.Westerns...All'Italiana!

Sunday, June 14, 2026

From the WAI! vault

Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Antonella Dogan

[These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be given and anything that you can add would be appreciated.]

Antonella Dogan is an Italian model and film actress born in Foggia, Apulia, Italy in 1946. She appeared in nine films from 1970 to 1978. Among those were two Spaghetti westerns “Black Killer” as Maureen in 1971 and “Campa carogna… la taglia cresce” (Those Dirty Dogs) as Manuela in 1973.

DOGAN, Antonella (aka Mirella Donan) [1946, Foggia, Apulia, Italy - ] – film actress.

Black Killer – 1971 (Maureen)

Those Dirty Dogs - 1973 (Manuela) [as Mirella Dogan]

Spaghetti Western Directors, Screenwriters, Cinematographers

Spaghetti Western Director ~ Lucio Fulci

Lucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and producer renowned for his contributions to the giallo and horror genres, where his works combined surreal, dreamlike atmospheres with extreme graphic violence, earning him the nickname “Godfather of Gore.”

Born in Rome's Trastevere district on June 17, 1927, to a far-left, anti-fascist Sicilian family, Fulci developed early interests in art, music, and film amid the turbulent years of fascism and World War II. He initially studied medicine but abandoned it after basic training, instead enrolling at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia film school in Rome, from which he graduated in 1948. Fulci began his career in the 1950s as an apprentice, assistant director, and screenwriter, collaborating on comedies featuring the duo Franco and Ciccio under the mentorship of director Steno (Stefano Vanzina). By 1959, he had directed his first feature, “I ladri”, a comedy, and over the next two decades, he worked across genres including musicals, spaghetti westerns like “The Brute and the Beast” (1966), sex comedies, historical dramas such as “Beatrice Cenci” (1969), and crime thrillers like “Contraband” (1980).

Fulci's transition to horror in the late 1970s marked his most influential period, beginning with gialli like “One on Top of the Other” (1969), “A Lizard in a Woman's Skin” (1971), and “Don't Torture a Duckling” (1972), which blended suspense, social critique, and emerging gore elements. His breakthrough came with “Zombie Flesh-Eaters” (1979), a non-sequel to George A. Romero's “Dawn of the Dead” that featured iconic scenes like a zombie-shark fight and became a cult hit, landing on the UK's "video nasties" list for its explicit violence. This led to his "Gates of Hell" trilogy—"City of the Living Dead” (1980), “The Beyond” (1981), and “The House by the Cemetery” (1981)—characterized by slow, hypnotic pacing, Lovecraftian cosmic horror, and shocking effects like eye-gouging and maggot infestations, often scored by Fabio Frizzi's prog-rock compositions. Other notable horrors include “The Psychic” (1977), praised for its elegant thriller structure, and “The New York Ripper” (1982), controversial for its misogynistic undertones.

In his later years, Fulci faced personal tragedies, including the suicide of his wife in 1969, and health struggles from diabetes, which contributed to his death at age 68 in Rome on March 13,1996. He continued directing low-budget films such as “Cat in the Brain” (1990), a meta-horror about his own career, and his final work, “Door to Silence” (1991), amid financial difficulties; his funeral was funded by fellow director Dario Argento. Fulci's legacy endures as a pivotal figure in Italian exploitation cinema, alongside Mario Bava and Dario Argento, with his films re-released in restorations and celebrated for their visceral style and influence on global horror, including recent 4K restorations in the 2020

Lucio Fulci directed four Spaghetti westerns: “Tempo di massacre” (The Brute and the Beast) in 1966, “Zanna Bianca” (White Fang) in 1973, “Il ritorno di zanna bianca” (Challenge to White Fang) and “I quattro dell’apocalise” (4 of the Apocalypse) both in 1974, “Sella d’argento” (Silver Saddle) in 1978.

FULCI, Lucio (aka Lucille Folon, Fulci, L. Fulci, Louis Fulci, Loius Fuller, H. Simon Kittay, Jerry Madison) [6/17/1927, Rome, Lazio, Italy – 3/13/1996, Rome, Lazio, Italy (diabetes-related illness)] – producer, director, assistant director, writer, SFX, actor, married to Maria Fulci [19??-1969] (1958- 1969) father of actress Antonella Fulci [1960-

], assistant director Camilla Fulci [1963-2019].

The Brute and the Beast – 1966

The Gold of Sam Cooper - 1967 (film was never made, eventually it became "The Ruthless 4)

White Fang – 1973

Challenge to White Fang - 1974

4 of the Apocalypse... – 1974

Silver Saddle – 1978

Spaghetti Western Screenwriter ~ Federico Chentrens

Federico Chentrens was an Italian film director and actor known for his work in European genre cinema during the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in spaghetti Westerns and action-oriented films. He began his career as an assistant director on a range of productions, including international titles such as Orson Welles' “The Trial” (1962) and various Italian Westerns and genre pictures. Transitioning to directing, he helmed several features, including “The Killer Likes Candy” (1968), “Playgirl 70” (1969), and “Judge Roy Bean” (1971). In 1973, Chentrens relocated to Australia with his family, where he continued his career by directing television episodes, notably for the series ‘Boney’, and pursued local co-production projects with Australian networks. He also occasionally appeared as an actor in films such as “Black Jack” (1968) and “Colt in the Hand of the Devil” (1973). His work reflects the vibrant but often niche world of European and later Australian genre filmmaking during that era.

Chentrens died in Adelaide, Australia sometime in 1988 at the age of 50.

Federico Chentrens was a co-writer on one Spaghetti western, “Le juge Roy Bean - French title” (The Judge) with Luigi Angelo and Oscar De Mans in 1971

CHENTRENS, Federico (aka James Kent, Richard Owens, Richard Chentrens, Fred Schentress) [1938, Italy - 1988, Adelaide, Australia] - producer, director, assistant director, writer, actor, married to Olga Chentrens (1959-1988) father of Joshe Chentrens [1959- ]. Marcello Chentrens [1962- ], Aldo Chentrens [1965- ], Federica Chentrens [1970- ]. Massimo Chentrens [1971- ].

The Judge – 1971 (co)

Spaghetti Western Cinematographer ~ Hans Jura

Hans Jura was an Austrian cinematographer best known for his collaborations with director Radley Metzger on erotic art films such as “The Lickerish Quartet” (1970), “The Alley Cats” (1966), and “Carmen, Baby” (1967). Born in Vienna, Austria on March 21, 1921, Jura trained in photography and film during the 1940s, beginning his career after World War II as a cameraman on short documentary films before transitioning to feature-length productions. His visual style emphasized striking widescreen compositions, velvety black-and-white cinematography in early works, and vibrant color palettes in later color films, often shot on location across Europe to enhance the sensual and narrative elements of Metzger's projects. Jura received prestigious recognition in German cinema, including the Filmband in Gold award in 1963 for his work on “Die endlose Nacht” (The Endless Night) and again in 1964 for “The River Line”. Later in his career, he resided in Munich from 1988 and contributed to projects for the Wiener Musikverein before returning to Bad Ischl, where he passed away on November 25, 1996, at the age of 75.

Hans Jura was the cinematographer on one Euro-western, “Die schwarzen Adler von Santa Fe” (Black Eagle of Santa Fe) in 1965.

JURA, Hans (aka Jans Hura, Hans A. Jura) [3/21/1921, Vienna, Austria – 11/25/1996, Bad Ischl, Upper Austria, Austria] – cinematographer, cameraman.

Black Eagle of Santa Fe – 1965

My talks with Roger Browne [Part 4 of 12]

Dubbing in Rome

By Johan Melle

May 29, 2026

JM: This certainly helps to explain why so many of the dubs directed by Dick McNamara during the early to mid-1960s always feature the same group of dubbers. Cicely Browne, Robert Sommer and Dan Sturkie did a lot of the leading parts in that group; McNamara himself typically did the heavies; John Stacy and Curt Lowens always did character parts. Do you remember who else was part of that group? There were a couple of female dubbers that were really good, and there was a rather sophisticated-sounding British guy who was very good, too.

RB: Sounds like Roland Bartrop, whom I didn’t know well. Nice guy, a bit into himself.

Bob Sommer was a good, close friend, and I rented his apartment twice when he fell on hard times – me and my then girlfriend and her cocker spaniel. Bob was an opera singer, which helped him sync. He was discrete with his, er, social life. Friends were John Hart, George Higgins, Ian Danby and Jack Gillen. Bob, I heard went to Florida to live with his sister. By now, who knows?

Dan Sturkie was a good dubber, if a bad smoker. At one point he was so busy doing three dubbing turns a day he got hooked on pills to stay awake. Couldn’t string three words together. Bob and I had to go down and bail him out of a hospital. His wife Carol, an English twit, was no help.

I remember Curt Lowens well in the early 60s. Very Germanic and looked it. Loved his voice. Then he disappeared.

Tamara Lees worked for Dick in the splinter group, too – I do not remember her at ELDA.

JM: Jack Gillen is someone I’ve never heard of before. Who was he?

RB: Jack was a friend of Bob Sommer. A very marginal dubber who did mostly brusio (crowd noises) – paid very little, but most of us would do it from time to time, especially for directors who normally used us for major parts.

JM: You and Dick McNamara also worked together a lot when you dubbed Terence Hill and he dubbed Bud Spencer in the Trinity films and various other Spencer/Hill comedies. For some reason, though, he was later replaced by Ed Mannix and Bob Sommer as the voice of Bud. But that was in the late 1970s when you were no longer doing Terence Hill's voice as his English had become good enough that he was allowed to dub himself.

RB: Yes, Dick McNamara dubbed Bud Spencer many times, except when Dino De Laurentiis called me to New York to dub Hill. They should have called Dick, too. His slow Southern drawl was just right. Dick and I were friendly if not friends and I thought he was spot on for Bud. What happened to the last few films of that duo I’ll never know. I was busy getting ready to leave and come back here for chiropractic college. Whoever picked Ed Mannix and Bob Sommer, both good friends, were mistaken.

Terence Hill was good, great with stunts and did funny stuff. He spoke good English, being German, but with a tiny, whiny Peter Lorre-type accent. But he was a big name and he could have said “You want me, you have to let me voice myself in the English version”.

Funny story about Dick. Linda Gary and I were doing a scene, with Dick directing. On playback we heard a jingling, and Dick was beside himself trying to figure out what it was. Turns out it was he himself jingling coins in his pocket, nervous Nellie that he was. Linda and I just looked at each other and rolled our eyes.

Dick had two close-ups, no lines, in Patton (1970). I had no close-ups and one line, which was cut. A paid holiday in Spain.

[Famous superstar Terence Hill, whose voice Roger dubbed into English in the two Trinity films, ...All the Way, Boys! (1972) and others.]

[Roger himself didn't recall for which film he had dubbed Terence Hill's voice in New York, but I have determined it to be Two Missionaries (1974).]

JM: Once you all united under the ELDA banner, was there any more English dubbing going on outside of ELDA then? It’s my understanding that two gents named Bob Fiz and Charles Marshall were doing some dubbing work at a studio called De Fazio in the 1970s, and I think they must have been operating outside of ELDA.

RB: I am not familiar with those two names nor De Fazio studio. ELDA functioned as a union, assuring established rates for work done. If a Fiz or a Marshall brought us a film to dub and paid our rates, fine. But if they grabbed people off the streets and offered them peanuts, they have guaranteed an inferior product which hurts our reputation if they tell their buyer it’s from Rome – makes our people look bad, takes work away from honest, loyal ELDA dubbers, and exploits the poor unsuspecting souls who were grossly underpaid and were possibly told it was ELDA. I could not care less for them! These types were trying to save money, fine, but at the same time undermining people who had been working hard since 1950, to establish a viable organization to benefit a lot of people through the years. The officers like myself, Frank von Kuegelgen, Mike and Rhoda Billingsley, Bill Kiehl, Gisella Mathews and George Higgins received nothing but gas money, which was never cheap in Italy. So, I’ll be goddamned if some carpetbagger was going to come in and screw it up! There may have been some monkey business, but very little I bet. People knew and were told in every letter and meeting, at least by me, that anyone who dubbed outside of ELDA and we found out, they were toast!

JM: One thing that has always puzzled me is how little continuity there looks to have been in terms of voice casting. Very often an actor has a certain voice in one film, and then another one in the next. Was this simply down to different dubbing directors having different ideas about whose voice fit a certain actor best?

RB: Absolutely right. Lack of continuity was because of so many different directors, American but also some English, each having favorites. I was lucky with Gene Luotto and Terence Hill.

Also, the dubbing world was at times like swinging doors. From around 1963-65 through 1968, I was often busy filming, as was also Rodd Dana, Tony Russo, Mike Forest, Frank Wolff, Larry Dolgin maybe, and Frank Latimore early on. So, there was a lot of discontinuity, sometimes having to go 2-3 deep to cast. Nick Alexander often pulled in people from wherever. And the Hong Kong Flu eventually shut us down completely in 1969.

JM: You mentioned having gone to New York to dub. I understand that many Rome-based dubbers used to go to both Madrid and Barcelona to dub Spanish films. I know there was also a pretty big dubbing scene in Munich and that some of the Rome gang did work there, too. Did you ever go to Spain or Germany to dub? And if so, how was it like to work there compared to in Rome?

RB: I went to Madrid twice to dub for Al Santigosa. They work long and late. Marc Smith, good dubber but flaky, and I were walking back to our hotel at midnight when a truck carrying a huge poster of one of my gladiator films passes by. Marc goes crazy, starts running along the truck and pointing at me, shouting: “And here he is right here, reduced to dubbing! How the mighty have fallen!” We had a big laugh!

Bob Oliver brought me to Munich to dub. He had a cute little sala assistant who was gracias with her time after work. I also met a Continental Airlines stewardess who was uninhibited and anxious to see Rome, years before I wed. We took a long train ride through Zurich.

Bob was married to Barbara Marx who had been married to Zeppo Marx and would later marry Frank Sinatra in an outstanding career advancing move as it turned out!

Dubbing in those places was essentially the same as Rome. Only New York was different. They used the ‘Band System’. A broad line starts on the left and slowly moves across the screen and when it disappears, the dubber says his line. I preferred our way, but doing Terence Hill so many times, it was fairly easy. And there was the guide track, which may have been the Italian finished product, often the case in Rome. Adaptation and rehearsal, very important!

[Alfonso Santigosa, who brought Roger to Madrid to dub, was originally born in Costa Rica, and was an important dubbing director for both Spanish and English language dubbing.]

[To be continued]

Bordello Review

Film Threats

By Michael Talbot-Haynes

February 21, 2023

Evil doesn’t just come to visit in Bordello, the intriguing Canadian western directed by Carlo Liconti. Written by Daniel Matmor, the film opens with Enoch (Kris Holden-Ried), who runs a country whorehouse in a weathered mansion in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico in 1889. He spends his days digging for gold on the property while Ada (Heidi von Palleske), Tara (Camille Stopps), Precious (Jessica Danecker), Martha (Hailey Summer), and Esi (Nisa Gunduz) perform sex acts for money. Also running around the place is 7-year-old Angel (Brooklyn Popp), the offspring of a sex worker who died giving birth to her.

Enoch dreams of making enough money to close shop and travel to Alaska to search for gold. However, business has been dwindling, and the bloodthirsty Sheriff Amshell (Frank J. Zupancic) is demanding more money. This small-time pimp is paid a visit by a big-time one named Madame Gabi (Diana Goldman). Madame Gabi is making her way back to Las Cruces after capturing a runaway sex worker, Mary (Taylor Thorne). She takes an interest in little Angel, saying that in five years, she will be grown enough to be put to work. Madame Gabi offers Enoch nearly enough money to get him to Alaska. He reluctantly declines the offer.

The sex workers question Mary about what Madame Gabi is capable of. The badly beaten Mary informs them that Madame Gabi runs a secret house outside of town limits where little girls Angel’s age are sold for sex. When Martha spies Enoch sending a letter off to Madame Gabi, she and the rest of the women go on high alert. The sex workers circle their wagons around little Angel, determined to ensure she isn’t sold into child prostitution.

In John Ford’s Stagecoach, a sex worker wonders out loud why she is being run out of town. An alcoholic informs her it is because she is one of the dregs of society. He then invites her to join him and become a glorified dreg. In untamed lands, the rules of society are inverted. The outlaws, sex workers, and drunks are mainstream, while the outsiders are so-called respectable folk from back east. This societal inversion grew more pronounced with the spaghetti westerns and more graphic with the R-rated cowboy movies later on. By making the sex workers the heroes and law and order the villains, Bordello keeps the upside-down social rules of the western intact. As women on the frontier only had the employment options of being a teacher or a sex worker, it also makes sense that more genre offerings should have w****s as the protagonists.

Bordello – International title

A 2023 Italian, U.S.A., Australian, Canadian film co-production [Leader Media ()]

Producers: Stephen Chung, Bo Ko, Robert Tersigni, Cristian de la Rosa, Carlo Liconti

Director: Carlo Liconti

Story: Daniel Matmor

Scrrenplay: Daniel Matmor

Cinematography: Ludek Bogner [color]

Music: Nicholas Schnier

Running time: 99 minutes

Cast:

Enoch - Kris Holden-Ried (Kristen Holden-Ried)

Esi - Nisa Gunduz

Ada - Heidi von Palleske

Tara - Camille Stopps

Precious - Jessica Danecker

Angel - Brooklyn Popp

Sheriff Amshell - Frank J. Zupancic

Xavier - Diego Fuentes

Samuel - Curtis Morgan

Ranchero - Gerry Mendicino

Madame Gabi - Diana Goldman

Eliezer - Jamie Elman

Jeremiah Shagman - Chase Lawless

Elija Shagman - Jamie Maczko

Mary - Taylor Thorne

John the Baptist - Michal Grzejszczak

Trappers - Paul Thompson, Trevor Ketcheson, Steven Burley

Sporting man - Daniel Matmor

Winnie - Samantha Brown

Daniel - Eli Batalion

Hezer Khaia - Santino Buda

Townspeople - Gord Apos, Angela Kharuk, Irnia Shearson

Mexican farmer - Ron Soffers

Stunt coordinator: Rick Parker

1889 in New Mexico five workers at an Old West brothel conspire to murder their pimp, Enoch, in order to protect a seven-year-old girl. The situation escalates when Madame Gabi, a wealthy brothel owner, arrives and offers to buy the child for a life of prostitution, forcing the women to take drastic.

Spaghetti Western Locations for “Companeros”.

We continue the search for filming locations for 1970s “Companeros”. After Yodlaf sends Pepito crashing through the cantina door he tells the cantina’s patrons, “That now you know who I am, go tell General Mongo the Swede is in town.” Yodlaf then retires to his room only to find the girl he met in the street and several young men, students of professor Xantos, ask Yodalf to join their side of the revolution. They all bicker about causes and money. The Swede asks to see their leader in order to maybe make a deal but are told he’s being held at Fort Yuma in the U.S.A.

This scene was filmed in a Madrid soundstage.

For a more detailed view of this site and other Spaghetti Western locations please visit my friend Yoshi Yasuda’s location site: http://y-yasuda.net/film-location.htm and Captain Douglas Film Locations http://www.western-locations-spain.com/