11 Spaghetti Westerns Forgotten to Time (Part 1)

 Films that don't feature Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, or Franco Nero, aren't helmed by the Three Sergios, and aren't scored by Ennio Morricone.

Movieweb

By Mona Bassil

10/6/2023

The Three Sergios is a term that designates the namesakes who directed many staples of the Spaghetti Western subgenre: Corbucci, Sollima, and Leone. Corbucci’s biggest hits were Django, The Great Silence, and Compañeros. Sollima helmed The Big Gundown, Face to Face, and Run, Man, Run. As for Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars, it may have been allocated only $200,000, but it is considered the film that truly ushered in this unhinged category of Westerns. And given the global success of For A Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Leone was later able to secure a whopping $5 million for Once Upon a Time in the West. Which was a good investment, since the movie sold 40 million tickets worldwide, and was considered a big production for the subgenre.

Indeed, Spaghetti Westerns were created as a cheaper, European alternative to high-budget American productions that boasted names like John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Gary Cooper. They were not only shot with modest funds, but also mostly featured European actors and crews, and attracted a specific demographic of cinephiles who enjoyed the profanity, nudity, and violence that were rarely allowed in classic Westerns.

About 500 Spaghetti Westerns were reportedly made between 1964 and 1973, but naturally, some were less successful than others. Here is a selection of lesser-known titles that weren’t helmed by the Three Sergios, Giulio Petroni, Tonino Valerii, Lucio Fulci, or Enzo Castellari, couldn’t afford this industry's icons like Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Terence Hill, Franco Nero, Gian Maria Volontè, Tomas Milian, Giuliano Gemma, Klaus Kinski, Anthony Steffen, or George Hilton, and weren’t scored by Ennio Morricone or Bruno Nicolai.

11 The Handsome, the Ugly, and the Stupid (1967)

Il bello, il brutto, il cretino, known in English as The Handsome, the Ugly, and the Stupid, is written and directed by Giovanni Grimaldi and features Franco Franchi as Franco, the Ugly, Ciccio Ingrassia as Ciccio, the Stupid, Mimmo Palmara as the Handsome, Lother Gunther as Captain Imbriatella, and Birgit Petri as Fabienne. It is a parody of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly that was scored by Lallo Gori and shot on a private property in Rome.

Franco and Ciccio are failed robbers who come up with a foolproof scheme to make some money: the first poses as a bounty hunter who repeatedly captures the latter, collects the reward, saves him from being hanged, and then splits the cash with him. One day, Franco is unable to stop his partner’s execution and brings the money to a saloon, where he gets drunks, and an employee, Fabienne, robs him dry. Meanwhile, Ciccio turns out to be alive and wants revenge on Franco, until they become prisoners of war and decide to team up again after a dying soldier informs them of a hidden cache of gold. Cue the Handsome, who is also after the treasure, while the greedy Fabienne is still sniffing around.

10 Son of Django / Vengeance Is a Colt 45 / Return of Django (1967)

Written and helmed by Osvaldo Civirani and scored by Piero Umiliani, Son of Django centers on Jeff (Gabriele Tinti), a young man who is obsessed with solving his father Django’s mysterious death, which devastated him as a kid. The preacher Gus Fleming (Guy Madison), who saved him at the time, tries to steer him away from the path of revenge, but he has honed his shooting skills and is more determined than ever. His trail leads him to an area controlled by feuding ranchers who knew Django: Ferguson (Daniele Vargas) and Thompson (Pedro Sanchez). After killing a few of Ferguson’s henchmen, Jeff is thrown in jail, but he escapes with the help of his cellmate, Four Aces (Ivan Scratt), who happens to be Thompson’s man. While working for the rancher, he is told that only Ferguson was responsible for Django’s death. But is it really the truth?

9 Vengeance Is My Forgiveness / Shotgun (1968)

Vengeance Is My Forgiveness is co-written and directed by Roberto Mauri and scored by Franco Bizzi. It stars Tab Hunter as Sheriff Durango, Erika Blanc as Jane, Piero Lulli as John Kindar, Mimmo Palmara as Jack Quartz, Dada Gallotti as Lucy McLaine, and Daniele Vargas as Dr. Frank Decker. Durango is a former ruthless Sheriff who was known for killing the criminals who wouldn’t surrender to him. When he finds his fiancée Lucy and her parents murdered, he sets out to catch the culprits, with only one clue in hand: a pocket watch found at the scene.

8 Hey Amigo! A Toast to Your Death (1970)

Also known as Hey, Amigo... Rest in Peace and Hey Amigo, You’re Dead, Hey Amigo! A Toast to Your Death is directed by Paolo Bianchini and stars Wayde Preston as Doc Williams, Rik Battaglia as Barnett, Aldo Berti as Black, Agnès Spaak as Pachita, Raf Baldassarre as Manolo, and Marco Zuanelli as El Loco. A band of trigger-happy thugs ride into a small, peaceful town to ambush an approaching stagecoach carrying over $100,000. They take the residents hostage and massacre the coach’s guards, catching postal officer Doc completely off-guard. Labeled a coward by the locals, Doc sets out to find the culprits and meets a mysterious, donkey-riding crook named El Loco. Meanwhile, Barnett, the gang leader, goes ballistic after finding rocks instead of coins in the stolen bags.

7 Heads or Tails / Tails You Lose (1969)

Scored by Carlo Savina and helmed by Piero Pierotti, Tails You Lose is an Italian Western bordering on giallo starring German-American actor John Ericson as Will Hunter, the Slovenian Špela Rozin as Shanda Lee, Franco Lantieri as Serpente, Daniela Surina as Sybille, and Edwige Fenech as Manuela. Sybille has her banker husband murdered to inherit his fortune, but she decides to frame Shanda, a saloon girl. The sheriff smuggles the latter out of town to avoid the locals' lynching, but once alone, she is savagely attacked and abused by three thugs. Enter Will, who is an outlaw known as Black Talisman; he nurses her back to health in his hideout and falls for her. Despite being wanted in four states, he then decides to avenge her by taking down the perpetrators, one by one.

Per The Spaghetti Western Database, “Among the oddities the genre has produced, this is one of the oddest and one of the sleaziest. It opens in comedy style, but very soon, we’re in a world of rape, torture, and revenge. There’s one terrific scene with Ericson and Surina lying on a bed, swathed in a cherry-red bed-spread, as if they’re bathing in blood, creating a visual effect not dissimilar to what Hitchcock did with a purple gown in Topaz.”

6 God Made Them... I Kill Them / God Forgives: His Life Is Mine (1968)

God Made Them... I Kill Them is helmed by Paolo Bianchini and features Dean Reed as Slim Corbett, Peter Martell as Don Luis / Rod Douglas, Piero Lulli as Sheriff Lancaster, and Agnès Spaak as Dolores. The plot revolves around a bounty hunter who is hired by the residents of a frontier town to ward off a band of outlaws. His task is rendered even more difficult by the local banker, the thugs’ corrupt ally.

 

[To be continued]