In 1964’s “Unter Geiern” (aka Among Vultures and Frontier
Hellcat) Elke Sommer was 24 when the film was first released in Germany and she
had already been appearing in films for five years, including several made in
Hollywood. She also appeared in Playboy for the first of three times the year
this film was released. The film showcased her female attributes and dazzled
young western viewers who were usually presented over clothed female stars.
[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.]
Joe Elvin was born Joseph Keegan Jr on November 29, 1862 in London. He was an English comedian, music hall entertainer, and founder of the Grand Order of Water Rats, a charitable organization supporting show business professionals formally established in 1890. He performed as a comic singer and dancer, contributing to the early variety theatre scene, and later appeared in pioneering silent films such as “The Rats” (1900) and “Burlesque Attack on a Settler's Cabin” (1900). His establishment of the Water Rats, initially comprising twelve members including fellow entertainers like Wal Pink and the Griffiths brothers, laid the groundwork for one of the entertainment industry's oldest mutual aid societies, emphasizing camaraderie and welfare among performers.
Elvin died in Hampstead, London on March 3, 1935 at the age of 72.
Joe Elvin appeared in one silent Euro-western, “Burlesque Attack on a Settler’s Cabin” in 1900.
ELVIN, Joe (Joseph
Keegan Jr.) [11/29/1862, London,
England, U.K. – 3/3/1935, Hampstead, London, England, U.K.] – film actor,
brother of entertainer Frank Keegan [19??-1951], married to actress Mrs. Joe
Elvin (Charlotte Keegan) [18??-1916] (18??-1916), half of the
comedy team of ‘Keegan and Elvin’, founder of the Grand Order of Water Rats.
Burlesque Attack on a Settler’s Cabin – 1900
Spaghetti Western Director ~ Paul Martin
Paul Martin was born on February 8, 1899, in Koloszvar, Transilvania, Austria-Hungary. He was a producer, production manager, director, assistant director, writer, cameraman. Martin worked for many years in the German film industry. He directed 60 films between 1932 and 1967. He was romantically involved with the film star Lilian Harvey and directed her in a number of films until he left her in 1938 for the actress Frauke Lauterbach. They made one final film “Woman at the Wheel” together during the filming of which their relationship remained cold.
Martin died in West Berlin on January 26, 1967 at the age of 67.
Paul Martin directed two Spaghetti westerns: “Die Goldsucher von Arkansas” (Massacre at Marble City) with Alberto Cardone in 1964 and “Graf Bobby, der Schrecken des wilden Westens” (Count Bobby, the Terror of the Wild West) in 1965.
MARTIN, Paul (aka Paul A. Martin) [2/8/1899, Koloszvar, Transilvania,
Austria-Hungary – 1/26/1967, West Berlin, Berlin, West Germany] – producer,
production manager, director, assistant director, writer, cameraman, married to
actress Frauke Lauterbach [1913-2004] (1939-1967).
Massacre at Marble
City – 1964 (co)
Count Bobby, the
Terror of the Wild West - 1965
Spaghetti Western Screenwriter ~ Augusto Finocchi
Augusto Finocchi is/was an Italian writer of which almost nothing is known. Amazingly he co- wrote screenplays for nineteen films between 1966 and 1998, fourteen of which were for Spaghetti westerns, yet is not even mentioned in Italian Film:A Who’s Who, what an injustice as I can find no biographical information on him.
Augusto Finocchi wrote and co-wrote fourteen screenplays for Spaghetti westerns: “Per pochi dollari ancora” (Fort Yuma Gold) with Massimiliano Capriccioli, Sandro Continenza, Remigo Del Grosso, Gilles Maurice Dumoulin, Ettore Giannini, Leonardo Martín, “Sugar Colt” with Giuseppe Mangione, Franco Giraldi, Fernando di Leo and Sandro Continenza, “Per il gusto di uccidere” (A Taste for Killing) with Víctor Auz, Remigio Del Grosso, Sandro Continenza, Massimo Capriccioli and Leonardo Martin and “La più grande rapina del west” (The Greatest Robbery in the West” with Augusto Caminito in 1966, “L’ ultimo pistolero” (Django, the Last Killer) with Augusto Caminito, “Wanted” with Remigio Del Grosso and Fernando Di Leo in 1967, “Black Jack” with Gianfranco Baldanello, Augusto Finocchi, Mario Mattei, Luigi Ambrosini, “Vado, vedo e sparo” (I Came, I Saw, I Shot) with Vittorio Metz, José Maria Rodriguez Mendez, Enrique Llovett, “Carogne si nasce” (Lynching) with Aldo Lado, “Il pistolero segnato de Dio” (Two Pistols and a Coward) with Remigio Del Grosso all in 1968, “I quattro del Pater Noster” (In the Name of the Father) with Luciano Ferri and Maurizio Costanzo in 1969, “Los amigos” (Deaf Smith & Johnny Ears) with Oscar Saul, Harry Essex, Paolo Cavara and Lucia Brudi and “Una Colt in mano del diavolo” (When the Devil Grips a Colt) both in 1972 and “El Macho” (Macho Killers) in 1977.
FINOCCHI, Augusto [Italian] – writer.
Fort Yuma Gold –
1966 (co)
Sugar Colt – 1966
(co)
A Taste for Killing
– 1966 (co)
The Greatest Robbery
in the West – 1966 (co)
Django, the Last
Killer – 1967 (co)
Wanted – 1967 (co)
Black Jack – 1968
(co)
I Came, I Saw, I
Shot – 1968 (co)
A Cry of Death –
1968 (co)
Lynching – 1968 (co)
Two Pistols and a
Coward -1968 (co)
In the Name of the
Father – 1969 (co)
Deaf Smith &
Johnny Ears – 1972 (co)
When the Devil Grips
a Colt – 1972 (co)
Spaghetti Western Cinematographer ~ Domenico Scala
Domenico Scala was an Italian cinematographer whose career spanned from the early sound era of the 1930s to the mid-1960s, contributing to over 50 films across genres including drama, comedy, and adventure.Born in Turin on March 26, 1903 he began as a camera operator during the transition to sound cinema and later directed photography for numerous productions noted for their artistic quality.
Scala's postwar work highlighted his technical expertise and artistic sensitivity, especially in films aligned with "minor neorealism," such as “Sotto il sole di Roma” (1948), “Fuga in Francia”, “Una domenica d'agosto” (1950), dir. Luciano Emmer), Il sole negli occhi (1953), and “Un eroe del nostro tempo” (1960), the latter considered his most significant achievement. He also collaborated on notable comedies like “Totò e Carolina” (1955) and adventure films such as “Colossus and the Headhunters” (1962).1 In 1947, Scala shared the Nastri d'Argento award for best cinematography for “Daniele Cortis”, recognizing his contributions to Italian cinema during its neorealist peak.
Domenico Scala was a cinematographer on one Spaghetti western, “El hombre que mató a Billy el Niño” (A Few Bullets More) with Miguel F. Mila in 1967
SCALA, Domenico [3/26/1903, Turin,
Piedmont, Italy – 12/25/1989] – cinematographer, cameraman.
A Few Bullets More –
1967 (co)
Pinocchio
Pinocchio – Talian title
Le avventure di Pinocchio – Italian title
Pinocchio Acchiappacitrulli – Italian title
Hippeltitsch- German title
Piñoncito, Aventuras de un Títere – Spanish title
Pinocho – Venezuelan title
The Adventures of Pinocchio (US)
A 1911 Italian film production [Società Italiana Cines
(Rome)]
Producers: Filoteo Alberini & Dante Santoni
Director: Giulio Antamoro
Story: Le avventure di Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Screenplay:
Cinematography: black & white
Running time: 53 minutes
Cast
Pinocchio - Ferdinand Guillaume
Geppetto - Augusto Mastripietri
Lucignolo – Natalino Guillaume
Fata - Lea Giunchi
The old carpenter Geppetto manufactures in his workshop a wooden puppet that will soon come alive. For an hour the doll will live a thousand and one adventures: he will be judged, hanged, swallowed by a whale, taken prisoner by the Indians, saved by Canadian soldiers and, even, returned home mounted on a cannonball that flies through the sky.
The first film adaption of Carlo Collodi's book "The
Adventures of Pinocchio". For a long time, it was believed that only about
six minutes of this film existed. However, in 2018 the Fondazione Cineteca
Italiana found a nearly complete nitrate negative from which it restored the
film including the original hand tinting.
[Submitted by Michael Ferguson]
Paul Ellis (actor) would have been 130 today but died in 1974.
Adriano
Bernacchi [cinematographer] would have been 95 today but died in 2014.
The master of Italian erotic cinema Tinto Brass died in
Rome on November 4th he was 93. The author who more than any other has tied his
name to the desire on the big screen, transforming it into a recognizable,
provocative language, often desecrating (and almost always, like it or not,
scandalous). Irony, sensuality and freedom of the body: these are the
cornerstones of an unmistakable aesthetic, which challenged taboos and moral
conventions making him one of the most well-known Italian directors abroad. Born
Giovanni Brass in Milan on March 26, 1933, he grew up in Venice, in a family
where art and law have been living together for generations. His grandfather
Italico, a Gorizian by birth, had settled in the lagoon by purchasing the Abbey
of Mercy, transformed into a sort of private gallery for his own works and
others. His father, Alessandro, is one of the city's most established criminal
lawyers. So, the young Tinto enrolled in Law, first in Padua and then in
Ferrara, where he graduated in 1957. The thesis, however, already betrays the
vocation: the working relationships with the companies of film production. A
pure cinephile training, in short, that those who have dismissed it as a simple
craftsman of eros have always preferred to forget. The debut came in 1963 with
“In capo al mondo”, an anarchist apologist and mocking about the discomfort of
a young man who cannot integrate into society, presented at the Venice Film
Festival. His most memorable works followed “Those Who Work are Lost” (1963),
“With the Heart in Their Throat” (1967), “The Scream” (1968), “Nerosubianco”
(1969), “The Holiday” (1971), “Salon Kitty” (1976), “Caligula” (1979), “Action”
(1980), “The Key” (1983), “Miranda” (1985), “Capriccio” (1987), “Snack Bar
Budapest” (1988), “Paprika” (1991), “Così fan tutte” (1992), “The Man Who
Looks” (1994), “Monella” (1998), “Senso ’Fallo!” (2003) and “Monamour” (2005).
His only Spaghetti western was “Yankee” in 1966 which he was director, writer
and editor.
[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.]
Federico Elvezi was an Italian director and actor born sometime in the late 19th century. He directed fourteen films between 1915 and 1923 and appeared in twenty-one between 1912 and 1922.
He began his career as an actor in short films and dramas before transitioning into directing feature-length silent films, often collaborating with production companies in major early Italian film hubs like Turin and Milan.
A close friend of director Roberto Roberti the father of Sergio Leone, he appeared in at least ten films directed by him.
Federico Elvezi appeared in one silent Euro-western, “La vampira Indiana” (The Vampire Indian) in 1913.
ELVEZI, Frederico (Federico
Helveti) [Italian] – director, actor.
The Vampire Indian –
1913
