Spaghetti Western Director ~ Ernest Goodman
Ernst Hofbauer was an Austrian film director who
specialized in sexploitation cinema, directing over 40 low-budget features
centered on erotic themes. Born in Vienna, Austria on August 22, 1925, he began
his career as an assistant director in 1950 before helming his first feature,
gaining prominence in the 1970s for the “Schulmädchen-Report” (Schoolgirl
Report) series—a collection of anthology films depicting sexual encounters
among teenage girls, framed as pseudo-documentary "reports" inspired
by a bestselling book on youth sexuality. These productions, which spawned at
least 13 installments, achieved significant commercial success in West German
theaters amid the era's loosening sexual mores, often blending softcore nudity
with comedic vignettes featuring adult actresses portraying underage students.
However, the series provoked ongoing controversy for its exploitative portrayal
of adolescent sexuality, leading to censorship challenges, distribution bans in
regions like the United States, and retrospective critiques of enabling
predatory fantasies under the guise of social commentary. Hofbauer's reclusive
persona and prolific output in the genre earned him comparisons to figures like
Russ Meyer, though his work remains niche, preserved primarily in grindhouse
and cult film circles rather than mainstream acclaim.
Ernest Hofbauer using the alias Ernest Goodman directed
one Euro-western, “Die schwarzen Adler von Santa Fe” (Black Eagle of Santa Fe)
in 1965.
GOODMAN, Ernest (aka Herb Al Bauer, Herb Al-Bauer) (Ernst Hofbauer) [8/22/1925, Vienna, Austria –
2/24/1984, Munich, Bavaria, Germany] – director, assistant director, writer,
actor.
Black Eagle of Santa
Fe – 1965
Spaghetti Western
Screenwriter ~ Ronald M. Cohen
Ronald M. Cohen was
an American screenwriter and television producer renowned for his gritty
Western films and socially provocative television series that explored
interracial dynamics and urban tensions.
Born in Chicago,
Illinois on December 23, 1939, Cohen studied film at New York University before
breaking into the industry in the early 1960s by selling his first script to
the Western series ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive’, prompting him to leave his job as a
cab driver. His early screenwriting credits included the 1968 film “Blue”,
starring Terence Stamp and Karl Malden, and the 1969 Western “The Good Guys and
the Bad Guys”, featuring Robert Mitchum as an aging sheriff.
Cohen's television
career flourished in the 1980s, where he created and wrote for series that
often tackled controversial themes, earning him a reputation as a bold but
volatile writer. Notable among these was ‘American Dream’ (1981), an ABC series
depicting a white family's relocation to a Black inner-city neighborhood in
Chicago, which received an Emmy nomination for its pilot but faced viewer
protests over its interracial content and was canceled after one season; ABC
subsequently fired Cohen from the show. He followed with ‘Call to Glory’
(1984), a Cold War-era drama set at Edwards Air Force Base starring Craig T.
Nelson, and ‘Fortune Dane’ (1986), a short-lived series starring Carl Weathers
as a Black troubleshooter navigating racial dynamics in a fictional city.
Later, Cohen contributed episodes to shows like ‘Ohara’ and ‘Walker, Texas
Ranger’.
In his later years,
Cohen returned to Westerns with the 1997 TNT adaptation of Elmore Leonard's
novel “Last Stand at Saber River”, starring Tom Selleck, which became the
highest-rated cable movie of its time and earned him a Western Heritage
Wrangler Award. At the time of his death from heart failure on April 21, 1998,
at his Los Angeles home, at age 58, he was adapting Leonard's Gunsights
for Selleck. Cohen, the longtime companion of actress Julie Adams, was survived
by her and her sons, as well as his brother and nieces; he was remembered for
his fascination with the Western genre and his willingness to address racial
realities in his scripts, despite frequent network clashes.
Ronald M. Cohen
co-wrote the screenplay for one Spaghetti western, “Blue” with Meade Roberts in
1968.
COHEN, Ronald M. (Ronald Maurice Cohen) [12/23/1939, Chicago,
Illinois, U.S.A. – 4/21/1998, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. (heart failure)]
– producer, writer.
Blue – 1968 (co)
Spaghetti Western
Cinematographer ~ Girolamo LaRosa
Girolamo LaRosa was
an Italian cameraman and cinematographer who worked on two films as a cameraman
in 1969 and 1980 and twenty-one films as a cinematographer from 1970-1996. La
Rosa also was a writer on one film 1983’s “Amok”.
I can find no
biographical information on him.
Girolamo LaRosa was
a cinematographer on only one Spaghetti western, “Una cuerda al amanecer” (A
Cry of Death) and
La ROSA, Girolamo [Italian] –
cinematographer, cameraman.
Death Played the
Flute - 1972
