In the 1970 Spaghetti western “More Dollars for the MacGregors” we see a bounty hunter looking over a number of wanted posters posted on the wall of the sheriff’s office. The poster in the middle features a familiar face with the name of Frank Lasky and a $2,000 reward posted “Dead or Alive”. The face is that of actor Dan van Husen who does not appear in the film at all.
[submitted by Michael Ferguson]
Franco
e Ciccio. Storia di due antieroi. La biografia autorizzata
(Franco
and Ciccio. Story of two anti-heroes. The authorized biography)
Author:
Alberto Pallotta - Andrea Pergolari
Country:
Italy
Publisher:
Sagoma
Language:
Italian
Pages:
496
ISBN:
9788865061534
Available:
9/30/2022
Franco
and Ciccio. So. Just the names are enough. The names are enough to arouse a
smile. Today, like sixty years ago. Their names are enough to have them in
front of your eyes, as they have always been: more improbable and absurd than
ever. They have overwhelmed Italian cinema and entertainment with the
impetuousness of true phenomena. They were the most proverbial comedy couple in
our history. Despite an eternal circle of quarrels and reconciliations. This is
their first authorized biography, a story that is also the story of a precious
friendship, of an unrepeatable union. A story that started from nothing, from
the misery of childhood, and reached millions of spectators. A story of
laughter and a few tears, of great shows and unlikely films, a joyful story
that is also tinged with yellow at the end. This book, also created to worthily
celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ciccio Ingrassia (1922-2022),
reconstructs it with testimonies and documents, over 60 unpublished photos and
with the decisive and direct contributions and contributions of the sons
Giampiero Ingrassia and Massimo Benenato.
“Joe Dakota: Der erbarmungslose Colt”
(Joe Dakota)
Director: Tulio Demicheli
Starring: Robert Hundar, Fernando, Antonio Mayans, Marta
Reves, Gloria Milland, Mirko Ellis
Country: Germany
Label: True Grit / Cargo
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 2.35:1
Languages: (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono) Italian, German
Running time: 84 minutes
ASIN: B0B19Q7YCN
Limited edition: 500 copes
2 cover options
Extras: Booklet, mini poster,
Release date: September 30, 2022
“Deadlock”
(1970)
Director: Roland Klick
Starring: Mario Adorf, Anthony Dawson, Marquard Bohm
Country: Germany
Label: Subkultur
Discs: 1
4K HD
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 1.66:1
Subtitles: German, English
Languages: German, English
Limited edition: 500 copies
Running time: 93 minutes
ASIN: B0BCSGPY3F
Release date: September 30, 2022
Archivio Siciliano del Cinema
By
Manuela Maria Giordano
July 7, 2022
MMG: Of the many actors with whom you shared the set, even Sicilians – such as Franco and Ciccio, Lando Buzzanca, Tano Cimarosa – with whom did you feel you had more affinity? In these long 42 years of absence from the film industry, have you maintained contact with anyone?
DG: Speaking of affinity I can tell you that I had a wonderful understanding with the two interpreters of the film La cameriera (1974, by Roberto Bianchi Montero) the multifaceted and prolific actress from Palermo Carla Calò, and Mario Colli, Roman actor, dubber and director of Italian dubbing, known above all for having given the voice to Raymond Burr in the mysteries of Perry Mason. These are names that probably most people have no memory of, but they were two of the very good ones. Of course, there is also Lando Buzzanca, understanding between us was a normal thing, but I also had an excellent understanding with Francesco Mulé, whose acting career he had joined that of voice actor and his voice remained linked to the character of the Yogi Bear. Unforgettable for me also Marisa Merlini and Tuccio Musumeci. With them the work was always a laugh. And, first of all, Nino Manfredi. The agreement was immediate. So immediate that Risi made a single ciak with our scenes. There was a harmony as if we had always acted together. Another actor with whom there was a good professional understanding was Raf Vallone in The House of Fear (1974) a thriller by William Rose also distributed in the United States. How nice it is to understand each other on the fly! Feel the realization of your work when you find the recitative embrace of the other. These are magical moments. It is as if suddenly a bundle of energy is formed that envelops the scene. I can't forget even Elio Pandolfi with whom I did a six-month theatrical season with debut at the Teatro Sistina, in Rome. It was called Che Brutta Epoque, directed by Mario Landi. The two sacred monsters were Antonella Steni and Elio Pandolfi. Then there was only us: five guys, including Massimo Dapporto and myself. Without Pandolfi who understood me, comforted me and made me laugh I would not have endured six months around the stages of Italian theaters. I would have fled even at the cost of breaking the contract. However, I must confess that I found the understandings and affinities more easily with American actors. It was much more congenial to me to support their acting rhythms and their times. It's true I'm a bit of an extrophile. When I decided to stop making films I left Rome and returned to Palermo. And from that moment on, contacts were interrupted. If I had any rare friendship left, it was still overseas. I have never developed social relationships within my profession. I didn't go to the events or parties that were occasionally organized by big names. I was afraid of getting caught up in situations I didn't feel confident I could solve. So I preferred not to go anywhere. I went out with friends who had little or nothing to do with cinema.
MMG: At a certain point you understood that Italian cinema was changing direction after the glories of the 60s and 70s and that the time had come for you to abandon the scenes. What led you to this decision?
DG: It was a very painful but necessary decision. I had several years of cinema on my shoulders and I loved my work, but I realized that the direction it had taken was not congenial to me and was not in my ropes. I was not interested in maintaining beauty with botulinums or small interventions. In addition, a frightening crisis had arrived. It was the 80s and there was no longer, as before, enough work for everyone. It was a crisis that has been getting worse over the years and of which we still pay the consequences today. My agent, the last in order of time, son of the producer of the famous Scalera Film, told me that after 40 years of cinema he had found work as a representative of a famous company in Umbria of articles for babies. I felt professionally abandoned. But he was still right. What else can be done when there is no more work? I was approaching the age of 40 and did not foresee a very bright future. Not just for me, but for everyone. I was at the limit of the time I had left to change my life and find a more stable and peaceful job. I had a delicate health and the excesses of cinema, such as taking a bath in a reservoir in the wrong season, or wearing clothes not appropriate to the real season, led me to often have fever or bronchitis. In addition, every time I went abroad I had food problems. In short, it was necessary to change the regime.
MMG: After your leave from the cinema you decided to return to Palermo and get married. How did you experience this transition to a more "normal" life? What did you miss the most while you were away from Sicily?
DG: More than a transition, I would call it an epochal chaos. The man I then married was my partner since 1975 and, when I started to go up and down from Palermo to find a home and work, he felt the ground under my feet was missing. He thought that by settling somewhere else sooner or later I would leave him. So after a while, having solved the problems with my family, I dragged him to Palermo and finally married him (how things went I told them in my autobiographical book with more details)! "Normal" work was a 'mystical' experience for me. It's an understatement, in the sense that it was tough. I had to give up my work creativity to face the classic 'office' relationships that were completely unknown to me. It was very difficult. Above all, try to change my way of being, so as not to be accused of self-centeredness or anything else. After so many years, having regained possession of my sea and this particular Sicilian blue sky made me very happy. They were the things I missed the most.
MMG: For many years you have been dealing with studies in the field of the paranormal and psychic phenomena, you also talked about it in your latest book, Three Lives in One (Enigma Edizioni, 2020), which recently has also been translated into English for the foreign market. How was this singular passion of yours born and where did your research take you today?
DG: The passion was born when I saw in 1973-74, a broadcast on national TV on these topics with the intervention of Uri Geller, an Israeli psychic discovered by an American scientist. The controversy aroused by this broadcast in the scientific community, subsequently published in various national newspapers, had tickled my curiosity and I decided to find out if all this was a soap bubble or if there was something true. So, I set off to meet Geller, who in the meantime had moved to Geneva, Switzerland, and we had dinner together at the end of his show. Sitting at the table, together with her old friends, I was able to personally verify her abilities and observe her potential mechanisms. Following the aforementioned transmission, some children in Italy also found themselves with the same abilities. At that point, a set of circumstances meant that I had the opportunity to test these abilities of some of them. Then, realizing that there was a lack of information on these topics in Italy, I started writing for some newspapers. From there to do research on my own the step was short. I had the satisfaction of being invited to give a lecture in London and Paris, not for the public but for the scientific researchers who dealt with these topics. That was a great emotion. I would have known only much later, like so many, that in those years the American government was training military personnel in a top secret intelligence program to learn to use the psychic abilities that, without knowing it, every man possesses in natural form. In 2009 a film was released in Italy entitled The Man Who Stares at the Goats, directed by Grant Heslov, with actors such as George Clooney, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey. The film is based on the book of the same name, written by reporter Jon Ronson, who left for Iraq and accidentally discovers that a secret department of the US army aims to use paranormal faculties in the field of war. The meeting with the commander, a member of the department for over 20 years, will open the doors to new realities. The film is based on a true story and is a heavy satire against the American military establishment that, without understanding much, tries to teach its soldiers how to use psychic powers against the enemy. The film didn't go very well in America but it was a colossal flop in Italy. There were 8 of us at the cinema that year, including my husband and I. And surely they will have taken us for crazy because we were the only ones who, having followed over the years the research and development of these ESP (Extra Sensory Perceptions) abilities in man, laughed out loud at the gags and attempts of the soldiers to replace or add to conventional military training new knowledge that originates in the field of subtle energies.
MMG: Who is Daniela Giordano today? Do you ever want to go back to making movies and, if you could choose, who would you like to work with?
DG: This is a question that is difficult to answer. I am always very curious and are therefore a mix of many things that can sometimes seem very distant from each other. But among these there is always a common thread, even if it is not seen immediately. In the last three years I have cultivated "the author". In fact, I have now finished another book, always autobiographical, which will soon see the light in the United States. I don't know if I will find the publisher in Italy. The topics I write about are always very controversial and not many Italian publishers are aware of certain issues. Anyway, I can honestly say that I still feel like an actress, even if I hid that part of me in a corner. Of course, every now and then I get the desire to go back to making movies, especially when I see movies and characters that I like. Being able to choose, who would I like to work with? What a wonderful game you prospect me! Unfortunately, those I would have liked to work with are no longer there – like Rutger Hauer, Charlton Heston, Katharine Hepburn, Kirk Douglas, James Coburn, Yul Brinner... If we move into the present and forget the regrets, the first one that comes to mind is Judi Dench and then Maggie Smith, followed by Kevin Costner and Jim Caviezel. I'd like to be directed by Kathryn Bigelow, David Twohy or Clint Eastwood. And then steven spielberg and George Lucas. I would also love to direct with Chloé Zhao (Nomadland). With her a film about the awakening of man's consciousness would be beautiful. And the Italians? Well, someone good is there, but he can't excite me. And the genres that are acclaimed in this period are not the ones I like. I am aware: my tastes are quite 'primitive'. I didn't follow television much, but with everything that has happened to us nationally (read Covid), sometimes I happen to appreciate film products passed on TV that I consider remarkable – such as Yellowstone or Game of Thrones or at least even Vera, with the British Brenda Blethyn . Other times it happens instead that, passing from one channel to another, you accidentally find a good director in some Italian fiction on TV. I never thought this could happen!
MMG: One last question. What is your point of view on the current Italian and Sicilian film scene? Would you have any notes, even critical ones, to make about it?
DG: When I returned
to Palermo, before finding a new job, I wondered what I could do on this
island. I knew English, cinema and Sicily. So, in my naivety, I invented a new
job: to promote Sicily abroad. It was the 80s and there was an American site in
English where everyone who worked in the industry could access. Even the film
companies that had some production needs used that site. If they were looking
for locations for
their films, I would write to them promoting Sicily and my skills as a guide.
Slowly, however, I discovered all the problems related to this work. If, for
example, a production company that wanted to shoot here in Sicily needed
technical equipment for filming (such as a simple uninterruptible power supply)
or other, it had at the time only one interlocutor – which required exorbitant
and not affordable costs for medium productions from the United States or even
from Rome. In addition, overlooking a balcony (perhaps for "home"
reasons), he chose workers, special figures and extras that he then imposed on
the production. Luckily, I found another job!
I really love creativity: the one that directors invent when they produce good
films without a sufficient ceiling – like Spielberg's Duel in 1971, his first
feature film. This is what I would like to see in Italian cinema: creative
ideas. Instead, we are full of thrillers, violence, robberies, horror and
betrayals. Unfortunately, for several years now, the ones that gross the most
are films with sex and violence. Thus diverting, in my opinion, the moral
growth of today's young people. And I don't consider this rhetoric. I struggle
to find a film that appeals to me today. Films such as Volevo Nascondermi, by Giorgio Diritti, about the painter Antonio Ligabue, winner of the Nastro
d'Argento 2020 and the David di Donatello 2021 – are not easily found in the
Italian overview – even if seeing it made me suffer. These are not the emotions
that I wish I had stimulated by a film. We suffer enough like that. In recent
years, however, it will be age, but I suffer from envy. Yes, envy towards
Puglia that has been able to combine cinema and tourism and that, with their
winning strategy, are also attracting international cinema. Chapeau then to the Apulian Film Commission and
its President of the Region. In Sicily, on the other hand, we are a little
late. Beyond the good directors we have and who tell the story of Sicily, the
historical one, that of the mafia and that of repressed aspirations, there are
still not all the skills necessary to speed up "this boat" a little
perforated. Very few actors, actresses, workers or directors know English and
who could support foreign productions. There is a site where the Film
Commissions of each Italian region require actors/actresses for films or TV
dramas in production. Why is it so rare to see the requests of the Sicilian
Film Commission? We have enormous potential and it is not possible to offer it
competently. We tell the Sicily that we would like, not the one we had, not
that of the news or the one we have. We get out of cinematic stereotypes by
choosing other faces, other stories and offer different emotions! Science
fiction? Maybe. We don't just need Italian productions, we also need them those
in Europe and those across the ocean. Why does Germany go to shoot the exteriors
of one of its films in Almeria and not in Sicily? Everything there, we have it
here too! I remember that many years ago there was almost an overcrowding of
foreign productions in Budapest, Hungary. What had happened? They had built
mega film factories that they then offered at very low cost. This is how their
fortune began with international cinema. True, times have changed, but this
does not mean that we must give up the momentum that is in us.
[Daniela Giordano
together with the editor of ASCinema Manuela Maria Giordano at the Hotel
Zagarella in Palermo (7 July 2022) (photo by Salvatore Arcarese).]
Rudolph Jugert (director) would have been 115 today but died in 1979.
Michel Lemoine (actor) would have been 100 today
but died in 2013.
“Escondido”
(The Dirty Outlaws)
(1967)
Director: Franco Rossetti
Starring: Andrea Giordana, Rosemary Dexter, Franco
Giornelli, Dna Ghia, Piero Lulli
Country: Germany
Label: Explosive Media
Region: 0
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 2.35:1, 16:9 - 1.77:1
Languages: DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono German, English, Italian
Subtitles: German, English, Italian
Running time: 105 minutes
Extras: Two cover options, a limited 32-page media book
(1000 copies each), a featurette with Angelo Fillippini; various trailers;
gallery of stills and artwork.
ASIN: B0B28KGZ92
Release date: September 29, 2022
Archivio Siciliano del Cinema
By
Manuela Maria Giordano
July 7, 2022
In
the field of popularization of film culture, ASCinema met Daniela Giordano, an
actress in vogue between the sixties and seventies, known in the genres of our
cinema, including several Italian-Spanish co-productions, as well as muse in
mario Bava's foray into the Italian sexy comedy How many times ... that night
(1972), a preclaro example of cinema happily intertwined with scenographic
elements full of aesthetics and design.
 |
[Daniela Giordano
together with the editor of ASCinema Manuela Maria Giordano at the Hotel
Zagarella in Palermo (7 July 2022) (photo by Salvatore Arcarese).]
A multifaceted and brilliant personality, Daniela Giordano, born in 1946, lives in the oblivion that the world of cinema seems to have wrongly assigned to her. She began her career immediately after winning the prestigious Miss Italy contest in 1966, the following year she made her debut on the big screen with the film I barbieri di Sicilia by Marcello Ciorciolini alongside Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia. From that moment, and until 1980, she was active in the western, comedy, thriller, detective and horror. Mrs. Giordano has already retired to private life for many years and leads a very quiet life in her native Palermo, devoting herself above all to writing, studies on paranormal phenomena and painting (1, 2), through which she pays homage to her Sicily, but with cinema always in her heart. When our editor Manuela Maria Giordano (no relation to the actress) wrote to her to propose an interview that also touched on unusual aspects, she immediately accepted with enthusiasm. The meeting took place at the Hotel Domina Zagarella on the outskirts of Palermo, on July 7th.
MMG: Hello Daniela and thank you for accepting this interview for ASCinema! Let's start immediately from the beginning of your long journey: from a roundabout on the beach of Mondello to the famous Salsomaggiore competition and, finally, the landing at Cinecittà. How did such a young girl cope with that period full of changes?
DG: Riding the wave, or rather, riding the waves! For my part, the changes would have been greeted with great pleasure if I had not had to face the turmoil of my parents: a favorable father, a contrary mother. That was not easy! However, the beginnings were simplified by the fact that my father's brother worked in Rome and that his family was willing to host me for a while and keep an eye on me – which is very challenging. I had won the car and the money and so I felt independent. And who could tell me anything more?
MMG: The Miss Italy band has meant a great opportunity for you, if you had not made cinema what would you have wanted to do? Did you have dreams?
DG: At that time – we are in 1966 – I already painted, I came from art school and I wanted to be a poster designer. Work that you could only find in Milan. This time, however, my parents agreed. They would never send me to live alone in Milan, so, thinking even then to travel and see the world, I decided that I wanted to learn the English language. This was also a bit difficult. My mother preferred French for a girl. So I also fought for English and ended up at the British College in Palermo. Then I started giving private lessons to the children. It didn't last long because shortly after I won Miss Italy. I was 19 years old and under Italian law I was still a minor.
MMG: From 1967 to 1980 you crossed all film genres, from comedy to westerns, from detective to thriller and even horror. Which one did you feel most comfortable in and enjoyed playing the most?
DG: I've always felt more comfortable with western movies. I already saw them at the Gaudium cinema, the parish hall near my home in Palermo. Doing them then in the first person rewarded me a lot. I liked the horses, I liked the characters to play and I also liked the protagonists. Around the age of 15 I had a crush on Peter Lee Lawrence, a German actor, best known for his many spaghetti westerns and several photonovels. You can imagine how excited I felt when I made a film with him (The Four Gunslingers of the Holy Trinity). Later I had another crush on Peter Graves, the American actor who for years had played the Mission Impossible TV series, where the opening was that of a tape recorder that after the instructions given to the agent self-destructed in a cloud of smoke – at that time Tom Cruise was just born! When I had the opportunity to work with Peter Graves on a western, unfortunately he was already too old for me.
MMG: Speaking of horror... In 1976 you played a rather peculiar one, directed by the Spaniard Paul Naschy, Inquisición. What memories do you have of this film?
DG: Beautiful and less beautiful. It was a physically tiring film, but beautiful to play. I had a character to create: from a simple girl to a witch for love, and I wouldn't really consider it a horror, but rather an almost historical film. I was the protagonist and I really liked that character. Paul Naschy was very happy to have found an actress who resembled the woman whose story he told. He was a historically documented character and of whom Naschy had found a portrait in an ancient book. And I looked like her. The hardest things in the film? Picking up a skull with all the white vermicelli coming in and out of the orbits, killing a hen and plucking it, or forcing me not to flee when they lit the fire all around me to burn me at the stake as a witch. The film, initially distributed only in Spain, was later sold in Europe and the United States. He cashed in a lot. Recently they made it a blu-ray DVD and it is considered a "cult" by fans. Italy was one of the few countries that did not distribute it. In 1976 that kind of film didn't matter (we already had the 'sexy comedy'). In Inquisición, according to the distributors, there was not enough naked, the Spanish actors were not known in Italy, only my name (the only Italian) was not strong enough to pull the whole film and, above all, the dubbing would have cost a lot.
MMG: I know that you did not like having to do the nude scenes, in this regard is it true that once you refused a proposal from none other than Carlo Lizzani?
DG: Yes, it's true. It was the first film that my agency, William Morris, proposed to me, just fresh from Miss Italy. Together with my father, accidentally in Rome at that time, I met Lizzani with whom I had an appointment. For Lizzani I was fine as a little girl who would have a love affair with a man much older than her. Shortly before leaving, he asked me if I was available for the nude scenes in the film. I said no. So he greeted me and we left. Shortly after, William Morris proposed to me I barbieri di Sicilia, with Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia. And I agreed. It was my first film!
MMG: You have worked with many directors, including foreigners, even with important names such as Dino Risi (in Vedo nudo, 1969) and Mario Bava (How many times... that night, 1972). What relationship did you have with them on set? Did your point of view matter or did you simply adapt to the needs?
DG: After the period of westerns, the type of films has changed. And I adapted, in the sense that if from my point of view there were scenes that were too risqué or I refused the film or, if there was room for negotiation, I communicated even before signing the contract that I was not available to scenes too pushed. I must say that, according to the directors, I was "a great troublemaker". But if they wanted me, they had to come to an agreement with me. Typically, if they accepted, they either took the stunt double or transferred the nude scenes to other characters. For How many times... that night I started arguing right away. There were too many nude scenes on the script. In the end Mario Bava convinces me by talking about cache-sexe, a plaster that "sticks" on the private parts, light effects of the type I see-I don't see, and other cinematic tricks. He was very fatherly and seemed to understand my problems. In the end, in the scenes that I considered "stronger" you could see almost nothing with all the patches I had glued above, below and behind. Bava would solve the sequences that worried me with providential plants, screens and other effects. The problem, for which I wanted an extra payment, was to remove the patches in the evening at home! As much as the hot bath helped to dissolve the glue, it was certainly not easy to pull it all away. Not even with Dino Risi was a problem, we agreed immediately.
MMG: Mario Bava has been widely re-evaluated by critics over the years and his films have become cult objects among cinephiles. How many times... that night of which you were the protagonist, was even reduced to cinenovel format both in Italy and in France. Do you have any curious anecdotes related to the making of this film? What kind was Bava?
DG: Already from what
I told before you can guess that Bava was a very good person. He had patience,
at least with me, and was considered a good director. I gave some problems,
however, to the American actor Brett Halsey, my partner in the film. In one
scene I had to run to meet him, hug him and give him a kiss on the mouth. We do
two or three tests (without kissing) for the positions and distances of the
small race. Then Bava gives the action. I leave towards Brett and I make a
mistake a few millimeters in the position of my mouth. Result: my incisors slam
into his and make him jump the capsules that roll somewhere on the floor. Brett
shouts, "Stop everyone! You don't start spinning again if you don't find
the capsules first!". So, everyone starts looking for them among the light
cables, platforms, trolleys and other tools of the set. I was mortified and
sorry. I know how much the jobs at the dentist cost, but deep down I feel justified
because I am short-sighted and a millimeter more or less for me does not make
much difference.
 |
[Daniela Giordano
and Brett Halsey in How many times... quella notte (1972), in the cinenovel
reduction French Erosfilm, n. 4, March 1977 (Fondo Cineromanzi di ASCinema –
Archivio Siciliano del Cinema)] [To be continued tomorrow] |
Lukas Ammann (actor) would have been 110 today but died in 2017.
.jpg)
Mylene Demongeot (actress) is 90 today.
Perla Cristal (actress) is 85 today.
Eugenio Ercolani posted on Facebook on September 28, 2022. “I came to find out today about the recent passing of producer-director-screenwriter Vincenzo Salviani. I had a chance to interview him years ago and I stoodd in front of a force of nature. During the interview I had to ask him several times to repeat things because the recording operator and I were laughing.
Salviani was a producer, production director and screenwriter for Fernando Di Leo, Ruggero Deodato, Lucio Fulci, Vittorio De Sisti, Maurizio Lucidi, Silvio Amadio and many others.”
Salvani was a production secretary on 1971’s “Aquasanta
Joe” (Holy Water Joe).
I Magnifici Sette collection
(“The Magnificent Seven”, “Return of the Seven”, “Guns of
the Magnificent Seven”, “The Magnificent Seven Ride”)
Country: Italy
Label: Sinister Film
Discs: 4
Language: Italian, English
Subtitles – Italian
Running time: 7 hours, 8 minutes
ASIN: B0B691YSJ2
Release date: September 28, 2022
Bill
A 1991 Italian production [Instituto Luce Cinecitta
(Rome)
Producer: Lello Scarano
Director: Jean-Pierre Duriez
Story: Jean-Pierre Duriez
Screenplay: Jean-Pierre Duriez
Cinematography: Silvio Fraschetti [color]
Music: Giovanni Nuti
Running time:
Cast:
Billy - Francesco Blasio
Lou Lou - Sarah Lou Duriez
Sheriff - Mario Gaudieri
Clark - Gianni Esposito (Giovanni Esposito)
Zapitas - Marco Cantalamessa
Tom - Hervé Salazar
Sansone - Alfonso Buonerba
Vincent - Giuseppe Mafrolla
Barman - Marco Liparulo
Il bidello - Lucio Ciotola
Crazy Horse – Giovanni Ferro
Indians - Fabiana Masecchia, Daniele Russo
Indian squaw - Manuela Liparulo
Padre – Fabio La Prea
Blanche – Liliana La Prea
Blacksmith - Giuseppe Maria Mango
Blacksmith’s assistant – Giovanni Siola
Barber - Davide Mafrolla
Farmers - Giuseppe Panariello, Luigi Panariello
Madame Lucie – Perla Montella
Coach driver - Antonio Pane
Madam Problem - Ilaria Di Francia
Mexicans – Antonio Sasse, Gianluca Sasso
Townswomen - Claudia Sondelli, Luisa Crasta
Townsman - Verusca Aversano, Rosa Canonico
Musicians - Fabiano Cherchi, Rodolfo Sapio, Mario Farroni
Dancers - Chiara Mafrolla, Corinna Cuomo, Benedetta Cuomo,
Viola Garofalo, Cristiana Xetura Cherchi, Federica Scotto Di Vettima, Maria
Gallo
Saloon patron - Umberto Doriano, Giovanni Gallo
Shop owners - Giovanni Brancaccio, Giuseppe Russo
Photographer - Samuel Sperindeo
Doctor - Fernando Farroni
Gambler - Giovanni Malara
Gravedigger - Valerio Marcangeli
Newsboy – Marco Napolitano
Switchboard operator - Mariano Crasta
Cashier - Marco Rega
Janitor – Lucio Ciotola
What happens to middle school kids with a teacher who
always talks about the history of the Far West? That one fine morning Sheriff
Billy (age 10) arrives in Cactus-City to replace the old Yella Smith (15 years)
near the guesthouse. The Apaches are on a war footing and the "Mexican
bandidos" of the Zapitas (13 years old) are raging. For the big Village
Festival the stagecoach brings Lou Lou, the most famous Saloon Star (9 years
old). At this party the love between Lou Lou and Billy is born, contrasted by
Crazy Horse (14 years old) madly in love with the "White Squaw". At
the annual Rodeo, Billy wins and reaffirms his heroism, but is wounded in an
ambush by Mad Horse. Zapitas and his Gang assault the Bank. The duel is
inevitable and ends with Billy's triumph.
Francesco D’Adda Salvaterra was born in Rome, Italy on October 15, 1943. He is an Italian supporting and character actor who’s appeared in more than seventy films since 1975. Most of his roles were small almost cameo appearances. In the bespectacled actor’s five Spaghetti western appearances he was billed as Francesco D’Adda. His last appearance on film was in 2002’s “Volesse il cielo!” as Padre Chiara.
D’ADDA,
Francesco (aka C. D'Adda, Francesco Dadda, Francesca D'Adda
Salvaterra, Francesco D'Adda Salvaterra, Franceso d'Adda Salvaterra) (Francesco D’Adda Salvaterra) [10/15/1943, Rome, Lazio, Italy
- ] – film, TV actor.
Blazing Guns – 1971 (Ubarte's messenger)
Kill the Poker Player – 1972 (piano player)
Another Try, Eh Providence? – 1973 (postmaster)
Fast-Hand is Still My Name – 1973 (Pracownik)
For a Book of Dollars – 1973
HENRY FONDA: Volume One (1905-1960) of a Two-Part
Biography
Authors: Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince
Country: England
Publisher: Blood Moon Publishers Ltd.
Language: English
Pages: 370
ISBN-13: 9781936003846
The real Henry Fonda - new book exposes the troubled
private life of Hollywood star
For half a century he was Hollywood's universally beloved Everyman. Whether playing a migrant worker seeking a better life in The Grapes Of Wrath, a lone juror fighting for justice in 12 Angry Men, or a cowboy with a conscience in My Darling Clementine, Henry Fonda embodied all-American decency.
But a shocking new biography exposes the troubled and tormented private world behind the actor's facade.
"Henry Fonda was very different offscreen from his public persona as the face of America," says Darwin Porter, co-author of a new two-part biography.
"He was a bad husband and bad father, self-absorbed, uncomfortable displaying emotion, not a very lovable man. And he was a womaniser, unfaithful through four of his five marriages. On screen he represented traditional American values, but in his personal life strayed far from them."
Fonda careered through affairs with a series of Hollywood leading ladies including Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead and Barbara Stanwyck, the book reveals.
"I'm not going to let marriage stop me from having fun on the side," Fonda told friends.
He had a decades-long on-off affair with comedy star Lucille Ball, and Porter claims: "She was the love of his life. I think he regretted not marrying Lucille."
Though known as a family man, father to famous offspring Jane and Peter Fonda, in reality he ran from parental responsibilities.
"Henry Fonda is the first to admit he's a lousy husband and an absentee father," said his fourth wife, Italian baroness Afdera Franchetti.
Born in small-town Nebraska, printer's son Fonda was traumatised at the age of 14 by witnessing a lynching. Riddled with bullets, the mutilated body of the black victim was dragged through the streets.
"It was the most horrendous sight I'd ever seen," recalled Fonda, who became a lifelong human rights advocate.
After dropping out of university he found fame on Broadway, and in 1931 married beautiful actress Margaret Sullavan. But like many of Fonda's lovers, she found the handsome star a let down in bed. "You're 26 years old and still don't know how to make love to a woman," Sullavan raged at him.
Waspish movie legend Bette Davis was more scathing, describing her fling with Fonda as "the easiest 30 seconds I've ever spent with any man".
Within months of the marriage, Sullavan began having affairs, and soon abandoned her husband, divorcing in 1933. "She had mental issues, and Fonda didn't give her the love and support she needed," says Porter. When her fame faded, Sullavan became depressed. She died of what was ruled an accidental overdose in 1960.
Meanwhile, Fonda became roommates with rising star Jimmy Stewart in New York and then Los Angeles, forging a life-long friendship. "We shared everything from a single bed in a cramped apartment to much later some of the greatest stars in Hollywood, like Greta Garbo," recalled Fonda with boastful vulgarity.
Porter claims: "The only person Fonda ever really
cared for was Jimmy Stewart."
 |
But the next woman in his sights was wealthy widow Frances Seymour Brokaw, an American blue-blood blonde beauty. They wed in 1936 after a whirlwind romance, producing children Jane and Peter. Yet Jane, born in 1937, recalls her father as emotionally distant, confessing: "I was desperate for his attention."
Porter explains: "Fonda was not an emotional or present father. Sometimes he'd come home after a day's work and have a meal sent to his room rather than eat with his family. He felt competitive with his children, and was jealous when Jane won two Oscars before he got his own."
He finally got close to the acclaim he craved for the role of Tom Joad in the 1940 classic The Grapes Of Wrath. Nominated for an Academy Award, he lost out to his best friend Jimmy Stewart in The Philadelphia Story. Fonda lamented: "Never again will I have such a triumph... I feel like my one chance to ever win an Oscar has come and gone."
The book reveals intriguing Hollywood classics that might have been. Olivia de Havilland wanted Fonda to play Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind. "The part was written for me," Fonda told friends, but producer David Selznick ruled against him, hiring Leslie Howard instead.
Fonda also turned down 1949's The Sands Of Iwo Jima - one of John Wayne's best films - and 1952's High Noon, Gary Cooper's greatest Western. Fonda called it "the mistake of my life".
He even refused the lead part in It's A Wonderful Life, handing his friend Stewart the role of a lifetime. Though he starred in several Westerns, Fonda secretly hated them, because "horseriding leaves me with a sore a***".
A literary elitist, he starred in 1956 epic War & Peace but dismissed it as "the Reader's Digest version of the Tolstoy novel".
When America entered the Second World War, Fonda, then aged 37, enlisted in the US Navy seeking action, rejecting the chance to stay at home making patriotic movies.
He fought heroically in the Pacific, his ship surviving two kamikaze bombing attacks, but Jane offered an alternate theory for his enlistment: "I think he also wanted to escape life as a family man, at least for a period."
Fonda returned to Hollywood, but combat had changed him into even more of "a hardened, distant man", the biography - Henry Fonda, Volume One (1905-1960) - claims. "His family got the worst of it. He had extreme difficulty expressing his emotions."
Meanwhile, wife Frances was slipping into mental illness,
tormented by his barelyhidden affairs. When Fonda asked for a divorce, she spun
into depression. Removed to a mental hospital, she fatally cut her throat
rather than endure the ignominy of their split.
Fonda had been cheating on Frances with 20-year-old Susan Blanchard, half his age, soon to become his third wife in 1950. They adopted a baby daughter, Amy, but Fonda still fled at the sight of a dirty nappy, confessing: "Fatherhood was never really my calling in life."
Susan felt abandoned. "After two months of our marriage I realised he was the wrong companion for me," she said. She endured six unhappy years before filing for divorce.
Fond's brides only grew younger. He next wed Italian socialite Afdera Franchetti, 26 years his junior, in 1957, who squandered his fortune on lavish parties and jewels. Fonda was forced to star in TV series The Deputy to pay the bills. But their age gap proved a yawning chasm, and she filed for divorce in 1961.
Disillusioned with Hollywood, Fonda returned to Broadway in the early 1960s. "He wasn't getting the roles he wanted," says Porter. "And he despised the Method acting of Marlon Brando and James Dean."
Back in New York, Fonda met his fifth wife, Shirlee Mae Adams, 27 years his junior. "Henry was an older man, but he was God-damned handsome," she said.
They wed in 1965, and against all odds stayed together
until he died from heart disease in 1982, aged 77. "Shirlee saved me from
the depths of my depression on many a night," said Fonda.
But Porter reveals: "He was not a happy man in his final years. Until he made On Golden Pond in 1981, finally winning his Oscar, he didn't like most of the films he was making in his later years, taking them only for the money. His final years were marked by illness, ageing ungracefully."
Fonda ultimately came to admit he was not the man
moviegoers knew and loved. "I ain't Henry Fonda, that man on the screen or
stage," he said. "Nobody could have that much integrity."
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Lewis Edward Cianelli was born in New York City, New York on January 12, 1923. He was the son of actor Eduardo Cianelli [1889-1969]. Lewis worked on both sides of the camera while living in Rome and working in the Italian film industry. He was a producer, writer, film, television but worked extensively as a voice dubbing actor for several years; providing English language voices for numerous Italian B-movies.
Cianelli died on May 30, 1990 in Rome, Italy at the age of 67.
CIANELLI, Lewis Edward (aka Lewis Cianelli, Louis Cianelli, Lewis Eduard Ciannelli, Lewis Eduardo Ciannelli, Lewis Ciannelli, Benny Lewis) [1/12/1923, New York City, New York, U.S.A. – 5/30/1990, Rome, Lazio, Italy] – producer, writer, film, TV, voice actor.
Lewis Edward Cianelli’s Euro-western dubbing:
Django
Shoots First – 1966 [dubbing director]
The
Man from Nowhere - 1966 [dubbing director]
The
Great Silence - 1968 [dubbing director, voice of Bruno Corazzari]
Brothers
Blue – 1973 [writer]
[submitted by Michael Ferguson]
Rai Saunders (actor) would have been 100 today but died in 2000.
Bogomil
Simeonov (actor) would have been 100 today but died in 1991.
Mircea Anghelescu (actor) is 95 today.
Felipe Arriaga (actor) would have been 85 today
but died in 1988.
Jose Sacristan (actor) is 85 today.
Harry Baer (actor) is 75 today.
John Patrick White (actor) is 70 today.
Edward Akrout (actor) is 40 today.
