Old West Created on European Sets [1965 newspaper archive]

Journal and Courier

Lafayette, Indiana

July 3, 1965

THE current big fad in European film-making – American westerns – will be examined by “ABC Scope” in “Westerns, European Style,” Wednesday (Ch. 7, 9:30 p.m. ; Ch 13 10:30 p.m.).

With ABC News Rome Correspondent Sidney Lazard as narrator, the documentary will delive into the continental version of the world of two-fisted heroes, bar-room brawls and simple solutions to simple problems.

The program will explore how Italian “Indians” and actors of various nationalities, speaking different languages, can re-create the Old West convincingly and to the satisfaction and amusement of an international audience.

The most popular movies in Europe are American westerns (European made). The rousing documentary includes portions of “The Sheriff Doesn’t Shoot,” a Spanish-Ita;lian “western” being made in Rome’s Cinecitta (The Hollywood of Europe) and starring Germany’s Solvi Stubing and Mickey Hargitay of the United States

Hargitay and stars of other nations will discuss the pleasures, challenges and differences of European “western”. For instance how to say “We’ll head ‘em off at the pass” in Italian doesn’t concern Hargitay, since all the action in Italian-made westerns is done silently – for later dubbing. As the documentary will show, this allows the leading man to bellow in English, an Italian insult to be answered by a German cry, and so on.