alt. take, mono mix)

Tracks *5, *Bonus tracks 13 – 22 previously unreleased

Spaghetti Western Locations

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Sat, 12 May 2012 13:07:00 +0000

We continue with location from “Duck You Sucker”. Another execution scene is shown with Aldo Sambrell as the captain of the squad. This scene was also filmed at another part of the Sugar Beet Plant called Azucarera San Torcuato in Gaudix.

For a more detailed view of this site and other Spaghetti Western locations please visit my friend Yoshi ‘Garringo’ Yasuda’s excellent website: http://y-yasuda.net

Guess Who I Am

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Sat, 12 May 2012 03:13:00 +0000

I was born in the Netherlands in 1942

I appeared in over 20 films during my career.

I used an alias in the five Euro-westerns I starred in

Guess who I am.

Chris Casey correctly identified this week’s photo as that of Glenn Saxson real name Roel Bos.

RIP Günther Kaufmann

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Fri, 11 May 2012 23:11:00 +0000

Berlin – German actor Günther Kaufmann has died, he collapsed on a Berlin street on Thursday May 10, 2012, a police spokesman confirmed on Friday evening, in a report in the “Bild” newspaper. He died while walking in the Grunewald district of heart failure, the newspaper said. The actor, who in 2009 went to RTL “jungle camp” and at one time was wrongly imprisoned for murder was 64 years old.

“The White Negro of Hasenbergl” – the title of his autobiography – grew up the son of a U.S. Army soldier and a German mother in Hasenbergl quarter of Munich. In the 70s and 80s, he starred in 16 Rainer-Werner Fassbinder films, including “Berlin Alexanderplatz,” “The Marriage of Maria Braun” and “Querelle”. In the ’90s he had roles in TV series including “Derrick” and “The Old Man”.

Even his merchant life at times resembled a detective story: for the love of his terminally ill wife he made a false confession and was found guilty in 2002 for the murder of his tax adviser and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Almost three years he sat in jail until the real culprit was arrested. The actor then recanted his confession and was acquitted in a retrial in Augsburg. It turned out that the real culprit had brutally attacked the accountant on behalf of the wife of a merchant now deceased.

After his release, he played in two films including the animated series “Vicky the Viking” and Michael “Bully” Herbig’s, the “Terrible Sven”. Recently he was seen in “Turkish for Beginners – The Movie” on the big screen. In 2009, Kaufmann was a participant in one episode of the fourth season of “I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here”. He tried out for a role in an upcoming 2013 feature film about a businessman living in theaters. The father of two grown children himself, he wanted the lead role.

Kaufmann appeared in one Euro-western, director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “Whity” (1971) as Whity.

THE MAGNIFICENT THREE

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:03:00 +0000

I magnifici tre – Italian title

The Magnificent Three – English title

A 1961 Italian production [Cineproduzioni (Rome)]

Producer: Erno Bistolfi

Director: Giorgio Simonelli

Story: Bruno Coprbucci, Giovanni Grimaldi, Mario Guerra, Giulio Scarnicci, Renzo Tarabusi,

Vittorio Vighi

Screenplay: Bruno Coprbucci, Giovanni Grimaldi, Mario Guerra, Giulio Scarnicci, Renzo

Tarabusi, Vittorio Vighi

Cinematography: Franco Villa [Eastmancolor, widescreen]

Music: Gianni Ferrio

Song: “Un Uomo Vivo” sung by Gino Paoli

Running time: 105 minutes

Cast:

Domingo – Ugo Tognazzi (Ottavio Tognazzi)

Pablo – Walter Chiari (Walter Annichiarico)

Josè – Raimondo Vianello

Alba – Dominique Boschero

Dolores – Anna Ranalli

Juanito – Margaret Rose Keil (Margareth Keil)

Bonarios/El Supremo – Aroldo Tieri

Pedro – Fanfulla (Luigi Visconti)

Gonzales – Tom Fellegi (Tamas Fellegi)

La Sposa – Lucia Modugno

Mendoza – Alex Revidis (Alexander Revidis)

Nina – Nietta Zocchi (Antnietta Zocchi)
Gorilla – Ciccio Barbi (Alfio Barbi)
bandit leader – Nando Angelini (Ferdinando Angelini)
peon – Eugenio Galadini

With: Bruno Tocci, Tulio Altamura, Franco Jamonte, Giuliano Mancini, Aldo Pini

To defend the population from abuses of the dictator of Bonarios ‘El Supremo’, who as a hobby kidnaps young women for his wives, including three daughters of the late sheriff, some brave citizens decide to hire gunmen to confront the dictator. To free the three girls, Pablo, Domingo and Jose, all believed to be skilled gunfighters, but in reality the three are actually inept peons of the region, they are later arrested and sentenced to death but escape the firing squad with the help of the three girls and help overthrow the tyrannical El Supremo.

news – Orvieto Western Festival

mauro — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:26:00 +0000

1° ORVIETO WESTERN FESTIVAL

Un Festival dedicato al cinema western in Italia è cosa più unica che rara. Se poi oltre al cinema, celebrato tramite proiezioni, tavole rotonde e incontri con attori, sceneggiatori e registi, si unisce anche il fumetto western, altro “pallino” di noi di Se Sei Vivo Spara, allora l’appuntamento diventa semplicemente imperdibile, e sul presente blog non potevamo non farne menzione.

Da domani fino a domenica a Orvieto (TR) a fianco di protagonisti del western italiano del calibro di Gianni Garko, Fabio Testi, Sergio Donati, Giancarlo Santi, Remo Capitani e molti altri sfileranno affermati autori di fumetti come Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri, Raul e Gianluca Cestaro, Mauro Laurenti e Moreno Burattini…

Il programma di Orvieto:

1 giorno, venerdì 11 maggio
(I protagonisti del cinema di Sergio Leone)
9:00 Film animato “West&Soda” VERSIONE RESTAURATA CON CONTENUTI SPECIALI Bruno Bozzetto (sala 400) 10:30 Incontro con lo sceneggiatore Sergio Donati con gli alunni del Liceo Artistico di Orvieto (sala dei 400) 11:15/12:30 visita alla mostra di Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri in anteprima esclusiva 13:00 Pausa 14:00 Apertura stand mostra mercato fumetto, vinile e gadget (sala Expo) 14:00 Docufilm “Claudio Mancini Story” regia Luigi Pastore ANTEPRIMA ITALIANA (sala dei 400) con la presenza di Claudio Mancini e Luigi Pastore 15:00 Rassegna Cinema Italiano indipendente (sala dei 400) con la presenza dei registi Cortometraggio “Abbiamo ancora tempo” regia Stefano Salvatori Cortometraggio “Tramonto” regia di Roberto Urbani Teaser “Undead man” regia Daniele Statella Lungometraggio “Inferno bianco” regia Stefano Jacurti 17:00 Tavolata d’autore con Sergio Donati, Nino Baragli, Claudio Mancini, Giancarlo Santi (sala 400) a seguire consegna awards 18:00 Docufilm “I sogni nel mirino” regia Luca Morsella (sala 400) con la presenza del regista 19:00 Incontri d’autore: Incontro con Sergio Donati (storico sceneggiatore dei film di Sergio Leone) e presentazione del suo libro “C’era una volta il West (ma c’ero anch’io)” (sala dei 400) 21:00 video messaggio del maestro Ennio Morricone in omaggio al Festival a seguire incontro con Giancarlo Santi storico collaboratore di Sergio Leone e proiezione de “Il grande duello” regia Giancarlo Santi (sala dei 400) 00:00 Film “Ombre rosse” regia John Ford (sala dei 400)

2 giorno, sabato 12 maggio
(Spaghetti western & Comics)
10:00 Apertura stand mostra mercato fumetto, vinile e gadget (sala Expo) 11:00 Docufilm “L’America a Roma” regia Gianfranco Pannone (sala 400) con la presenza del regista 12:00 Inaugurazione Mostra “Il West di Serpieri” con Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri, sindaco di Orvieto Antonio Concina e personalità locali (Palazzo dei Sette) 12:00 Annullo Filatelico, bollo speciale di Poste Italiane (Palazzo dei Sette) 13:00 Pausa 14:00 Film “Lo chiamavano Trinità” regia Enzo Barboni (E.B. Clucher) (sala dei 400) con la presenza di Sandra Zingarelli 16:00 Docufilm “Trinità… e fu tempo di fagioli e west” regia Alberto Donati (sala dei 400) 17:00 Incontri d’autore – Il West di Trinità – Incontro con Franco Micalizzi (sala dei 400) 18:00 Video messaggio del maestro Ennio Morricone al Festival e a seguire vetrina sonora con Graziano Romani e performance estemporanea di Mauro Laurenti (Zagor) ed i fratelli Gianluca e Raul Cestaro (Tex) (sala dei 400) 19:00 Tavolata d’autore con Gianni Garko, Franco Micalizzi, Nori e Carlo Corbucci, Gianfranco Pannone, Sandra Zingarelli e Remo Capitani (sala 400) a seguire consegna awards 21:00 Film “Una nuvola di polvere… un grido di morte… arriva Santana” regia Giuliano Carnimeo (sala 400) con la presenza di Gianni Garko 23:00 Film “Django” regia Sergio Corbucci (sala 400)

3 giorno, domenica 13 maggio
(Gli eroi del West)
10:00 Apertura stand mostra mercato fumetto, vinile e gadget (sala Expo) 10:00 Film “Jess il bandito” regia Henry King (sala dei 400) 11:00 Presentazione fumetto “John Doe Western” con Lorenzo Bartoli (sala etrusca) 12:00 Dibattito sul Fumetto Western “Duri a morire? Che futuro per gli eroi di carta?” con Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri, Mauro Laurenti, fratelli Raul e Gianluca Cestaro, Lorenzo Bartoli – coordina Moreno Burattini (sala dei 400) 13:00 Pausa 14:00 Presentazione dei nuovi libri in uscita sul Far West e, a seguire, proiezione in anteprima teaser “Day of the Gun” regia Wayne Shipley (sala dei 400) 15:00 Proiezione DOC “Sweetgrass” regia Lucien Castaing -Taylor ANTEPRIMA ITALIANA (sala dei 400) 17:00 Incontri d’autore: Incontro con Gianni John Garko e Fabio Testi coordina Marco Giusti VIDEOMESSAGGIO IN ESCLUSIVA di TOMAS MILIAN (sala dei 400) a seguire consegna award 18:00 “I Quattro dell’apocalisse” regia Lucio Fulci 21:00 Concerto Graziano Romani 22:00 Film “Il cavallo d’acciaio” regia John Ford

sito internet: www.westernfestival.it

New CD Release

Westerns All'Italiana (Tom Betts) — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:56:00 +0000

Gli eroi del West (Heroes of the West)

(1965)

Director: Steno

Starring: Walter Chiari Raimondo Vianello

Composer: Gianni Ferrio

Label GDM #GDM4153

Tracks: 28

Total time: 40:15

Limited Edtion 500 copies

Available: May 23, 2012

Track listing:

01. Gli eroi della prateria (Titoli)

02. Gli eroi del West seq. 01

03. Gli eroi del West seq. 02

04. Gli eroi del West seq. 03

05. Gli eroi del West seq. 04

06. Gli eroi del West seq. 05

07. La ragazza del saloon

08. Gli eroi del West seq. 06

09. Gli eroi del West seq. 07

10. Gli eroi del West seq. 08

11. Gli eroi del West seq. 09

12. Gli eroi del West seq. 10

13. Gli eroi del West seq. 11

14. Gli eroi del West seq. 12

15. Gli eroi del West seq. 13

16. Gli eroi del West seq. 14

17. Gli eroi della prateria (Strum.)

18. Gli eroi del West seq. 15

19. Gli eroi del West seq. 16

20. Gli eroi del West seq. 17

21. Gli eroi del West seq. 18

22. Gli eroi del West seq. 19

23. Gli eroi del West seq. 20

24. Gli eroi del West seq. 21

25. Gli eroi del West seq. 22

26. Gli eroi del West seq. 23

27. Gli eroi del West seq. 24

28. 17. Gli eroi della prateria (Finale)

Harmonica soloist: Franco De Gemeni

Guitar: Alessandro Alessandroni

“Gli eroi della parateria” sung by Walter Chari and Raimondo Vianello (Track 01)

“La ragazza del saloon” sung by Nora Orlandi with i 4+4 choir (Track 7)

Vocal by Alessandro Alessandroni (Track 3 – stereo)