When Fraga became the stage for Spaghetti westerns [part 8 of 8]

 Between the years 1965 and 1972, two Catalan production companies made about seventy films of the spaghetti western genre in the West Bank. We’ll tell you about it.

Sapiens

Salvador Giné (text) / Àngel Comas (advice)

Fraga’s films

The exteriors of around 30 spaghetti films were shot in and around Fraga. The first was 'Pistoleros de Arizona', by Alfonso Balcázar, in 1965. Ignacio F. Iquino shot his first film in the area also in 1965 with 'Oeste Nevada Joe', where, according to Ángel's book As 'Ignacio F. Iquino, hombre de cine', there was a big fight between the director and some actors who accused him of trying to seduce an actress whom he had first drugged. That 1965, other directors signed 'Cinco pistolas de Texas' and 'El sabor de la venganza'. And in the following years, titles such as 'Viva Carrancho', de Balcázar, 'Oklahoma John', 'Doc, manos de plata', 'Dinamita Jim' or 'Clint el solitario' were filmed.

In 1969, Ignacio F. Iquino filmed in Fraga the exteriors of a gangster film set in 1930s Chicago, 'La Banda de los crisantemos', in which the extras who acted as robbers were civil guards. Some foreign directors also took advantage of Fraga to set some exteriors. In 1967, Tinto Brass shot 'Yanqui' there, and Robert Siodmark captured some shots for 'The Last Adventure'. The last film shot in Fraga was 'Los Fabulosos de Trinidad', by Ignacio F. Iquino, in 1972. In many films the bell tower of Fraga is clearly identified, some fragments of the vegetable garden - due to oversights by framing- and the hermitages at the top of the hills of Sant Simó and Sant Salvador.