.Westerns...All'Italiana!

American character actor Matt Clark died on March 15^th IN Austin, Texas, he was 89. After serving in the U.S. Army, Clark attended George Washington University before dropping out. After working at various jobs, he joined a local D.C. theatre group and later became a member of New York's Living Theatre company and worked off-Broadway and in community theatre in the late 1950s. Clark was one of those unsung actors whose face is instantly recognizable although one may not recall the name. With his broad features and dark Irish looks, he was cast on both sides of the law in many Westerns and detective films. Born in Washington, DC, on November 25, 1936, Clark settled in New York City in the early 1960s and trained for the stage with Uta Hagen, Herbert Berghof and William Hickey. He landed the leading role of Stephen Dedalus in an Off-Broadway version of James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" (1963). Clark did double duty as stage manager and understudy to Martin Sheen on Frank Gilroy's award-winning Broadway play "The Subject Was Roses." Around the same time, his film career began to gather steam with a featured turn in Norman Jewison's Oscar-winner "In the Heat of the Night" (1967). Matt appeared in 28 western films and TV series. He’s probably best remembered for his role as Pete in 1972’s “The Culpepper Cattle Co.” and more recently as the bartender in 1990s’ “Back to the Future Part III” as the bartender. Matt appeared in one Spaghetti western as Grover in 1975’s “Kid Vengeance with Lee Van Cleef, Jim Brown and Leif Garrett.

Little Known Spaghetti Western actors ~ Mircea Codrescu

[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.]

Mircea Codrescu is/was a Romanian character actor who appeared in only one film according to the IMDb. That film was also his only Euro-western: “Pruncul, petrolul si Ardelinii” (The Oil, the Baby and the Transylvanians) in 1979.

I can find no biographical information on him.

CODRESCU, Mircea [Romanian] – film actor.

The Oil, the Baby and the Transylvanians - 1979

Spaghetti Western Directors, Screenwriters, Cinematographers

Spaghetti Western Director ~ Michael Carreras

Michael Henry Carreras was a British film producer, director, and executive best known for his instrumental role in Hammer Film Productions, the studio that revitalized British horror cinema in the 1950s and 1960s through low-budget, high-impact genre films. Born in London on December 21, 1927, to film industry pioneer James Carreras, he entered the business at age 16 in 1943, working for the family-run Exclusive Films, and quickly rose to become a director of Exclusive, Hammer Films, and Bray Studios by his mid-twenties. After serving in the Grenadier Guards and returning in 1948, Carreras produced his first feature, “The Dark Light” (1951), at age 24, marking the start of a 30-year career primarily with Hammer, where he served as producer, executive producer, and later managing director from 1971 to 1979.

Carreras contributed to Hammer's breakthrough successes, including executive producing “The Curse of Frankenstein” (1957), which grossed approximately $7 million in the US alone against a £65,000 budget and launched the studio's signature Gothic horror cycle, and Horror of Dracula (1958), which further solidified Hammer's international reputation. He occasionally directed films himself, starting with shorts like “Parade of the Bands” (1955) and features such as “The Steel Bayonet” (1957), “What a Crazy World” (1963), “Prehistoric Women” (1967, retitled Slave Girls), “The Lost Continent” (1968), and “Shatter” (1974), often blending horror, adventure, and fantasy elements. In 1961, while continuing to produce for Hammer, he formed his own company, Capricorn Productions, for independent projects like “The Savage Guns” (1962); he assumed the role of head of production at Hammer in 1971 amid the studio's expansion into international co-productions.

Beyond production, Carreras supported key Hammer directors like Terence Fisher and John Gilling, helping pioneer cost-effective techniques that influenced global genre filmmaking, while his personal passion for jazz led him to run the Hammer Jazz Club in the early 1970s. Married with three sons, he died from cancer in Chelsea, London on April 19, 1994, at age 66, shortly after the decline of the original Hammer era, which some attributed to his emotional toll. His legacy endures as a driving force behind Hammer's output of over 100 films, elevating British cinema's profile in horror and fantasy genres.

Michael Carreras directed one Spaghetti western, “Tierra brutal” (Savage Guns) in 1961.

CARRERAS, Michael (aka Michael Nash, Henry Younger) (Michael Henry Carreras) [12/21/1927, Wandsworth, London, England, U.K. – 4/19/1994 Chelsea, London, England, U.K. (cancer)] – producer, director, writer, actor, grandson of producer, production designer, director, assistant director, writer, Enrique Carreras (Enrique Santes Morello) [1925–1995], son of producer, production manager Sir James Carreras (James Enrique Carreras) [1909–1990], founded Capricorn Film Productions [1961].

Savage Guns - 1961

Spaghetti Western Screenwriter ~ Mario Bianchi

'Mario Bianchi' was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his prolific career in exploitation and genre cinema, directing films across poliziotteschi, spaghetti westerns, horror, sexploitation, and a substantial body of hardcore adult features.

Born on January 7, 1939, in Rome as the son of director Roberto Bianchi Montero, he entered the film industry in the 1960s as an assistant director on Italian genre productions, including works by Mario Bava and others. He began directing in the early 1970s, often under pseudonyms such as Frank Bronston and Robert Moore, with notable early films including the spaghetti western “Kill the Poker {layer” (aka Creeping Death (1972)) and the poliziottesco “Provincia violenta” (1978).

Throughout the 1980s, Bianchi expanded into horror and erotic films, helming titles such as “Satan's Baby Doll” (1982) and “The Murder Secret” (1988), while increasingly focusing on sexploitation content. By the mid-1980s, he had become one of the most active directors in Italy's adult film industry, producing numerous hardcore videos under aliases including Nicholas Moore, Martin White, Alan W. Cools, and Arthur Wolf, and collaborating with prominent performers such as Moana Pozzi, Cicciolina, Rocco Siffredi, and Marina Frajese.

Bianchi remained active in adult cinema through the 1990s and into the 2000s, amassing a large body of work in the genre before his death sometime inon April 12, 2022, at age 83. His career reflects the diversity and productivity of Italy's low-budget genre filmmaking during its peak decades.

Mario Bianchi wrote and co-wrote two Spaghetti western: “Hai sbagliato… dovevi uccidermi subito!” (Kill the Poker Player) with Paola Bianchi and Luis G. de Blain in 1972 and “The Erotic Adventures of Zorro” in 1996.

BIANCHI, Mario (aka Mario Antoni, David Bird, John Bird, Frank Bronston, Alan W. Cools, Mario Di Paola, Mark B. Light, Maartin, Ely Martin, Robert Martin, Mario Montero, Nicholas Moore, Stuart Murphy, Jim Rejnolds, Jim Reynolds, Alan Romano, Renzo Spaziani, Cools/ Martin White Alan W, Cesar White, Martin White, Arthur Wolf, Tony Yanker) [1/7/1939, Rome, Lazio, Italy – 4/?/4/12/2022, Rome, Lazio, Italy] – production manager, director, assistant director, writer, film editor, actor, son of Roberto Bianchi Montero [1907–1986].

Kill the Poker Player – 1972 (co)

The Erotic Adventures of Zorro – 1996

Spaghetti Western Cinematographer ~ Andrés Pérez Cubero

Andrés Pérez Cubero was born in A Coruna, Spain in 1906. He carried out his first cinematographic works as an operator at Casa Verdaguer, from where he moved to the laboratories of Hispania-Films, as an assistant to Luis R. Alonso. During the Republic he worked as a director of photography on several short films. Member of the technical team of the National Department of Cinematography, after participating in a series of documentaries and films linked to the Franco regime during the Civil War and producing the Noticiario Español, he made his debut as a director of photography in the fiction film “Oro vil” (1941), by Eduardo G. Maroto, which was followed by “Botón de ancla” (1947), “Rumbo” (1949) and “Vértigo” (1950), where he stood out for his exterior photography.

Altogether Cubero was cinematographer and director of photography on thirty-two films between 1935 and 1953 directed three films in 1937-1938 one of which “La reconquista de Málaga” he also directed.

Andrés Pérez Cubero a cinematographer on one Euro-western, “Oro vil” (Dirty Gold) in 1941.

CUBERO, Andrés Pérez (aka A. Perez Cubero, Pérez Cubero) [1906, A Coruna, Spain - 1950] – director, writer, cinematographer, cameraman, married to ? father of production designer Jaime Pérez Cubero (Jaime Pérez-Fogón Cubero) [1932-2025], cinematographer, cameraman Raúl Pérez Cubero (Raúl Pérez-Fogón Cubero) 1934-2025].

Dirty Gold – 1941

TRAIN ROBBERY IN MEXICO, A

1904, Germany

Aka… Ein Eisenbahn-Überfall in Mexiko / ‘A Train Robbery in Mexico’ / ‘A Railroad Robbery in Mexico’ (Ger)

Ex… Jærnbaneoverfald i Meksiko / ‘Railway assault in Mexico’ (Den), Overfald på et Meksikansk Jernbanetog (alt Den), Togoverfald i Meksiko / ‘Train Assault in Mexico’ (alt Den)

Pc: Messter Film [Oskar Messter] (Ber)

Dist: Messters Projektion GmbH [Oskar Messter] (07/04, Ger), Messters (09/03/04, Den)

P: Oskar Messter

D: Oskar Messter

C: [unk]

Syn: Mexico / US border [?]. Outlaws rob the Mexican mail train.

Comm: Set in Mexico but most likely shot in Europe. A TRAIN ROBBERY IN MEXICO was Germany’s answer to Thomas Edison & Edwin Porter’s “Great Train Robbery” (1903, US), which had been shown in Germany in April of 1904. Messters’s ‘Train Robbery’ played the Apollo Theatre in Berlin in the summer of 1904. Earlier that year Messters Projektion had made AMERICAN STREET SINGER (01/04), which likely had no reel plot. These two titles show how quickly both filmmakers and audiences were changing their tastes and time tolerances as film developed.

A few years later both the French and the Italians made similar ‘train robbery dramas’: Pathé with THE UNCLE’S FORTUNE (08/08, Fr), and “An Attack on a Country Postman” (1908, It) aka “Campagna Romana” [?] (1908) which may or may not have had western elements.

By Michael Ferguson

MEXICAN BLOOD

1911, France

Ex… Mexikanisches Blut / ‘Mexican Blood’ (Ger)

T: 284mt (Ger)

Pc: Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont [Léon Gaumont]

Visa: 13527 (Ber, Ger)

Dist: Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont [Léon Gaumont] (Fr)

P: Léon Gaumont

Syn: Mexico. Revolution. A Mexican woman gets help by telegraph when her beloved ‘gringo’ is attacked by insurgents.

Comm: This was Gaumont’s 7019 production. The French title is unknown. The title “Mexikanisches Blut” is listed at the earlycinema.dch.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de.

Prints were offered at 20,50 Marks (with a surcharge for Colour).

Submitted by Michael Ferguson