From the WAI! vault

 

Little Known Spaghetti Western actors ~ Ana De Sade

[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.]

Ana Luisa Trewartha Durán was born on June 3, 1952, in Mazatlán, Mexico. In 1973 the actress was part of the cast of the Mexican American co-production “La montaña sagrada”, directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. In the film she played a prostitute. Her applauded performance in the film led her to join the cast of “I Escaped from Devil's Island” in September of that same year. Two years later she played Jacinta in the film “Don't You Hear the Dogs Bark?”, an adaptation of the story of the same name by Juan Rulfo directed by François Reichenbach. In 1976 she played Lucrecia in the film adaptation of La Celestina, simply titled “Celestina”, under the direction of Miguel Sabido.

After acting in a few films in the early 1980s such as “High Risk”, “Caveman”, and “The Triumph of a Man Called Horse”, Ana ventured into the Mexican erotic comedy genre, with appearances in productions such as “Las lupitas”, “El día de los albañiles”, and “Tres mexicanos ardientes”, where she shared a cast with well-known actors of the genre such as Alfonso Zayas, Luis de Alba, Gerardo Zepeda, Lina Santos and Alberto Rojas "El caballo". One of her last known performances was in the 1989 comedy “Mi compadre Capulina”, directed by Víctor Ugalde.

In all she a appeared in twenty-one films between 1973 and 1989.

She died in Mexico City, far from the artistic environment, at the age of 47, due to hypostatic pneumonia.

Under the stage name Ana De Sade, she appeared in two Euro-westerns: “Las mujeres de Jeremías” (Garden of Venus) as Ann Sanchez) in 1979 and “El triunfo de un hombre Hamado Caballo” (Triumphs of a Man Called Horse) as Redwing in 1982.

De SADE, Ana (aka Ana de Sade) (Ana Luisa Trewartha Durán) [6/3/1952, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico - 9/26/1999, Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico (hypostatic pneumonia)] – film actress.

Garden of Venus – 1979 (Ann Sanchez)

Triumphs of a Man Called Horse – 1982 (Redwing)

Spaghetti Western directors, screenwriters, cinematographers

Spaghetti Western Director ~ Alexander Butler 

Alexander Charles Butler was born in Lincoln, Niagara, Ontario, Canada on July 27, 1869. Butler shot around 70 works in Britain between 1913 and in 1926, mostly for the producer George Berthold Samuelson. His 1914 film “The Shepherd of the Southern Cross” was shot in Australia. His daughter, the dancer Gwendolen Tremayne, was born in Twickenham, appeared in front of the film camera as a child and was later one of the well-known Tiller girls. Occasionally, Butler, from 1917 to 1922 under the pseudonym Andre Beaulieu, also worked in front of the camera as a performer..

Butler was married to Violet Mary Gwilliam, and they had four children one of which Gwendolen Tremayne Simmons, was a child actress and later a famous dancer.

Alexander Butler directed only one Euro-western “The Night Riders” in 1920.

BUTLER, Alexander (aka Andre Beaulieu) (Alexander Charles Butler) [7/27/1869, Lincoln, Niagara Ontario, Canada – 3/7/1959, Weybridge, Surrey, England. U.K.] – director, writer, actor, married to Violet Mary Gwilliam [1887-1985] (190?-1959), father of actress, dancer Gwendolen Tremayne Simmons [1909–2012], Hugh Tremayne Simmons [1910–1988], Muriel Simmons [1912–2008], Vivien Tremayne Simmons [1914–2002].

The Night Riders - 1920

 

Spaghetti Western Screenwriter ~ Jean Bastia

Jean Charles Paul Fortunio Simoni was born February 21 1919, in Bastia, Corsica to the playwright and novelist Jean Bastia from a Corsican family. He was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, and assistant director active primarily in mid-20th-century French cinema.

He began his career in the film industry as an assistant director on numerous productions during the 1940s and 1950s, contributing to over 40 films in roles including production manager and screenwriter before transitioning to directing.

Details on Bastia's personal relationships, marriage, or children remain scarce in public records, with no documented marriages or offspring noted in available biographical sources, reflecting a private life largely shielded from media attention. His enduring connection to Corsica, through family heritage, suggests a cultural affinity that persisted beyond his professional pursuits in mainland France. No specific interests outside cinema, such as hobbies or philanthropy, are well-documented.

In his later years, Bastia resided in the Dordogne region, marking a quieter phase following his active career. He died on October 16, 2005, in Bergerac, Dordogne, France, at the age of 86, from natural causes

Besides directing a dozen films, he also was a writer on eight films including his only Eur-western: “Dynamite Jack, la terreur de l'Arizona” (Dynamite Jack) in 1960 which he also directed.

BASTIA, Jean (aka J. Bastia) (Jean Charles Paul Fortunio Simoni) [2/21/1925, Bastia, Corsica, France – 10/16/2005, Bergerac, Dordogne, France] – production manager, director, assistant director, writer, songwriter, son of songwriter, singer, actor, filmmaker Jean Bastia [1878-1940].

Dynamite Jack – 1960 (co)

Spaghetti Western Cinematographer ~ Carlo Carlini

Carlo Carlini was born in Rome on February 20, 1929. He worked on more than three hundred films, from 1949 to 1988. At the age of 16, from 1936 to 1948, he began working as an assistant cameraman together with the director of photography Otello Martelli. In 1954, he worked with directors Federico Fellini, on the film “La strada” and with Roberto Rossellini on “La paura”.

I can find no reference to his passing away, so I presume he’s still living somewhere in Italy at this time.

Carlo Carlin was a cinematographer on seven Spaghetti westerns: “El ultimo de los Mohicanos” (Fall of the Mohicans) with Miguel Mila and “Los pistoleros de Arizona” $5,000 on One Ace) with Roberto Reale and Christian Matras both in 1965, “La resa dei conti” (The Big Gundown) in 1966, “…e per tetto un cielo di stelle” (And for a Roof a Sky Full of Stars) and “Da uomo a uomo” (Death Rides a Horse) both in 1968, “Il suo nome e Qualcano” (The Last Rebel) in 1970 and “Partirono preti, tornarono... curati” (Halleluja to Vera Cruz) in 1973.

CARLINI, Carlo (aka Charlie Charlies) [2/20/1929, Rome, Lazio, Italy -     ] – cinematographer, cameraman.

Fall of the Mohicans – 1965 (co)

$5,000 on One Ace – 1965 (co)

The Big Gundown - 1966

And for a Roof a Sky Full of Stars – 1968

Death Rides a Horse - 1968

The Last Rebel - 1970

Halleluja to Vera Cruz – 1973

LAST FOUR ON SANTA CRUZ, THE

 

1936, Germany

Aka… Die Letzten Vier von Santa Cruz / ‘The Last Four of Santa Cruz’ (Ger)

Ex… Letzten Vier ze Santa Cruz (Cz), A Pénz Rabjai / ‘The Money Addicts’ (Hun), Gli Ultimi Quattro di Santa Cruz (It), Los Amotinados de Santa Cruz / ‘The Mutineers of Santa Cruz’ (Sp)

T: 80 (Ger and Cz)

Pc: UFA-Universum Film [Alfred Ernst Christian Alexander Hugenberg] (Ber)

Dist: UFA-Universum Film [Alfred Hugenberg] (02/07/36, Au), UFA (03/11/36, Ger), (02/26/36, Slov), Arzén von Cserépy Film [?] (03/11/36, Hun), (05/03/36, Fin), (07/31/36, Croat), (1937, It), Trosečníci Film (1937 [?], Cz), Internet Archive.com (12/01/2022, US-Ger/Cz)

D: Werner Klinger; P: Alfred Hugenberg & Karl Ritter; Sc: Alois Johannes Lippl; Nv: Josef Maria Frank: Die Letzten Vier Von St. Paul / ‘The Last Four from St. Pauli (Ger); Ph: Erich Rudolf Schmidtke, Hans Beierlein & Konstantin Irmen-Tschet [Konstantin Cetverikov]; Ed: Gottfried Ritter & Eduard von Borsody; M:

C: Hermann Speelmans (Captain Pieter Streuvels), Irene von Meyendorff (Madeleine, his wife), Valéry Inkijinoff [Walerian Iwanowitsch Inkischinow] (Reeder Alexis Aika), Françoise Rosay [Françoise Bandy de Nalèche] (Nadja Danouw), Erich Ponto (Alexander Ghazaroff), Josef Sieber (Jack), Max Schreck (William), Beppo Brem (Erik), Andrews Engelmann (Cairos), Harald Gloth (Hein), Walter Holten (slave owner Malherbe), Ludwig Andersen (Dunard), Max Harry Ernst (A Guest), Josef Dahmen (Cocteau), Bruno Hübner (Borinsky), Hugo Gau-Hamm (Auseklis, a buccaneer), Babette Jenssen (Borinsky's lady friend) & Hardy Vogdt

Syn: 1930’s Europe. An author, a businessman, a publisher and shipowner form a business venture that will have them harvest lobsters on the island of Santa Cruz in the Canaries. After a report in the newspaper, the business' stocks do well. But the partners quarrel amongst themselves, when they discover there aren't any lobsters in waters off of Santa Cruz. Undaunted, the group head off to the island in a decrepit boat to open a cannery anyway.

     Comm: [Filmed at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin and on location in the Canary Islands, Spain in 1935] THE LAST FOUR ON SANTA CRUZ is a bubbly crime film set in Santa Cruz, in the Canaries (where it was largely shot), and set during the 1930's. The original book was set in ‘St. Paul’, which was likely chosen to sound like ‘St. Pauli’, the red-light suburb of Hamburg, and later changed for the film.

     German poster artwork played up the presence of ‘Cacti’ that grows in the Canary Islands. The plants, plus the ‘Santa Cruz’ title, also made the film sound like it was set in California, rather than the town of Santa Cruz, in the Islands.

     The same year the rival banner Tobis-Rota-Film Verleih AG made an actual western THE KAISER OF CALIFORNIA / Der Kaiser von Kalifornien (07/21/36), which was filmed in the US (Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico) as well as interior studio work at the Pisorno Studios, in Tirrenia, Italy.

     It would be nearly thirty years before the Germans would return to the Canaries and shoot both THE LAST RIDE TO SANTA CRUZ and TOWN WITHOUT A SHERIFF / “Stadt Ohne Sheriff” (1972-73, Ger, TV), there. The Germans had started filming in the Canaries before the Spaniards. Strange? At least the title for ‘The Last Ride’ fit the locale more than ‘Last Four’ had.

     Similar use of 'Santa Cruz' later turned up on Lux's sword and cape adventure "Il Prigioniero di Santa Cruz" (1941, It) which is set in the 1700's.

     A print in German, with Czech subtitles has survived and can be viewed at the Internet Archive.com. Italian and Spanish posters have not.

     This was director Werner Klinger’s first film. He continued working until 1968’s “Straßenbekanntschaften auf St. Pauli / ‘Causal Street Friends in St. Pauli’ (Ger), which coincidentally was set in the Reeperbahn area of Hamburg, and he died in 1972.

     Editor Eduard von Borsody was the father of Hans von Borsody (BUFFALO BILL, HERO OF FAR WEST) and distant relative by marriage to Sky du Mont [Caetano Bremme Gaspar Neven DuMont] (THE SHOE OF MANITOU, 2001 and THE CANOE OF MANITOU, 2025).

     Even with Ms. Françoise Rosay in the cast it appears that THE LAST FOUR ON SANTA CRUZ wasn't picked up for France. Even stranger?

     Actor Max Schreck is best remembered as having played the titular vampire character “Nosferatu” (1922, Ger).

     In 1975 Antonio Margheriti Dawson shot the Lee Van Cleef topper TAKE A HARD RIDE in the Canaries. Recently the Secuoya Studios' TV ZORRO (2024, Sp) and TRINIDAD (2026, Sp) have also been shot there.

     Still, if you squint THE LAST FOUR ON SANTA CRUZ is not really a western.  Just an interesting curio that showcases the Island.

 

By Michael Ferguson

Spaghetti Western Locations for “I Want Him Dead”.

We continue our search for Spaghetti western locations for “I Want Him Dead”. During the negotiations of the surrender. The scene shifts outside where the two army detachments stand in wait. Jack Blood paces in front his men and then signals them to move leisurely leading the wagon to the rear side of the building. Once out of sight they stop and begin to unload the dynamite from the rear of the wagon.  

This location is called Cortijo Spinosa and it’s El Alquian in Almeria, Spain.

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/

Spaghetti Wester Trivia – Title variations

 

The original title for “Death Rides a Horse” was "Duel in the Wind." Lee Van Cleef came up with the Italian title while discussing the movie with John Phillip Law, who saw the film as a "man to man" story. Van Cleef remarked, "Why don't they call it  'From Man to Man'?" The Italian producers liked how it sounded in Italian ("Da Uomo a Uomo") so much they used it. Then the film was subsequently retitled "Death Rides a Horse" in English-speaking markets, which Law said he never liked.

Little Known Spaghetti Western actors ~ Maurice Derumaux

[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.]

Maurice Derumaux had one film appearance and that was as a henchman of Dynamite Jack in the 1960 film of the same name.

There is also a travel writer and photographer of Native Americans with the same name who lived from 1901 to 1985. Could they be one and the same. I can find nothing that links the two but very little information is available on either one.

DERUMAUX, Maurice (aka Arthur Derumaux)– film actor.

Dynamite Jack – 1960 (Dynamite Jack henchman)