By Ángel Caldito
The municipality of Hoyo de Manzanares is included in its
entirety within the Regional Park of the Cuenca Alta del Manzanares, 35
kilometers from Madrid and with approximately 7,600 inhabitants.
The first film shoots came to Hoyo de Manzanares in 1956
with “The Pride and the Passion”. A
U.S.A. production directed by Stanley Kramer, starring Cary Grant, Sophia Loren
and Frank Sinatra. The film recreates
the adaptation of a novel by CS Forrester, which takes place in Spain during
its War of Independence. In it an
English officer (Grant) helps some Hispanic guerrillas (Sinatra and Loren) to
use a cannon against Napoleon.
[Hoyo de Manzanares, April 1956. Cary Grant with a group
of Spanish army officers during the filming of the film Pride and Passion.]
Eduardo Manzanos
Brochero (1919-1987)
Producer, screenwriter and director, he was also an
occasional writer of comedies and musicals.
Brochero also published several books of poetry. He started in the cinema as a screenwriter in
1940, playing various roles until 1952 when he directed his first film. A
producer for Unión Films and later Cooperativa Cine España (COPERCINES) which
was created the same year. He was the first to build a western town set in
Spain, in which a large number of written and produced Euro westerns were
filmed.
A Town of the West
Eduardo Manzanos proposes the project and its
construction to decorators Jaime Pérez Cubero and José Luis Galicia (the brother-in-law
of Manzanos), for which they rent an esplanade owned by the City Council. The Town of the West, known as "Golden
City" was built in 1962 by a hundred men who employed 75,000 hours of work
in total. 30 kilos of dynamite and 500
linear meters of drill holes were used to clear the stony lands. In total, 300 cubic meters of wood, sixty
tons of cement and half a million bricks were used for the construction of the
buildings. Cubero and Galicia, would reach
an agreement with the producer Eduardo Manzanos, to build and manage all the
sets during film shootings.
A year later, the shooting of "For a Fistful of
Dollars" would take place, which was directed by Sergio Leone and
interpreted among others by Clint Eastwood and Gian Maria Volonté. This film supposedly was the beginning of the
Euro western at an international level.
They would shoot more than 50 films of the genre in the sets of Hoyo de
Manzanares.
Chicago style
street
In 1968, a Chicago-style street would be built for the
filming of Julio Diamante's "Tiempos de Chicago" (1968). In this set at
least five more productions were filmed. This set was built about 1/8 miles
behind what many of us know as the Rojo Hacienda from “A Fistful of Dollars”.
Ranchos
Cubero-Galicia
José Luis Galicia Gonzalo (Madrid, 1930). Artistic director and son of the painter
Francisco Galicia and brother of the actress María Luz Galicia (married to the
producer Eduardo Manzanos). In 1961 he
was commissioned to paint the ceilings of the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid and
in 1962 his brother-in-law, the producer and director Eduardo Manzanos, gave
him the opportunity to enter the cinema as a decorator, collaborating with
Jaime Pérez Fogón Cubero (Madrid , 1932) brother of the director of photography
Andres Perez Cubero, who since 1956 was already working as decoration
assistant, making the first joint film: "The Terrible Sheriff", (A.
Momplet, 1962). In 1963 they founded the
company Construcine, with which they made their designs, and also the projects
of other artistic directors.
Confederate Fort
It would be known as Fort Jackstone and was built in 1964
for the film "Séptimo de cavalleria", in which "Héroes a la
fuerza" would also be filmed in 1966.
Locations of Golden City, Ranchos Cubero-Galicia and the
Fort.
Today nothing remains of the sets.
[Chicago Street]
[Ranchos
Cubero-Galicia]
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