Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Leap Day 2012

Lilian


Lilian – Spanish title
Lilian – English title

A 1921 Spanish production [Good Silver Films (Barcelona)]
Producer: Lloreç Bau-Bonaplata, Juan Cànovas
Director: John Pallears (Juan Ortiz)
Story: Juan Pallejá (Juan Ortiz)
Screenplay: Juan Pallejá (Juan Ortiz)
Cinematography: Jose Gaspar [black & white]
Running time: ?

Cast:
Elliot Dorsan - Ino Alcubierre (Inocencia Rodriquez)
Joe Rogers - Jose Roges
With: Juan Pallejá (Juan Ortiz)

Story unknown.
 

Happy 40th Birthday Antonio Sabato, Jr.


The son and namesake of Italian actor Antonio Sabato, Sr., Sabato was born in Rome, Italy on February 29, 1972, but was raised in the U.S. He is best known for his work as a Calvin Klein underwear model and on various soap operas, including General Hospital, Melrose Place and The Bold and the Beautiful. In 2009, he began starring in his own dating reality show for VH1 called My Antonio. In recent years, Sabato has appeared in several television movies, including 2008's “Ghost Voyage” and on the cable soap spinoff, General Hospital: Night Shift. He also showed off his physical prowess on NBC's reality competition Celebrity Circus, beating out model Rachel Hunter and actress Stacey Dash for the top prize. At present, he is reportedly working on a new reality show for the VH1 cable network. Sabato lives in Los Angeles. His son, actor Jack [1994- ], is from his relationship with actress Virginia Madsen [1961- ], and his daughter, Mina, is from his relationship with Kristin Rosetti. Sabato’s third child Antonio Sabato III [2011- ] was with girlfriend, Cheryl Moana Marie Nunes. Antonio appeared in one Euro-western “Arizona Road” (1990). Today we celebrate Antonio Sabato, Jrs’ 40th birthday.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Who Are Those Guys? - Walter Bechmann


The actor Walter Bechmann was born as Hubert Freiherr von Mauchenheim on July 13, 1887 in Blankenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. He was a very popular support actor from the middle of the 1930's and was very busy till the collapse of the Third Reich. His first films included "Ein idealer Gatte" (1935), "Togger" (1937), "Gewehr über", "Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes", "Kitty und die Weltkonferenz" and his only Euro-western “Wasser für Canitoga”  all 1939). During World War II he took part in propaganda movies as well as entertainment movies. His most well-known works for these years were "Jud Süss" (1940), "Quax der Bruchpilot", "Kora Terry" (both 1941), "Meine Frau Teresa”, "Rembrandt" (both 1942), "Romanze in Moll" (1943) and "Peter Voss, der Millionendieb" (1945). Bechmann appeared in only a few more movies after the war, among them were "Der Biberpelz" (1949) and "Die Spur führt nach Berlin" (1952). In all he appeared in over 70 films Walter died in West Berlin, Germany on May 3, 1967.

BECHMANN, Walter (aka Walther Bechmann) (Hubert Freiherr von Mauchenheim) [7/13/1887, Blankenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany – 5/3/1967, West Berlin, Berlin, Germany]
Water for Canitoga - 1939

Monday, February 27, 2012

Lieutenant Pimple Goes to Mexico

Lieutenant Pimple Goes to Mexico

A 1914 British production [Phoenix, Folly Films (London)]
Producer: ?
Director: Fred Evans, Joe Evans
Story: Fred Evans, Joe Evans
Screenplay: Fred Evans, Joe Evans
Cinematography: ? [black & white]
Running time: 9 minutes

Cast:
Lieutenant Pimple/Flivver – Fred Evans
General Hutyer -  Joe Evans

Lieutenant Pimple/Flivver is a secret agent who tries to avoid being shot before a firing squad during the Mexican Revolution.

Happy 65th Birthday Ciro Ippolito


Ciro Ippolito was born on February 27, 1947. The son of an Italian theatre producer he started his career as a child actor in the 1957 film “Classe di ferro” directed by Turi Vasile. During the 1960s Ciro produced two theatre productions “I misteri di Napoli” and “La Badessa di Cator” he was also an actor and screenwriter during this period. In 1972 Ippolito was an assistant director to Roberto Rosellini on the film “Agostino d’Ippona”. His first directorial credit was on “Alien 2: On Earth” using the pseudonym Sam Cromwell, followed by “Lacrime napolitan” (1983), “Pronto… Lucia” (1982) and “Zampognaro inamorato” (1983). “Arrapaho” (1984), his only Euro-western, a film about the Amerindian Indian tribe Arapaho, was an immediate success in the Italian cinema. The film was made in a fortnight with a cost of 135 million Italian lira and made five billion. Ippolito then went into producing films with his latest film “Vaniglia e cioccolato” (2004), an adaptation of the homonym novel of Sveva Casati Modigliani, which has had moderate success. Today we celebrate Ciro Ippolito’s 65th birthday.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Spaghetti Western Locations


Locations for “Duck You Sucker” continued. As we continue to watch Colonel Gunther Reza and his armored caravan lumber through the Mexican desert we see them approach a bridge. A bridge that Sean and Juan are watching closely from sniper nests on a far hill. Sean has rigged the bridge with explosives and both he and Juan are awaiting the arrival of Reza and his convoy. The remains of the bridge are located behind Mini Hollywood. Take the road past the zoo and employee parking lot. Cross a small ravine full of poplar trees and you will see a road coming down from you left. The road is blocked by a chain so you will have to park or ride a bike to get to the bridge about a third of a mile up this road on the left. The road can be seen in the photo at the top of this page.


 
For a more detailed view of this site and other Spaghetti Western locations please visit my friend Yoshi ‘Garringo’ Yasuda’s excellent website: http://y-yasuda.net

Actors of the Spaghetti Western Actors now available


Actors of the Spaghetti Westerns by James Prickette
Publication Date: January 20, 2012

Now available at Amazon.com

Trade Paperback; $23.99; 543 pages; 978-1-4691-4427-6
Trade Hardback; $34.99; 543 pages; 978-1-4691-4428-3
Kindle edition; $3.99; 978-1-4691-4429-0

 

New Brett Halsey Book


Teenage Luis and his pregnant young love, Carolina, run away from their homes in Seville, Spain, to escape the wrath of her father. Caught and beaten nearly to death, Carolina loses their child and Luis is spirited off to a monastery and becomes a devout priest. Fate carries him to California where ‘Padre’ Luis exerts a major influence over the lives of all he meets. Especially Ramona and Dolores, two orphaned sisters who sail with him from Spain to the New World.

MY SOUL TO KEEP is a sweeping saga of passionate women and their men at odds with the tragedy of their changing times. Their story, set in 19th Century California, follows one family’s fight to survive forbidden love – ugly prejudice - the decline of Mexico’s power – bitter war - the destruction of Indian tribal society – and the ever-increasing swarm of white Americans, coming to settle their newly formed State.

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 492 KB
Publisher: BookLocker.com, Inc. (August 31, 2011)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B005KMBIPY
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Lending: Enabled

 
Brett Halsey's third novel represents a significant literary advance on his first two enjoyable best-sellers, The Magnificent Strangers and Yesterdays Children. Those novels utilised his own experience as an expatriate movie star and a TV soap opera regular but My Soul to Keep is even more personal in some ways, exploring the milieu of his Californian ancestors (some of his ancestors owned half of the San Fernando Valley and his great-great-grandfather was Mayor of Los Angeles). It is written with passion. Many years in composition (he was hard at work at it when I first met him in 2005), this finely-achieved narrative explores some serious themes but wears its considerable research lightly and, like his earlier books, is a fun read. His vivid description gives the book a cinematic quality and it would certainly make an engrossing movie or a lavish TV mini-series. Recommended. – Napoleon, London, England