filmographies

Between 1960 and 1975, European film production companies made nearly 600 Westerns. Critics either blasted or ignored these films, and because most of them were financed by Italian companies, they called them  Spaghetti Westerns. Fans of the genre embraced the term which is now lovingly used to label any Western made and financed by Continental filmmakers.   Europeans have always loved Westerns and have always made them. As early as 1901, European directors tried their hand at this most American of art forms. The relatively few Eurowesterns made prior to 1960, though historically significant, never signified a trend and remain largely unknown, at least in the United States. People on the Continent relied on the American Western for their entertainment.

By 1960, the production of American Westerns had dwindled due to market forces, and distribution problems made them increasingly hard to obtain in Europe. As a result, European producers began experimenting with home-grown oaters, mostly Spanish Zorro flicks and poorly dubbed imitations of American B Westerns. The one exception was Michael Carreras' Spanish-produced Savage Guns (1961) starring Richard Basehart and Alex Nichol, which proved that a well-produced, if not entirely original, Western could be made on foreign soil. Still, the majority of these films were not very good, gaining only a meager foothold--which began slipping very quickly.

"Treasure of Silver Lake" (1962)  German One Sheet

Lex Barker is "Old Shatterhand", Pierre Brice is "Winnetou" in "Apache Gold"(1963)

In 1962, however, German producer Horst Wendlandt and director Harald Reinl teamed up to make The Treasure of Silver Lake, based on the frontier stories of German writer Karl May. Filmed in Yugoslavia with American actor Lex Barker and Frenchman Pierre Brice in the lead roles, this tongue-in-cheek adventure proved extremely popular with European audiences. Other producers jumped on the bandwagon and by 1964 some two dozen German, Italian and Spanish Westerns had been made. Quality was still generally bad and the films stylistically fared no better than the sword-and-sandal adventures (peplums) they replaced. One notable film of this period was Ricardo Blasco's Gunfight at Red Sands (1963) with Richard Harrison, who would eventually star in seventeen Spaghetti Westerns.

Shooting "For A Few Dollars More"(1965) around Tabernas, Southern Spain

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) with Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach was the last of Leone's Dollars Trilogy. Long, funny and brutal, this Civil War epic is the quintessential Spaghetti Western. From cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli's exquisite use of widescreen to Ennio Morricone's now-classic score, this film remains the most famous of all Spaghetti Westerns.  In fact, Ennio Morricone's theme is so recognizable, it has been used numerous times to underscore showdowns of one kind or another on many TV shows, with those scenes mimicking Leone's visual style.  

"The Good, the Bad & the Ugly" Italian One-Sheet

If Sergio Leone defined the style of the Spaghetti Western, Morricone invented its music. His hoofbeat  rythmns, whistling themes, and the use of the human voice as an instrument became the standard for the scores to follow. Morricone's simple, haunting tunes did more than merely fill the gaps between passages of dialogue.  They became an audible presence -- punctuating action, accelerating a chase scene, or driving a showdown to its conclusion. This coordination of action and music has prompted some scholars to compare Leone's films to opera.

"Dollar-Trilogy" by Ennio Morricone - Italian Soundtrack CD

While many composers sought to copy Morricone, others like Carlo Rustichelli, Angelo Lavagnino, Piero Piccioni and Francesco DeMasi successfully adapted their own unique styles to the films. DeMasi, one of the most prolific of the Spaghetti composers, wrote scores for thirty-five films including Ringo the Lone Rider (1967), Payment in Blood (1968) and Any Gun Can Play (1968). Bruno Nicolai, a close Morricone associate for many years (conducting numerous Morricone scores), composed some of the best Spaghetti Western music with scores for films such as Run, Man, Run (1967) and Adios Sabata (1970). Fans of the genre cite the music as the single most significant element in these films and the soundtrack recordings are highly prized by collectors. In fact, the demand is so great today, many previously unreleased scores are finding their way onto CDs. One only needs to hear Morricone's The Big Gundown, Piccioni's Minnesota Clay, Luis Bacalov's Django, or Stelvio Cipriani's The Stranger Returns to understand why. These are very listenable scores, much like those of Dimitri Tiomkin and Elmer Bernstein.  

       
A selection of rare European Spaghetti Western soundtrack CDs  

Please click on SOUNDTRACK CDS or SOUNDTRACK SINGLES to see a nice variety of graphic art.

By 1966, the Spaghetti Western genre had gained full momentum, and major directors and trends emerged.   Sergio Corbucci (aka "The Other Sergio," and who had already directed Westerns) made his over-the-top Django,  a film which not only helped introduce the revenge motive to Spaghetti Western plots, it raised the violence quotient considerably (causing it to be banned in several markets). Brutality and high body counts became part of the formula causing critics to overlook many outstanding films. Giulio Questi's surrealistic Django Kill! (1967) with Tomas Milian is considered the most brutal of the Spaghettis, as well as the strangest, with humiliation, torture, vampire bats, a crucifiction, and an army of homosexual outlaws.

"Django"(1966) - Italian Fotobusta

Django spawned over thirty sequels, though only one of these was official. As with other series characters, like the hero of Duccio Tessari's A Pistol for Ringo and Return of Ringo (both 1965) starring Montgomery Wood, many of these films were re-dubbed or re-titled to cash in on the original films. Gianfranco Parolini's (aka Frank Kramer) Sartana (1968) and Sabata (1969) as well as E. B. Clucher's  They Call Me Trinity (1970) all inspired ersatz sequels.  

The majority of the Spaghetti Westerns, though, never pretended to be more than simple action films for unsophisticated movie-goers, finding their biggest audiences in the Third World. Enzo Girolami (using the pseudonyms E.G. Rowland and Enzo G. Castellari) specialized in silly but entertaining films such as Payment in Blood and Any Gun Can Play (both 1968). As Thomas Weisser points out, Girolami has the distinction of making one of the worst Spaghettis -- Cipolla Colt (aka Spaghetti Western) (1975) -- and one of the best -- the mystical Keoma (1975). Demofilo Fidani, using various aliases such as Miles Deem, Dick Spitfire and Slim Alone, directed numerous low-budget and low-brow Westerns  such as Django and Sartana are Coming....It's the End (1970) and Go Away! Trinity Has Arrived in Eldorado (1972). Other prolific directors include Alfonso Balcazar, Mario Caiano, Giuliano Carmineo (aka Anthony Ascott), Ignacio Iquino,  Joaquin and Rafael Romero Marchant, Roberto Montero, and Primo Zeglio.  

"The Good, the Bad & the Ugly"(1966)

Many American B stars and character actors found it possible to travel to Europe and become stars of Spaghetti Westerns. After Leone's Dollar films, Lee Van Cleef made The Big Gundown (1966), Death Rides a Horse (1967), Beyond the Law (1968) and many others. By the early 1970's Van Cleef had become one of the ten biggest box-office draws in Europe. Actors such as Gilbert Roland, Walter Barnes, Stephen Boyd, Edd Byrnes, Joseph Cotton, Broderick Crawford, Mark Damon, Jack Elam, Woody Strode, John Ireland, Ty Hardin, Guy Madison, Lex Barker and many others all found work in the Spaghettis when their domestic careers flagged.

"El Condor"(1970)

The Spaghettis boosted the careers of European actors as well, though some worked under pseudonyms. Giuliano Gemma (aka Montgomery Wood) hit it big with the Ringo films. Franco Nero found lucrative work in such films as Lucio Fulci's The Brute and the Beast (1966), Ferdinando Baldi's Texas, Adios (1966) and a number of Sergio Corbucci projects (Corbucci once said, "Ford had John Wayne, I have Franco Nero").  

Many European bit players and character actors found steady work in the Spaghettis. Mario Brega, Aldo Sambrell, Chris Huerta and Fernando Sancho all specialized in playing greasy, sadistic bandits. Sancho appeared in an incredible fifty-three Westerns. Fernando Rey, best known as the antagonist in The French Connection, made a modest career playing priests and intellectuals.  

Being a macho genre, females were lacking in major roles. Though a few Spaghettis, such as Louis Malle's Viva Maria! (1965), Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Christian-Jaque's The Legend of Frenchie King (1971), and Burt Kennedy's Hannie Caulder (1971), featured women in heroic roles, females were mostly incidental to Spaghetti Westerns. Often women played prostitutes, widows, punching bags, or corpses, prompting some critics to complain of the misogynistic nature of the films. (Critics also complained of racism because blacks were almost non-existent in Spaghetti Westerns and Mexicans were usually portrayed as either priests or bandits).     C.C. in "Once Upon A Time In The West" (1969

"Hannie Caulder"(1970) - German One-Sheet

Playing nearly as important a role as the actors was the terrain. The vast majority of Spaghetti Westerns were filmed on location in Spain, usually near the Mediterranean coastal town of Almeria. This area of the country resembles the American Southwest, which is why most of the films take place along the Mexican border (that, and all the Spanish extras). Most of the German "Winnetou" films used the mountain region around the Croatian city of Split in the former Yugoslavia. Other locations included the Italian Alps, South Africa, and the Canary Islands, and Albert Band took his cast to Argentina to film the cattle drive sequences for The Tramplers (1966) (which explains the odd-looking cattle).  Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Tonino Valerii's My Name is Nobody (1973) were filmed partly in Utah's Monument Valley (aka John Ford Country).  

In 1968, Sergio Leone gave us his fourth, and most revered Western -- Once Upon a Time in the West, a long and fascinating homage to the Western films of John Ford, Howard Hawks, and others. With a Hollywood-sized budget and boasting a strong cast with Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards Jr., and Claudia Cardinale, this film won critical acclaim in Europe and played first-run for as long as four years in at least one Paris theater. Though panned by US critics on its initial release, latter-day reviewers are finally giving this film its due and it is now considered a classic.

Duck, You Sucker (1971) was a film Leone wasn't supposed to direct and the somewhat ho-hum feel of the film is an indication of this. When stars James Coburn and Rod Steiger refused to work with scheduled director Giancarlo Santi, Leone took the helm. It's a rather sentimental (relatively speaking) tale of friendship and betrayal set during the Mexican Revolution, and it remains Leone's least successful Western. It is still a good film and reinforced Leone's ability to handle large-scale action.  

The popularity of the Spaghetti Western sparked a resurgence in production of American Westerns (several new American Westerns were even filmed in Spain).  While some directors tried (unsuccessfully) to imitate the Spaghettis, many great Westerns emerged, taking advantage of the popularity, if not the style, of the Spaghetti Westerns (though it should be noted that Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter (1972) is a remake of Sergio Garrone's 1969 Spaghetti Western Django the Bastard).  Classics such as Richard Brooks' The Professionals (1966), Tom Gries' Will Penny (1967), and George Roy Hill's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) all benefitted from the Western's new popularity. Sam Peckinpah, whose The Wild Bunch (1969) set new standards for violence, claimed that the climate created by the Spaghetti Western allowed him to make such a film.

By the early 1970s, as plots became more contrived and characters more ludicrous, the Spaghetti Western began showing signs of age. Characters such as Sartana and Django teamed up with increasing frequency, and originality in story and characterization gave way to tedium. Heroes such as Sartana and Sabata acted more like 19th century James Bonds, with a dazzling array of sophisticated, and ridiculous, weaponry.  

By the mid-seventies, with martial arts movies and other genres grabbing the hearts and minds of action fans, the Spaghetti Western faded away. Tonino Valerii's well-received parody, My Name is Nobody (1973), "supervised" by Sergio Leone and starring Henry Fonda and Terence Hill, bid a fond farewell to the genre. Set in 1899, this film dealt with the passing of the old ways of the West, with Fonda as the aging gunfighter who gives way to a younger man. The Spaghetti Western hung on for a while and all but disappeared after 1975.  Occasionally, though, a new Spaghetti Western pops up to remind us of days gone by. Terence Hill's Lucky Luke (1995) and Troublemakers (1995) and E.B. Clucher's Sons of  Trinity (1996) have recently shown up on videocassette.

The popularity of the Spaghetti Western has returned somewhat with cable TV, videocassettes, and the Internet, introducing a whole new generation to the genre. TNT has broadcast such classics as The Big Gundown, Death Rides a Horse, and The Hills Run Red.  American Movie Classics has even shown the restored Once Upon a Time in the West in widescreen format.  Recently, MGM video released For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in widescreen on videocassette, both with the original theatrical trailers. A number of mail-order video companies have huge selections of Spaghetti Westerns, and several Web sites are devoted to the genre.  

Over the years, several books have been written on the subject. Christopher Frayling's Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans From Karl May to Sergio Leone (Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. 1981) remains the definitive work on the history of the genre, with an emphasis on the films of Sergio Leone (the second printing of this book is due in 1998 as well as Frayling's  Leone biography Sergio Leone - Something To Do With Death in 1990). Another good Leone book is Oreste De Fornari's Sergio Leone, the Great Italian Dream of Legendary America (Gremese 1997). Robert C. Cumbow's Once Upon a Time, the Films of Sergio Leone (Scarecrow Press 1985, 1987) offers a fascinating analysis of the themes and symbolism in Leone's work. For a discussion of  individual films, Spaghetti Westerns: The Good the Bad and the Violent (McFarland & Co. 1992) by Thomas Weisser gives credits and synopses of 558 Eurowesterns.

Regardless of critics' opinions, the Spaghetti Western represents an important and influential genre in film history. New films, such as John Woo's ultra-violent action flicks and Robert Rodriguez's Desperado, are hailed as "modern Spaghetti Westerns." But the images that remain the most memorable don't always involve gunshots and falling bodies. Who can forget Tuco's run through the vast cemetery in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, a "dead" man's startling appearance in a sandstorm in Return of Ringo, or the black-clad specter dragging a coffin through the muddy streets of a decimated town in Django?  

Some of the best dialog ever created for film came out of the Spanish frontier. In Once Upon a Time in the West, when Frank asks Harmonica, "Who are you?" Harmonica replies with a litany of dead men's names. When a gunman tells Sartana, "You look like a scarecrow," the hero replies, "I am your pallbearer." And when the Stranger, upon being given a four-barreled shotgun in The Stranger Returns, quips, "Old man, there'll be hell raised in the village tonight," we know we are in for some action.

But remember, it's also the music. A bell, a whistle and a cracking whip announce the quick death of a bandit; a lonely trumpet plays a dirge for those who are about to die; an electric guitar twangs a foot-stomping riff for the chase; and a man whistles a foreboding tune as a mysterious stranger rides into town.

Text Copyright © 1998 by John Nudge, originally published by imagesjournal.com
Photos: Ulrich P. Bruckner Collection