By Jerry Roberts
June 20, 1991
The most memorable moments from the “spaghetti westerns” era usually have nothing to do with the movies’ reputations for excess violence.
Of course, the bad dubbing comes to mind, as does the bleak tableaux of Spain and Italy substituting for the American West, and the spectacular rise to stardom of Clint Eastwood as ‘The Man With No Name.”
But what really has been committed to memory is the dawdling and occasionally riotous little scenes that the king meatball of the spaghetti form, Sergio Leone, used to spice up his movies.
These ridiculous and often protracted pieces of business, which weren’t germane to the action, included Jack Elam trying to trap a horsefly in a gun barrel, Lee Van Cleef striking a match on the back of Klaus Kinski’s neck, Charles Bronson laboriously playing a harmonica, or Leone’s signature moment in “A Fistful of Dynamite” (1971), a long sequence of obviously many takes and setups of a human mouth devouring pasta.
The spaghettis were truly a form unto themselves, and Leone established himself as a unique filmmaker with a baroque, indulgent sardonic, fairly absurd and excessively macho style, amplified by squinting glares and plenty of grunts.
The fad of the made-overseas western began with Leone and Eastwood and “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964). It was made Italians in Spain with German money and based on a Japanese idea, making it, actually, a teriyaki/sauerkraut/huevos/spaghetti western with star Eastwood providing the American hot dog.
Bloody Euro-westerns flooded the market in the late 1960sand early ‘70s, making gainful repeated employment for Van Cleef and creating international stars in Terence Hill and Bud Spencer.
Across the stature of Henry Fonda, Yul Brynner, Jason Robards, Robert Ryan, Robert Shaw, James Mason, John Huston, Arthur Kennedy, Rod Steiger, Van Heflin, Jim Brown and Eli Wallach went into the sauce recipe. Telly Savalas, Jack Palance, and Franco Nero also were regulars.
American studios began imitating the Leone style and even used the locations, partly through the burgeoning practice of multinational film financing arrangements partly through sheer copycatting. In the early ‘70s, more westerns were being made in the vicinity of the Po and Tagus than the Colorado and Rio Grande.
The casts were incredibly uniform: two or three name stars, a hot tamale for some romance and then 17 guys with names like Nunzio Alphonstosimolio Ravioli and Garibaldi Fettucine, Clint and director Ted Post brought the spaghetti style to bear on the American-made “Hang ‘Em High” (1968), and Clint went behind the camera to direct the ghostly “High Plains Drifter” (1973).
Other American imitations of foreign imitations of American westerns included “A Canon for Cordoba” (1970) with George Peppard. “Madron” (1970), shot in Israel, with Richard Boone, “The Deserter” (1971) with John Huston and “Captain Apache” (1972) with Van Cleef and Carroll Baker.
The western just about vanished concurrently with the spaghettis, which went out of stule around 1976. Basically, the spaghettis provided the western with its last stylistic gasp.
Other spaghettis include “A Bullet for Sandoval” (1970) with Ernest Borgnine, “Guns for Dollars” (1970) with George Hilton, “A Town Called Bastard” (1971) with Robert Shaw, “Adios Sabata” (1971) and its ridiculous sequels, all with Yul Brynner, “Sonny and Jed” (1973) with Telly Savalas and the Van Cleef canon: “El Condor” (1970). “Bad Man’s River” (1972), “Beyond the Law” (1973), etc.
“Once Upon a Time in the West,” starring Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards, Keenan Wynn, Jack Elam, Lionel Stander, Gabriele Ferzetti, Paolo Syoppa. Directed by Sergio Leone. 1969 (Paramount Home Video, 1965 minutes.)
The apex of the spaghetti genre, this one marked Leone’s first collaboration with an American studio and a top-echelon cast. It’s a sweeping and languid epic about hired killers for a corrupt railroad who pursue Cardinale for her dead husband’s land, Fonda is excellent as the evil hired gun.
“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, Rada Rassimov, Mario Brega, Chelo Alonso. Directed by Sergio Leone. 1967 (MGM/UA Home Video, 161 minutes).
The most popular of the spaghettis featured the three American actors in the above order as the three title characters. They’re unlikely allies who each know a piece about the whereabouts of Confederate treasure during the Civil War. Ennio Morricone’s score is one of the most popular in film history.
“A Fistful of Dynamite.” Starring James Coburn, Rod Steiger, Romol Valli, Maria Monti. Directed by Sergio Leone. 1971 (MGM/UA Home Video, 121 minutes).
Steiger’s bandit and Coburn’s ex-IRA explosives expert team up to rob a bank. Florid Leone touches are at times ridiculous, but the lively action and Coburn’s performance carry the day. Originally released as “Ducl You Sucker!”
“A Fistful of Dollars” starring Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volonte, Marianne Koch Mario Brega, Carol Brown, Wolfgang Lukschy. Directed by Sergio Leone. 1964 (MGM/UA Home video, 96 minutes).
The spectacular rise of Leone, Eastwood as “The Man With No Name” and the spaghettis came from this adaptation of Akira Kurasawa’s “Yojimbo” (1961). Occasionally silly but always watchable.
“For a Few Dollars More” starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonte, Klaus Kinski, Josef Egger, Rosemarie Dexter, Mario Brega, Mara Krup. Directed by Sergio Leone. 1965 (MGM/UA Home video, 113 minutes).
Clint and Van Cleef are pistoleros who join forces to find the notorious Indio. Equally popular sequel to “A Fistful of Dollars”.
“My Name Is Nobody,” starring Henry Fonda, Terence Hill, Leo Gordon, Geoffrey Lewis, R.G. Armstrong. Directed by Tonino Valerii. 1974 (Kartes Video Communications, 115 minutes).
Fonda plays an aging gunman who wants to retire, but Hill worships his legend and draws him back into gunplay. The funniest and perhaps most likeable of all the spaghettis.
“The Ruthless Four” starring Van Heflin, Klaus Kinski, Gilbert Roland, George Hilton, Sarah Ross. Directed by Giorgio Capitani. 1970 U.S.A. Home Video. 96 minutes).
Four co-owners of a Nevada (more likely Csstile) gold mine entertain shifty ideas about each other. A poor man’s “Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” but good and underrated.
“They Call Me Trinity,” starring Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Farley Granger, Gisela Hahn, Stephen Zacharias, Dan Sturkie. Directed by Enzo Barboni under the pseudonym E.B. Clucher. 1971 (Charter Entertainment, 110 minutes).
A spaghetti-style spoof of “The Magnificent Seven” (1960), this one made stars of Hill and Spencer as half-brothers who pass themselves off as serious gunslingers to get hired to protect a town from marauders. Followed by the sequel, “Trinity is Still My Name” (1972), and preceded by “Boot Hill” (1969), all starring Terry and the mountainous Bud.
“A Minute to Pray, a Second to Fall,” starring Robert Ryan, Arthur Kennedy, Alex Cord, Osiride Peverelli, Nicoletta Machiavelli, Mario Brega. Directed by Franco Giraldi. (1967) (CBS/Fox Video, 97 minutes).
Very underrated western about an outlaw who will get amnesty in Escondido (try Naples or Florence) if he first subdues a corrupt town for the governor. Not to be confused with another spaghetti, “A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die” (1974, aka, “Massacre at Fort Holman”), with James Coburn.
“Don’t Turn the Other Cheek,” starring Franco Nero, Eli Wallach, Lybb Redgrave, Marilu Tolo, Horst Janson. Directed by Duccio Tessari. 1973 (Magnum Entertainment, 117 minutes).
Apparently, Eli felt he needed another turn as a Mexican bandit. He teams up with Irish reporter Redgrave and Russian “prince” Nero for slapstick exploits.
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