SW Location Cinecitta Studios, Rome, Italy

Cinecittà was constructed in 1936–37 on the site of Cines, an important early studio that had burned down, and it was an important part of the Fascist government’s attempt to develop a domestic film industry equal to that of Hollywood. Located just southeast of the center of Rome, Cinecittà was the focus of the Italian movie industry during World War II, when bombings almost completely destroyed its facilities. After the war the Allies used Cinecittà as a prisoner-of-war camp and then as a displaced-person camp. That Cinecittà was closed after the war was a factor in the emergence of Italian Neorealism, which favored films shot on location.

The studios were eventually rebuilt, and by 1950 Cinecittà was once again in full production. For the next 20 years Cinecittà set cinema trends through the work of such leading directors as Michelangelo Antonioni, Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini, and particularly Federico Fellini, who shot most of his films there. Attracted by production subsidies and low labour costs, American studios shot such films like “Roman Holiday” (1953), “Ben-Hur” (1959), and “Cleopatra” (1963) there, earning Cinecittà the nickname of “Hollywood on the Tiber.” The growth of television and the decline in the quality of Cinecittà’s films diminished its prestige, however, starting in the 1970s.
The western set is identifiable by a two story building in the center of town usually used as a hotel or saloon. The studio also built a Mexican village that was also used quite often and is dominated by a large two story hacienda at the end of the street with several arched businees along both sides of the main street.

Cinecitta was privatized in 1997 and expanded to control two other studios in Italy, Dino Studios near Rome and Umbria Studios near Terni, and to have partial control of CLA Studios in Ouarzazate, Morocco. Although in the early 21st century the number of projects of production was only one-third of that in Cinecittà’s 1960s heyday, the studio still played a major role in Italy’s film industry and continued to attract foreign productions.

A list of westerns filmed all or partially at Cinecittà Studios.

“The Sheriff” (1959)

“A Dollar of Fear” (1960)

“A Fistful of Dollars” (1964)

“Colorado Charlie” (1965)

“Deguello” (1965)

“For a Few Dollars More” (1965)

“For a Fist in the Eye” (1965)

“7 Guns for the MacGregors” (1965)

“The Sheriff Won’t Shoot” (1965)

“El Rojo” (1966)

“Fort Yuma Gold” (1966)

“Go With God Gringo” (1966)

“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966)

“Johnny Yuma” (1966)

“Kill or Die” (1966)

“The Man from Nowhere” (1966)

“Ramon the Mexican” (1966)

“Texas adios” (1966)

“30 Winchesters for El Diablo” (1966)

“Up the MacGregors” (1966)

“Zorro the Fox” (1966)

“Zorro the Rebel” (1966)

“Any Gun Can Play” (1967)

“Blood at Sundown” (1967)

“Cjamango” (1967)

“Day of Anger” (1967)

“Death Rides a Horse” (1967)

“Django Kills Silently” (1967)

“The Fury of Johnny Kid” (1967)

“Halleluja for Django” (1967)

“Kill the Wicked” (1967)

“Last of the Badmen” (1967)

“Long Days of Vengeance” (1967)

“Pecos Cleans Up” (1967)

“Seven Pistols for a Massacre” (1967)

“A Stranger in Town” (1967)

“Son of Django” (1967)

“The Sons of Ringo” (1967)

“$10,000 for a Massacre” (1967)

“Two R-R-Ringos from Texas” (1967)

“Wanted” (1967)

“And Now Make Your Peace With God” (1968)

“Black Jack” (1968)

“Day After Tomorrow” (1968)

“Death Rides Alone” (1968)

“Death Sentence” (1968)

“The Five Man Army” (1968)

“Gatling Gun” (1968)

“God Will Forgive You Not Me” (1968)

“Hate Thy Neighbor” (1968)

“Johnny Hamlet” (1968)

“I Sell My Skin Dearly” (1968)

“Kill Them All and Come Back Alone” (1968)

“A Long Ride from Hell” (1968)

“The Longest Hunt” (1968)

“Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968)

“One More to Hell” (1968)

“A Pistol for 100 Coffins” (1968)

“Professonals for a Massacre” (1968)

“3 Silver Dollars” (1968)

“The Stranger Returns” (1968)

“The Stranger Who Made the Sign of the Cross” (1968)

“A Time to Kill” (1968)

“Blood and Guns” (1969)

“Django the Bastard” (1969)

“The Forgotten Pistolero” (1969)

“I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death” (1969)

“Judge Roy Bean” (1969)

“Kidnapping” (1969)

“Night of the Serpent” (1969)

“Quintana: Dead or Alive” (1969)

“Sabata” (1969)

“The Terror of Oklahoma” (1969)

“Adios Sabata” (1970)

“The Beast” (1970)

“Have a Good Funeral My Friend” (1970)

“I Am Sartana… Trade Your Pistols for a Coffin” (1970)

“Sartana Kills Them All” (1970)

“Shango” (1970)

“Brother Outlaw” (1971)

“Dead Men Ride” (1971)

“Heads You Die… Tails I Kill You” (1971)

“Paid in Blood” (1971)

“Return of Sabata” (1971)

“The Twilight Avengers” 1971

“Beyond the Frontiers of Hate” (1972)

“A Man Called Amen” (1972)

“The Blue Gang” (1973)

“Those Dirty Dogs” (1973)

“White Fang” (1973)

“Four of the Apocalypse” (1975)