.Westerns...All'Italiana!

Sunday, August 30, 2026

From the WAI! vault

Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Annibale Durelli

[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.]

Annibale Durelli was an Italian theater and silent film actor who worked actively in Italian cinema from roughly 1912 to 1921 appearing in fifteen films. He frequently shared the screen with prominent silent film actresses of the era, such as Adriana Costamagna and Edy Darclea. Most of his career was spent in the Italian theater but I can find no biographical information on him.

Annibale Durelli appeared in one silent Euro-western, “A Mexican Mine Fraud” as James Park in 1914.

DURELLI, Annibale [18??, Italy – 19??, Italy] – theater, film actor.

A Mexican Mine Fraud – 1914 (James Park)

Spaghetti Western Directors, Screenwriters, Cinematographers

Spaghetti Western Director ~ Roland Klick

Roland Klick is a German film director and screenwriter known for his independent, subversive approach to post-war German cinema, blending American genre influences with a laconic and precise personal style that set him apart from the dominant New German Cinema movement. His films often explore social themes through entertaining, audience-oriented narratives, earning him cult status and multiple German Film Awards despite production challenges and periods of commercial difficulty.

Born on July 4, 1939, in Hof, Bavaria, Klick left university studies in dramatics and German to enter filmmaking, beginning with short films in the early 1960s and his medium-length feature ''Jimmy Orpheus'' (1966). His controversial feature debut ''Bübchen'' (1968) established him as a promising talent, followed by the breakthrough ''Deadlock'' (1970), a psychedelic western starring Mario Adorf that won him the German Film Award for Best Director and pioneered the "Sauerkraut Western" subgenre. Subsequent works such as ''Supermarket'' (1974), a gritty milieu drama, and ''Lieb Vaterland magst ruhig sein'' (1975) also garnered awards and critical praise for their distinctive style and social commentary.

Klick repeatedly distanced himself from the New German Cinema's aesthetic and political expectations, insisting on creative independence and risking his own resources on projects. Later films included the documentary ''Derby Fever USA'' (1979) and the troubled ''White Star'' (1983) starring Dennis Hopper, after which he largely withdrew from feature filmmaking in the early 1990s, relocating to Ireland. His last cinema production was ''Schluckauf'' (completed 1992). Recent documentaries and retrospectives have highlighted his legacy as a maverick who has been admired by directors including Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino.

Roland Klick directed on Euro-western, “Deadlock” in 1970.

KLICK, Roland (aka Bernhard Stein) [7/4/1939, Hof, Bavaria, Germany - ] – producer, director, writer, songwriter, cinematographer, cameraman, composer, musician, film editor

Deadlock – 1970

Spaghetti Western Screenwriter ~ Irving Dennis

Irving Dennis is/was a film producer and screenwriter involved with two films in the mid’1960s. He co-produced the film “Frozen Alive” with Artur Brauner and Ronald Rietti and he was co-screenwriter on the Spaghetti western “Tierra de fuego” (Sunscorched) with Alfonso Balcázar, José Antonio de la Loma, Mark Stevens and Warren Kiefer.

Other than that, I can find no biographical information on him.

DENNIS, Irving [American] – producer, writer.

Sunscorched – 1965 (co)

Spaghetti Western Cinematographer ~ Vitaliano Natalucci

Vitaliano Natalucci is/was an Italian cinematographer and cameraman. He worked as a cameraman on fifteen films between 1955 and 1965 and as a cinematographer on seventeen films between 1962 and 1971. He even appeared as an actor in the 1962 film “Nerone ‘71”

I can find no biographical information on him.

Vitaliano Natlucci was a cinematographer on seven Spaghetti westerns: “El Zorro cabalga otra vez” (Behind the Mask of Zorro) with Mario Vulpiani and “Mille dollari sul nero” (Blood at Sundown) both in 1965, “ Giunse Ringo e… fu tempo di massacre” (Ringo It’s Massacre Time) in 1966, “Cjamango” and “Non aspettare Django, spara” (Don’t Wait, Django… Shoot! both in 1967, “Quintana” in 1969 and “Se t’incontro, t’ammazzo” (Finders Killers) with Giovanni Variano in 1971.

NATALUCCI, Vitaliano (Natalucci) [Italian] – cinematographer, cameraman, actor.

Behind the Mask of Zorro – 1965 (co)

Blood at Sundown – 1965

Ringo, It's Massacre Time – 1966

Cjamango - 1967

Don't Wait, Django... Shoot! – 1967

Quintana – 1969

Finders Killers – 1971 (co)

Is it Texas or Italy? A new Fort Worth restaurant honors the ‘spaghetti western’

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

By Bud Kennedy

July 30, 2026

What if a Texas cattle drive town had an Italian restaurant? We’ll find out this fall when La Pistola Kitchen + Saloon opens in a former taco restaurant on Montgomery Street across from Dickies Arena.

La Pistola is a new project in the former Taco Heads at 1812 Montgomery St. It’s from restaurateur Jeffrey Yarbrough and “wine boss” Camille McDonald, part of the original team that made the Teddy Wong’s upscale Chinese restaurants a success.

The former patio has been enclosed to make a new dining room with windows facing the Cultural District. The bar is remodeled. Crews found the 80-plus-year-old lumber from the original homes, Yarbrough said. The two buildings first appeared in Star-Telegram archives as rent houses in the early 1940s. They were converted in the 1970s and had been home to a pet-grooming service, antique shop, thrift shop and small Tex-Mex restaurant before they were connected in 2016 for the opening of Taco Heads. The La Pistola website lists a September opening.

La Pistola is Italian. But it’s western, like the old “spaghetti western” movies shot in Spain and Italy to save money. In other words, it’s the kind of Italian restaurant a Beth Dutton would love. Yarbrough described it as a “cowboy-looking” restaurant with a midprice menu of entrees and pastas, specialty Italian sandwiches at lunch and a bar with a carefully curated wine and cocktail list. Both Yarbrough and McDonald said they wanted to do a 1970s retro western theme and became fascinated with the idea of the renegade moviemakers filming westerns in the Italian countryside with no permits, and doing western town scenes in Rome.

The name “La Pistola” means “the gun” in Italian as well as Spanish, and fits the spirit of the outlaw moviemakers as well as most of the plots.

The dinner menu will include a Texas wagyu steak, Iberico pork from Texas and chicken along with rotating pasta dishes, Yarbrough said. “Say I didn’t want to get dressed up and I didn’t want to spend $150,” he said, saying La Pistola won’t be like West Seventh Street fine-dining restaurants: “It’ll be lower than the super-high stuff.”

The midday menu of sandwiches with Italian deli meats and cheeses will appeal to the lunchy Cultural District crowd, he said.

“Everybody in the world wants a great sandwich,” he said, dropping the name of Fort Worth’s favorite classic sub shop. “You can always go to Galligaskin’s, and that’s great, but this will be a next-level sandwich,” he said.

The makeover of the Taco Heads building — actually two old houses connected by a patio — is as impressive as the Teddy Wong’s conversion from a 7-Eleven. Yarbrough and McDonald are no longer involved in Teddy Wong’s, which recently opened a second location in Weatherford.

Who Are Those Singers & Musicians? ~ Pat Woods

Patrick ‘Pat’ Woods was born on Deer Island, Oregon on January 19, 1944. His father was an accountant and his mother a pianist and singer. She sang gospel at church and weddings. When he was 12 years old, they moved to Dallas, Texas. A poor student his mother really wanted me to learn music. She enrolled him in an accordion and guitar lesson. His first guitar was a twelve-string guitar, on which there were only six. In Dallas, Pat liked to listen to the great African-American bluesmen, who played in the street, asking for money or cigarettes. "Some of them became famous later, but at the time I didn't know it, and neither did they (laughs). Sometimes they would take my guitar to show me how to play certain songs, and in the evening, at home, I would redo what they had taught me. I've always been a pretty special guitarist: I've always heard music in a particular way, with my own chords, scales, a different method of touch.

A few years later, while taking acting classes at Texas University during the day, Pat Woods hosted an evening show for KTNT radio, taking over from the great Willie Nelson. His lineup ranged from Frank Sinatra to country. He became passionate about Bob Dylan, bought himself a classical guitar, and while doing billboards to promote his show, discovered Joan Baez and Mimi & Roger Fariña in a café. His impersonation of Kennedy (who had just been assassinated) on the radio announcing the "live from heaven" records earned him a dismissal from KTNT. When he got off the radio, Pat Woods hitchhiked and found himself taken to New York.

In New York, on a scholarship, he enrolled in the famous Neighborhood Playhouse drama school and then studied journalism at the university. "I graduated in 1969. May 68 in France had rubbed off on American universities so professors, etc., were taken hostage. and everyone got their diploma". He recorded his first 45, played in musicals in summer stock theatres and auditioned for the musical “Hair”. "I had an important role, but my understudy who was better than me finally got the role and I became his understudy." He also wrote a show, which was performed off-Broadway.

His wife having obtained her master's degree from university, they moved to Alaska where she began to give classes. But Alaska did not appeal to them, and the couple decided to settle in Paris, where his wife taught at the American College as a professor... and Pat followed them as a student. "I had good grades there (laughs)." It was near their apartment, not far from the American College, that they became friends with Roger Mason and Steve Waring. "I had seen an advertisement for guitar lessons, and Roger Mason and Steve Waring came to my house and taught me the picking method. We became friends. Steve sometimes did English dubbing of French films. It wasn't easy, I've only done it once, maybe I didn't have the talent for it."

Lionel Rocheman took care of Pat's career, programmed him on his television show’ Epinettes et guimbardes’, and found him performing dates.

In 1971, he met the composer Claude Bolling: "I was playing alone on the Boulevard Saint-Germain. A beautiful green Jaguar stopped. Claude Bolling came downstairs, he listened to me for a few minutes. I sang Jesse Fuller's San Francisco Bay Blues, which was the song I ended my singing tour with. He gave me a business card with his address and said, "Would you like to come and have dinner at my house tonight? I'm going to make you a star!" I didn't know who he was. Importantly, he got me into the SACEM when I knew nothing about the SACEM, the ADAMI, etc., and gave me a part of the co-composition of "I'm a poor lonesome cowboy". So, for years I received money on Lucky Luke."

After Lucky Luke, Pat Woods and Kathy Lowe recorded their own records for Le Chant du Monde. Claude Bolling arranged the album Pat Woods is back. "'I'm a poor lonesome cowboy' was registered at the SACEM but I couldn't get any money on it yet because I wasn't a member, I had to write the first eight bars of all the songs I had composed for my records. And it was Roger Mason who helped me very kindly."

In 1982, he left France, became an Israeli citizen, and worked in a kibbutz, where he gave guitar lessons, accompanied ballerinas, etc. The he returned to the United States and travelled from one end to the other by bicycle. Back in Europe, he settled in Holland for eight years, married and had a daughter. Then, wishing to return to the United States, he made a stopover in Ireland in 1994... and stayed there.

"I never thought in terms of a career, and I never thought of myself as a musician. I'm retired but I work maybe more on music than when I was working. Every day I work on compositions on the Cubase software, but only for my pleasure, and I play with an Irish woman in cafés, but not professionally."

WOODS, Pat (Patrick Woods) [1/19/1944, Deer Island, Oregon, U.S.A. - ] – voice actor, singer, musician (guitar), married to ?, married to ? father of a daughter, married to ? father of two children.

Lucky Luke: Daisy Town – 1971 [sings “Poor Lonesome Cowboy”]

Lucky Luke (TV) – 1991 [sings: “Poor Lonesome Cowboy”]