In 1979 the head of the Spanish-government run TV network
TVE, Miguel Martin, assigned writers Manuel Matji & Italian Duccio Tessari
to come up with a TV series about the masked hero "El Coyote".
Tessari was of course well versed in all things masked,
as he had already made his own 'Masked Man' film, "Zorro". Like the
"El Coyote" he had shot his film in Spain, with Frenchman Alain Delon
in the lead.
The Coyote' had appeared in over 200 books and three
feature films (1954-55 and 1963) and was a well-known property. TVE had already
been involved in two other attempts to bring "Coyote" to the small
screen. The first was a pilot which was shot sometime after October 1968 and
the Summer of 1969 (in partnership with Mexico, cast unknown), and another in
1972. The Mexicans had called the TVE pilot unsatisfactory and announced a
second pilot (commissioned by producer/director Carlos Enrique Tadoada,
(network unknown, Telesistema Mexicano?). It would be a solely Mexican,
to-be-made in Mexico production, without TVE. Local actors Carlos Bracho, in
the lead and Germán Robles ["The Brainiac"], as his father (?), and
American John Kelly as the villain [?], rounded out the cast. It too also
appears to have gone nowhere. Although both gentlemen, Señores Bracho &
Robles, appeared in the Mexican Telenovela "The Carriage" aka
"El Carruaje", which was made the same year, 1972, about Emperor
Maximiliano's rule over México in the 1860s', without TVE of Spain. Umm?
A half a decade after the pilots TVE cast Spanish actor
Sancho Garcia, who had appeared in a dozen or so Spaghetti westerns, as their
new "Coyote". TVE's Martin soon learned that 'Coyote's creator José
Mallorqui's estate (he died in 1972) had already sold the rights to others and
had to revise his plans. First, he came up with a new title, 'La Máscara Negra'
and set their series in Spain. To be precise 1807, just before Napoleon's
invasion of the country (1808 to 1813), as hostility began. Head scripters Matji
& Tessari (as a possible co-production with Italy's government run RAI?),
created an outline of a 13-part series. With the help of fellow writers
Uruguayan born Spain based Antonio Larreta (of the "Curro Jiménez"
bandit series) & newcomer Guido Castillo, Matji & Tessasi wrote
"The Black Mask" scripts. The "La Máscara Negra", was about
the exploits of one Carlos Zárate, and his fight against Napoleon's forces. The
episodes were directed by Antonio Giménez-Rico, Emilio Martínez-Lázaro &
José Antonio Páramo. As Tessari didn't direct any of them, presumably he left
the project before filming commenced in 1981, due to not securing RAI TV as a
partner. In the end his name was included on all, as both one of the
head-writers and for having worked on two of the thirteen scripts (the pilot?,
a two-parter?).
Sadly, TVE never got to make a "Coyote" series.
A rival Spanish network 'Antena 3 Televisión' (formed in 1989 and run by Miguel
Ángel Nieto González) had purchased the rights to José Mallorqui's
"Coyote". They cast Spanish actor José Coronado in the lead. Coyote
creator Mallorquí 's son César wrote the 2-part movie that first was shown in
cinemas in 1998, and then expanded into a three-part series. It co-starred
Italian actor Raymond Lovelock, from "Django Kills". Made without
Italo partners, this latest "Coyote" venture only played Spain. Pity.
By Michael Ferguson
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