Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Sigvar Carlmark

[These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be given and anything that you can add would be appreciated.]

Sigvar Hjalmar Carlmark was born in Storfors, Kroppa, Värmland, Sweden on April 16, 1927. He appeared in one film as a postman in 1968’s “Under ditt parasol” (Under That Parasol). The film has a western scene so is loosely classified as a western.

Carlmark was married to Gunborg Viola Andersson from 1953-1987 and was the father of one son and two daughters. He died in Karlstad, Värmland, Sweden on April 11, 1987 a week short of turning 60.

I can find no other biographical information on him.

CARLMARK, Sigvard (Sigvar Hjalmar Carlmark) [4/16/1927, Storfors, Kroppa, Värmland, Sweden – 4/11/1987, Karlstad, Värmland, Sweden] – film actor, married to Gunborg Viola Andersson [1931-2017], (1953-1987), father of one son and two daughters.

Under ditt parasol – 1968 (postman)

New Swedish Blu-ray release of “Shalako”

 

Shalako

(1968)

 

Director: Edward Dmytryk

Starring: Sean Connery, Brigitte Bardot

 

Country: Sweden

Label: Retro Film

Blu-ray

Region: B

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Language: LPCM 2.0 English

Subtitles: Swedish

Running time: 112 minutes

Release date: October 14, 2024

Former BC resident hits Amazon Prime, Apple TV with first feature starring role

The Record Live

By Penny LeLeux

September 3, 2024

Woody Almazan, raised in Bridge City, and a former actor, as a teen, in many of Orange Community Players' productions, is hitting the big time with his first starring role in a feature film. "The Ecstasy of Gold: The Treasure of Jesse James" dropped on Amazon Prime and Apple TV Tuesday 

"In 90 days it will be on Roku, Tubi and Peacock," said Almazan. "Everywhere but Netflix."

The film is a "spaghetti" western. A genre made famous by Clint Eastwood. The term was used for westerns that were produced and directed by Italians. This film is by Federico Alotto.

Almazan said the funny thing was the Italians came here to shoot the film in Austin instead of the actors going to Italy.

The synopsis of the film list on IMDb is as follows: "Colt Turner returns home eager to embrace his beloved partner Annie. His homecoming is met with a tense atmosphere, as Colt holds valuable information about the location of a legendary load of gold: the treasure of the famous Jesse James."

Almazan plays Jake Johnson, the leader of the bandits Colt formerly ran with. He said this may have been his "funnest" project to date. "I really got to be mean, romantic at times and funny," He said he really enjoyed playing the villain. Though stunts have been a big part of his career, Almazan said he really didn't have to do a lot of stunts in the film, though he was the fight coordinator (uncredited) in the film. He said crediting stunts isn't a big thing in Italy. He did ride horses in the film.

Almazan moved to Houston from Bridge City several years ago doing stunt work and bit parts in multiple shorts. In 2019 he came back to Orange County for his first starring role in "Shhh," an action romcom short film that was shot in Orange and Bridge City. The film received several awards in the festival circuit and even got Almazan a "Best Actor" nomination in a festival overseas. Following that role, Almazan started picking up more parts and even signed with a talent agent.

In April 2023, Almazan moved to Austin to find more acting opportunities. "The Ecstasy of Gold" is the first western out of production for Almazan. It started filming the summer of 2023

"It was shot during the hottest week of summer, June I think," he said.

He found out when they had the red-carpet premier in Austin a few months ago that the director and producers really hadn't thought of him as the villain. They had already looked at a couple of people, but they were blown away by his audition. They rewrote the part to better suit him. "I had no idea," he said.

Almazan hopes this leads to more starring roles in the future. He has a few other projects in the works. He has a guest starring role in "Old Wild Mob" produced by the same production company as "Ecstasy" that should be coming out in a few months. A short film, "Bloody Tears" is currently in the festival circuit and another feature, "Death Bike," a horror comedy is set to finish shooting in Houston as soon as schedules allow. He is also in the upcoming season 2 finale of the Paramount series "Lioness."

He was also recently reunited with his "Shhh" co-star, Reese Ravencraft, also an Orange County native. They recently shot a proof of concept for "Chasing Faith," a faith-based film that is being pitched to Angel Studios by Studio 220 Film in Jefferson County.

Almazan hopes to continue getting larger projects and syndicated series in the future. He is currently looking for a new agent.

Just a little fun fact... "The Ecstasy of Gold" is also the title of a musical composition by Ennio Morricone that is part of the music track of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," another famous Spaghetti Western featuring Clint Eastwood that was directed by Sergio Leone.

[Submitted by Michael Ferguson]

Special Birthdays

Elli Parvo (actress) would have been 110 today but died in 2010.

 

RIP Joan Franco Basque actor, cinematographer and photographer, Joan Franco Prado died on October 14 in Las Negras, Andalucia, Spain. He was 65. Born on April 21, 1959, in Viorio, Álava, Spain, he was an actor, an extra, and played different technical roles behind the camera. "He was a great cameraman and photographer: I learned a lot from his knowledge and experience," says Diego Pérez Cano, director of 'The Interrogation', a film in which Franco was deputy director. He participated in several shoots in Oasys MiniHollywood. "He was a stalwart of the park, always willing to support new projects in exchange for nothing, and giving you a smile," says José María Rodríguez Linde, manager of the town of Tabernas. And along the same lines, from the Café-Bar Ambrosio, home of the Almeria Western museum-cinema: "He was always willing to collaborate altruistically with his characteristic and sarcastic smile". Prado appeared as a drunk and was the cinematographer on 2019’s “Arizona 1878 una historia del Viejo oeste”.

Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Emmi Carl

[These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be given and anything that you can add would be appreciated.]

Emmi Carl was a German silent film actress she appeared in only one film and that was for the 1920 German western “Feuerteufel” (Firestarter) as Ruth the judge’s daughter. The film was directed by Phil Jutzi and starred Carl Becker.

I can find no biographical information about her.

CARL, Emmi – film actress.

Firestarter – 1920 (Ruth)

Alex Cox: "A good film is an invitation to get to know the place"

The British filmmaker begins filming the film 'Dead Mexicans' in a few days in the town of MiniHollywood in Tabernas

Diario de Almería

By Diego Martínez

October 9, 2024

Alex Cox has returned to the Tabernas Desert, 38 years later, after filming Straight to Hell in 1986. The British filmmaker will shoot a feature film of the western genre in the coming days, with which he says it will be his last film, but in a different way.

His new film proposal is based on the novel Dead Souls, by Nicolai Gogol, to make a "Western version" of an ironic and mysterious story that takes place in 1890 in Arizona. The film will be titled "Dead Mexicans".

To portray this picture, Cox intends to shoot in two locations: Tucson (Arizona) and, of course, the province of Almeria, where MiniHollywood Oasys will be one of the main sets for filming in the province.

And to learn more about the film and get to know this iconic and eclectic director better, MiniHollywood Oasys held a round table, moderated by Carlos Vives (La Oficina Producciones Culturales) and composed of José Díaz (mayor of Tabernas); the filmmaker, Margaret Von Schindler and the journalists, Carlos Juan and Manuel Carretero (Canal Sur); Pepe Cuenca (Dipalme Radio); Evaristo Martínez (La Voz de Almería) and Diego Martínez (Diario de Almería).

The production of this table was carried out by Leonardo Giménez (Armería & Atrezzo Leonardo); Andy Arche; David Miralles & El Indaliano (Un Nuevo Renacer Producciones), Diego Pérez (Proyecto Cine TV); Pablo Torres (De Torres Producciones) and Canal Sur Almería).

Alex Cox was surprised not to be able to shoot the entire film in Tabernas. "I have found that the villages are occupied with other productions. There are many shootings at the moment and others in perspective. This means that there is no possibility of shooting the entire film here, but we will be in Tabernas for a few days and then we will go to Arizona to shoot the rest of the film."

Regarding the cast of his new film, Cox stressed that "in this film there are several people who already appeared almost 40 years ago in the film that I already shot here. Unfortunately, some actors from that time are no longer here."

At the beginning of the 70s, Alex Cox visited for the first time the locations of the films that Sergio Leone had shot. "Leone's films from that era are charming and still have something special about them."

Cox explained that the first scenes he will shoot of his new film will feature a large number of people as figuration, although the final part of the film will be shot in Arizona. He also complained about the sad disappearance of the stalks throughout the desert area of Almeria. "I knew Tabernas as the place of the stalks, and almost all of them have been lost due to some bugs that have destroyed them. The film goes from a very dry desert to a desert where some green appears. In Almeria I will shoot for five days and in Arizona for two weeks".

"I really wanted Gianni Garko to work on this film, but due to his age, I can't ask him to make a film in such a short time," said Cox, who lived for many years in Tabernas. For this reason, Cox stressed that "Almeria Western Film Festival is a great support for filmmakers. What's more, the Festival introduces Tabernas and Almería to many filmmakers who do not know this wonderful environment".

"I really like the Festival that people who come can enter for free to see the film. You don't need to pay a lot of money, people are invited, and I think the atmosphere of the Festival is very beautiful, and the people who come enjoy it," he said.

He was always fascinated with the landscapes of Almeria, and more specifically the desert of Tabernas. "A good film is an invitation to get to know the place where it has been shot," says this brilliant filmmaker.

'Tabernas is a very special place, I did a lot of walks in the desert'

"When I left Tabernas I was sad, I didn't want to leave the house. I wanted to have my little place in Tabernas. Tabernas is a very special place, and I took many walks in the desert. I now live in Oregon with my wife and three dogs," recalls Alex Cox. The filmmaker also remembered Joe Strummer, leader of The Clash, of whom he said that "he was an extraordinary person with great energy. Sadly he died very young. It was really a luxury that I worked on the film Straight to Hell that I shot here almost four decades ago." I remembered that film that brought a cast of actors of great projection such as Sy Richardson, Joe Strummer, Dick Rude and Courtney Love and also appeared Dennis Hopper, Grace Jones, Elvis Costello and Jim Jarmusch. Members of The Pogues' band, Amazulu and Circle Jerks are also in the film. The film's title is based on The Clash's 1982 song of the same name. "We filmed in the middle of August in Almeria, with a lot of heat, and it also coincided with the Almeria Fair. I remember the Chochona song which had a great impact on The Pogues," says Cox. "We had so many ideas that we had to extend the filming time, and we spent four weeks"

Who Are Those Guys? Alberigo Donadeo

 

Alberigo Donadeo was born in San Rufo, Campania, Italy on May 18, 1923. He and his filmography is often confused with Italian actor Fortunato Arena. They look much alike and so the confusion has persisted over the years as to who’s who and what films they appear in.

Since both were character actors and usually had smaller background roles it’s easy to see how they were confused for one another.

Donadeo’s career spanned the years 1965 to 1986 in both film and televison. What is a bit of a mystery is his lack of any acting credits between the years 1975 to 1980. Was he ill, unable to work, or decided to leave the industry temporarily? We’ll never know.

During his film career Alberigo was sometimes seen in fotoromanzi magazines.

Alberigo Donadeo died in Rome, Italy on February 5, 1991. He was 67 years old.

DONADEO, Alberigo (aka Alberico Donadeo) [5/18/1923, San Rufo, Campania, Italy – 2/5/1991, Rome, Lazio, Italy] – fotoromanzi, film actor.

Adios Gringo 1965 (member of lynch mob)

Renegade Gunfighter – 1965 (trial observer)

The Big Gundown – 1966 (Mexican policeman)

The Brute and the Beast - 1966 (saloon patron)

Death at Owell Rock – 1966 (saloon patron)

Django Shoots First – 1966 (saloon patron)

El Rojo – 1966 (saloon patron)

Fort Yuma Gold – 1966 (saloon patron)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – 1966 (observer at Tuco’s Mesilla hanging)

A Golden Sheriff – 1966 (townsman)

The Hills Run Red – 1966 (Miton cowboy)

Johnny Yuma – 1966 (Pedro henchman)

Kill or be Killed – 1966 (merchant)

The Man from Nowhere – 1966 (saloon patron)

A Stranger in Paso Bravo – 1966 (townsman)

A Stranger in Town – 1966 (Aguila henchman)

Sugar Colt – 1966 (saloon patron)

The Two Sons of Ringo – 1966 (Pedro)

Bandidos – 1967 (townsman)

Beyond the Law – 1967 (miner)

Death Sentence – 1967 (Mexican)

Django Kills Silently – 1967 (Mexican bandit)

Don’t Sing Shoot (TV) – 1967 (saloon patron)

Don't Wait, Django... Shoot! - 1967 (Navarro henchman)

The Handsome, the Ugly and the Stupid – 1967 (soldier)

Kill and Ptay – 1967 (Mexican picking up rocks)

Killer Kid – 1967 (José)

A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die – 1967 (townsman)

Payment in Blood – 1967 (Deputy Joe)

Poker With Pistols – 1967 (saloon patron)

Pray to God and Dig Your Grave – 1967 (Renaldo henchman)

A Rope for a Bastard – 1967 (party brawler)

7 Pistols for a Massacre – 1967 (saloon patron)

The Son of Django – 1967 (Topeka townsman)

$10,000 Blood Money – 1967 (Mendoza foreman)

Totò Ciak! – Toto contro Ringo (TV) – 1967 (saloon patron)

The Two Faces of the Dollar – 1967 (soldier)

Viva Django! – 1967 (Paco)

Wanted – 1967 (Indian)

The Belle Starr Story – 1968 (Pinkerton man)

Death Rides a Horse - 1968

Drop Them or I’ll Shoot – 1968 (townsman)

Execution – 1968 (warden)

Find a Place to Die – 1968 (Chato henchman)

Full House for the Devil – 1968 (bank customer)

Gatling Gun – 1968 (card player)

Go for Broke – 1968 (Mexican)

A Hole in the Forehead – 1968 (barman)

One After the Other – 1968 (townsman)

A Rope for a Bastard – 1968 (saloon brawler)

And God Said to Cain – 1969 (convict)

Boot Hill – 1969 (man in crowd)

The 5-Man Army – 1969 (execution singer)

Quintana – 1969 (prisoner)

Sartana the Gravedigger – 1969 (townsman)

The Stranger’s Gundown – 1969 (Murdock employee)

Adios Sabata – 1970 (Mexican)

Arizona Returns – 1970 (saloon patron)

Django Defies Sartana – 1970 (bandit)

Fistful of Lead – 1970 (Mantas’ henchman)

Have a Nice Funeral My Friend – 1970 (gambler)

They Call Me Trinity – 1970 (Mormon)

The Twilight Avengers – 1970 (Parker henchman)

Duck You Sucker – 1971 (Santerna henchman)

A Gunman Called Dakota – 1971 (Joe henchman)

His Name Was Pot... They Called Him Allegria – 1971 (deputy)

Judge Roy Bean – 1971 (saloon patron)

Mallory Must Not Die – 1971 (townsman)

Return of Sabata – 1971 (townsman)

Vendetta at Dawn – 1971 (saloon patron)

Blazing Guns – 1972 (soldier)

Cowboy Kid – 1972 (saloon patron)

Jesse and Lester Two Brothers in a Place Called Triniry – 1972 (Lou Sastrol)

Kill the Poker Player – 1972 (saloon patron)

7 Devils on Horseback - 1972 (blacksmith)

Trinity & Sartana Those Sons of Bitches – 1972 (‘El Tigre’/Tiger henchman)

Another Try, Eh Providence? – 1973 (retired bandit)

Bad Kids of the West – 1973 (Wilson henchman)

Special Birthdays

Harald G. Petersson (writer) would have been 120 today but died in 1977.

Mario Fioretti (cinematographer) would have been 100 today but died in 2008.

Alan Hume (cinematographer) would have been 100 today but died in 2010.

West Buchanan (actor) would have been 90 today but died in 1995.

Settimio Scacco (actor) would have been 80 today but died in 2007.

Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Albert Carl

[These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be given and anything that you can add would be appreciated.]

Albert Carl was an alias used by Italian actor Aldo De Carellis who began his film career later in life. He appeared in thirteen films between 1965 and 1974.

In his only Spaghetti western 1967’s “Joko invoca Dio... e muori” (Vengeance) he plays Ed/Sam Mora/Milton Becker depending on what version you watch.

I can find no biographical information on him but by his appearance in Vengeance he was an elderly man then so he must have passed on by now.

CARL, Albert (Aldo De Carellis) – film actor.

Vengeance – 1967 (Ed/Sam Mora/Milton Becker)

“Death Sentence” Review

Cine Savant

By Lee Broughton

July 2, 2024

UK correspondent Lee Broughton returns with coverage of a striking Spaghetti Western. High culture operator Mario Lanfranchi was primarily known for directing operas and the works of Shakespeare when he seized the opportunity to work on a Western in Spain. The result was a very personal film which featured a stylish look, an interesting narrative structure and a quite amazing cast.

A young alcoholic, Cash (Robin Clarke), is too drunk to help when four gunmen attack and rob his brother. When he sobers up he hits the vengeance trail, hunting four quite disparate killers who have split up and surrounded themselves with dangerous henchmen. Diaz (Richard Conte) is now a wealthy farmer while the cruel and perverse Montero (Enrico Maria Salerno) has set himself up as a professional gambler. Both men are dispatched with little real trouble but things get trickier when Cash takes on Brother Baldwin’s (Adolfo Celi) gang of pious enforcers and O’Hara (Tomas Milian), a demented albino who has a disturbing fetish for blonde women and gold 

It’s well known by now that the huge impression that Sergio Corbucci’s seminal Spaghetti Western Django (1966) made on cinema-goers in Italy resulted in some of the country’s canny producers and distributors attempting to cash in on the film’s success by rebranding their own new — and completely unconnected — Westerns as Django movies of some description or other.

However, this kind of activity wasn’t just limited to Italy and a number of West German distributors went on to take the practice to even dizzier heights. The name Django was crowbarred into the titles of countless Franco Nero films that were released there (be they Westerns or not) and several more unrelated anti-heroes were renamed Django when the German language dub tracks of their genre films were being prepared. This was the case with Mario Lanfranchi’s Death Sentence, here being marketed by Explosive Media under its West German release title, Django – Unbarmherzig wie die Sonne.

Lanfranchi was well known in Italy for his work in the fields of theatre, opera and highbrow television. So much so that he initially found it difficult to find a producer who would take his sudden desire to write and direct a Spaghetti Western seriously. When a production deal was finally in place, Lanfranchi’s professional reputation and contacts at Columbia Pictures in America helped him to secure an interesting and highly capable cast and he set about creating a very personal film.

As a result, Lanfranchi’s sole genre entry boasts a particularly distinctive look and an unusual ambience. The film’s art direction, set designs and narrative structure (the story is told in four distinct acts) all suggest that Lanfranchi endeavoured to bring some of his high culture and theatrical sensibilities to the show. There’s plenty of well-staged action on display here but Cash’s enemies are all clever and suspicious men, and he is ultimately forced to employ ingenious and novel psychological tricks to get them to lower their guards.

As such, all four of the film’s acts eventually become what are essentially quite wordy, character and dialogue driven, two-man psycho dramas that Lanfranchi chose to describe as “duels with words.” This approach works surprisingly well and the director gets some great performances from his talented cast. Furthermore, Lanfranchi and ace cinematographer Toni Secchi are able to employ some interesting close-up shots and distinctive editing strategies during these scenes of verbal sparring.

We’re aware that Lanfranchi is striving to do something a little different with the genre when he toys with an unusual narrative structure early on. The film opens with Cash pursuing his first victim, Diaz, through the desert. Both men are on foot and both men are nearly fit to drop. Diaz has two pistols but no water while Cash has a supply of water but no gun. As they call taunts to each other, Cash has a stylised flashback which details the actions that prompted him to hit the vengeance trail.

Diaz immediately follows this with a flashback of his own, which shows Cash arriving at his grand hacienda, threatening his wife and wiping out his men before chasing him into the desert. Richard Conte is convincing as an ageing bad guy who has reputedly turned over a new leaf, and he almost prompts a degree of sympathy for Diaz here. Diaz reckons that he has lived an honest life and has worked hard at building up a successful farm in the years following the attack on Cash’s brother but Cash remains unmoved.

Cash’s next victim, Montero the gambler, is a pretty despicable character whose introductory scene shows him accepting a desperate opponent’s young and beautiful wife (Eleonora Brown) as his stake in a make-or-break card game. Montero tells Cash that he doesn’t play for money, he plays for the sake of playing. Put simply, he gets a smug feeling of superiority when he takes on and beats the forces of destiny at the card table. The only money that really excites Montero is that which he purposefully sets out to win from poverty-stricken gamblers as he knows that the poor really value their meagre stakes.

Cash in turn uses his own gambling skills to push Montero to the limit psychologically. Enrico Maria Salerno, who does an expert job of bringing the slimy Montero to life, was the voice of Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name character in the original Italian version of Sergio Leone’s  A Fistful of Dollars (1964). But he is perhaps best known to fans of Italian popular cinema for his appearances in a number of well-regarded crime films.

Things take a decidedly gothic turn when Cash goes after his remaining two victims. Brother Baldwin dresses like a parson and he affects the language and the mannerisms of a priest. But he’s actually a callous enforcer who uses his gang of black-clad killers to terrorise innocent Mexican villagers. Cash’s refusal to repent his sins and reveal the whereabouts of a mythical case full of stolen military gold drives Baldwin to distraction, giving the battered Cash the edge that he needs to turn the tables on this particularly nasty individual.

Adolfo Celi is perfectly cast as the physically powerful and brutal pseudo-holy man. Brother Baldwin’s megalomania, his pretensions of superman status and the ways in which Lanfranchi and Secchi frame him all work to bestow Baldwin with the aura of a fascist figurehead and it’s probably no coincidence that Baldwin’s silent and wholly obedient men all wear homogenous black uniforms.

In the film’s final act, genre stalwart Tomas Milian brings a touch of deranged magic to the proceedings with his portrayal of the disturbed albino, O’Hara. The manic and twitchy O’Hara makes a real impression dressed all in white except for a pair of black leather gloves, a black necktie and a dark brown gun belt. Cash tries to snare O’Hara by pretending to re-open a dying town’s bank with the assistance of a local vagabond, Paco, who is played by fan favourite Luciano Rossi. However, O’Hara escapes from this trap and flees to his foreboding house that sits at the top of a bleak and craggy rock face.

Deciding to target O’Hara’s secondary fetish, Cash employs a blonde beauty (Lilli Lembo) to share his horse as he slowly rides through O’Hara’s barren territory. O’Hara takes the bait, setting us up for a spooky night-time shoot-out in a reputedly cursed monastery and its attendant graveyard. Ever a man of the people, Milian apparently felt that Lanfranchi’s mindset was too elitist to make a Western and the actor clashed with the director on set. But Lanfranchi liked what Milian was doing with O’Hara and kept extending his scenes in order to keep the impressively deranged performance flowing.

On paper this might sound like a fairly standard revenge flick but it isn’t. Lanfranchi stated that he set out to create an experimental one-off Western and in many ways he succeeded. One of the most obviously different things about this show might be its soundtrack score by Gianni Ferrio. Ferrio’s music sounds like a Spaghetti Western score that was recorded by a bunch of jumpy Jazz musicians who were just itching to leave the score behind and do some improvisational blowing (which they actually appear to do in a couple of spots).

The use of instruments and musical time signatures associated with the Jazz and Loungecore movements makes some sense when the first appearance of Richard Conte immediately prompts memories of his film noir past. And these musical sounds are also reasonably well-suited to the sequences that play out in the dilapidated saloon where Montero spends his days gambling. Perhaps in recognition of Tomas Milian’s status as a genre icon, the music does take on a more traditionally Spaghetti Western-like vibe for the show’s final act: some appropriate organ work, vocal chants and choral voices are effectively thrown into the mix here.

But, good as the music is, it generally fails to generate the kind of deep emotional response that we associate with the genre’s best scores. Lanfranchi stated that he wanted to make a Western that was completely unsentimental and he certainly succeeded in this respect. There’s very little room for any emotional investment on the part of the audience here. So much so that it’s tempting to assume that Lanfranchi’s status as a high culture operator had some influence on this outcome.

Was Milian’s assumption that the inherently highbrow and aristocratic Lanfranchi simply lacked the (popular) cultural competencies needed to produce an emotionally charged, populist and crowd-pleasing Spaghetti Western correct? Or did Lanfranchi consciously dispense with the genre’s populist form in order to produce a kind of ‘high culture’ variant that would demand to be viewed from an unemotional and uninvolved critical distance? I’m sure only Lanfranchi could have said for certain.

Robin Clarke turns in a good performance as the reformed alcoholic vengeance-seeker but Cash by design isn’t really a character that we’re meant to feel much for. He is a completely driven killing machine akin to Bill Meceita (John Phillip Law) in Guilio Petroni’s  Death Rides a Horse (1967) and Harmonica (Charles Bronson) in Sergio Leone’s  Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) but he doesn’t possess the same kind of sympathetic and emotionally involving back-story as those characters.

Cash’s flashback tells us nothing about his brother and we never really get to know anything about Cash. If Diaz is to be believed, Cash’s brother wasn’t a wronged innocent: he was a greedy and dangerous criminal who tried to dupe his four outlaw partners out of the proceeds of some nefarious joint venture. And Diaz even indicates that he and Cash had been known to happily socialise together under dubious circumstances at some point in the past. The idea that the film’s plot simply details a falling out between Spaghetti Western gangsters means that the show never really develops much in the way of a clear-cut sense of moral dualism and there is no need for noble, Sergio Leone-style duels when it comes to the settling of accounts.

Lanfranchi’s representation of the West itself is equally unromantic. Most of the film’s impressively designed sets consist of buildings and interiors that are poverty stricken and badly in need of repair. Interestingly, some of the show’s spacious interiors are arranged, dressed and lit in ways that serve to bring to mind stage productions. The film’s costume designs and art direction more generally are really quite distinctive too. Designed by Giancarlo Salimbeni Bartolini, much of the effectively aged and worn clothing on display here comes in interesting-if-untypical shades of green, red and brown while being fashioned in noticeably theatrical and flamboyant styles.

Toni Secchi’s cinematography remains both excellent and stylish. There are some magnificently fluid camera moves on display here and Secchi and Lanfranchi repeatedly make their static shots interesting by using door frames, arches, pillars, windows, leaning ladders, lounging bodies and so on to create striking frames within frames. Secchi had previously worked as the director of cinematography on Damiano Damiani’s classic political Spaghetti Western A Bullet for the General (1966) and he went on to direct the genuinely funny comedy Spaghetti Western Panhandle Calibre .38 (1972), which featured a charming, career-best performance from its leading star Keenan Wynn.

When they are taken in isolation, all of the individual elements that make up Death Sentence are revealed to be of a noticeably high standard and the show’s bold aesthetic qualities certainly help it to stand out from the crowd. But I can’t help thinking that Lanfranchi’s desire to create something so noticeably different might have resulted in a film that was just a tad too un-generic to be fully appreciated by the contemporaneous patrons of Italy’s popular cinema circuits. Somehow I get the feeling that Lanfranchi would have regarded such an assessment as a real compliment.

 

[Lee Broughton is the author of The Euro-Western: Reframing Gender, Race and the ‘Other’ in Film (2016) and the editor of Critical Perspectives on the Western: From A Fistful of Dollars to Django Unchained (2016) and Reframing Cult Westerns: From The Magnificent Seven to The Hateful Eight (2020).]

Explosive Media’s Region Free Blu-ray presentation of Death Sentence is excellent. The film’s interesting colour schemes are pleasingly rendered and the presentation’s sound quality is excellent too. There is no English language soundtrack on this disc but it does sport English language subtitles that support its Italian language and German language dub tracks (I used the Italian language dub track when viewing the film). Materials for the film’s English language dub appear to be missing in action at this time though contemporaneous reviews of Death Sentence do confirm that the show did have a British cinema release albeit in a shortened English dubbed version that ran to 82 minutes.

In terms of extra features a major plus here is the presence of two key features that first appeared on an earlier DVD of the film that was released by Koch Media in 2005. The first is an English language interview with Mario Lanfranchi that contains some fascinating background information about the director and the film itself. The second is the director’s English language commentary track which works to offer some insight into just what Lanfranchi was trying to achieve with his unusual take on the genre. The disc’s other extra features include an English language commentary track by me (Lee Broughton), a German language commentary track by Leonhard Elias Lemke and a really comprehensive image gallery. Initial copies of this release come in a limited edition slipcase.

Review text © copyright 2024 Lee Broughton.

[permission to reprint article per Lee Broughton and Glenn Erickson]

Special Birthdays

Anna Maria Gherardi (actress) would have been 85 today but died in 2014.

RIP Roger Browne

 

American film, TV actor, voice director and dubber Roger Browne died after a short illness on October 11. He was 94. I received an e-mail this morning (14) from his daughter Kelsey saying he died peacefully surrounded by loved ones. Roger Rogers Browne Jr. was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on April 13, 1930. He enrolled in pilot training while serving in the U.S. Air Force, flying the AT-6 trainer aircraft. Browne completed 64 hours of training, including 20 hours of solo flight but was unable to finish due to airsickness and related symptoms of Manifestations of Apprehension (MOA). While studying acting and getting bit roles he supported himself as a physical therapist. One of his clients was going to Rome and asked Roger if he would come with him to carry on his work. As the 1960 Summer Olympics were under way, Roger eagerly accepted the offer. He remained in Europe where he was discovered and offered a role in the Jayne Mansfield film “It Happened in Athens”. Browne was then asked to appear as Mars in “Vulcan, Son of Give” and repeated his role in the film “Mars, God of War”. With the decline of the sword and sandal genre Browne moved into the Eurospy genre. Roger lived in Rome from 1960 to 1980 and made films throughout Europe. He had roles in more than 30 films and television shows and dubbed more than 800 films and productions. He served as the president of the Associazione dei doppiatori di lingua inglese - (ELDA). Roger worked with Franco Nero, Sophia Loren, Luciano Salce, Anthony Quinn, Vittorio Gassman, Ernest Borgnine, Rita Tushingham, Richard Lester, the Taviani Brothers, Yoko Tani, Gordon Mitchell, Charlie Fawcett, and Jayne Mansfield. He was best known for his role in “Argoman the Fantastic Superman” (also known as “The Incredible Paris Incident” and “Come rubare la corona d'Inghilterra”), 1967. He also appeared as himself in the Fine Brothers Elders React series. Roger told me he was to appear in a Spaghetti western called “Machado”, in 1967 but it fell through. It was eventually made with Gianni Medici [Revenge for Revenge, September 1968]. Roger was also the English voice to Terence Hill in “They Call Me Trinity” (1970), “Trinity is STILL My Name” (1971), “Man of the East” (1972), “My Name is Nobody” (1973) and “The Genius” (1975). How many other English voices he did for Spaghetti westerns we’ll never know.

Columbus Day 2024

 

Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Armando Carini

[These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be given and anything that you can add would be appreciated.]

Armando Carini was born in Genoa, Liguria, Italy on March 1, 1931. He was a soccer player but is best known to the general public for his many appearances in films and on the theater stage. His participation in some advertising commercials have remained famous including that of the Folonari wine.

Carini’s family owned a vineyard and winery which was passed down through generations and today is owned and operated by his sons Marco and Adriana.

Armando died in Fivizzano, Tuscany, Italy on May 22, 2014 ,at the age of 83

“Giunse Ringo e... fu tempo di massacre” (Ringo, It’s Massacre Time) in 1966 where he plays Alvarez) [credited as Armando Cariani), “I due figli di Ringo” (The Two Sons of Ringo) in 1966 as a bandit.

CARINI, Armando (aka Armandiño, Amando Cariani, Armando Cariani) [3/1/1931, Genoa, Liguria, Italy – 5/22/2014, Fivizzano, Tuscany, Italy] – soccer player, theater, film actor, married to ? father of Carlo Carini, Marco Carini, Adriana Carini, owned Azienda Agricola Carini winery.

Ramon the Mexican – 1966 (Miguel)

Ringo, It’s Massacre Time – 1966 (Alvarez) [as Armando Cariani)

The Two Sons of Ringo – 1966 (bandit)

Almeria Western Film Festival

 

Awards

 

Tabernas Film Award

Fabio Testi, actor, Italia.

 

Spirit of the West Award

Lisandro Alonso, director, Argentina.

 

Lion Award in Memoriam

Sergio Leone, director, Italia (1929-1989).

 

Tabernas Desert Tavern Award

Eugenio Alabiso, rider, Italy.

 

Western Genra Dissemination Award

José Enrique Martinez, writer and film historian, Almería (Spain).

Spaghetti Western Locations Then and Now – “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”

The opening scene of the “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” was filmed at a small western town set created and built by Carlo Simi. It is located on a plateau in La Sartenilla, Tabernas, Almeria.

Today there is nothing left but some rusty cans left by the construction and film crew and some hitching post stubs.

European Western Comic Books - Buck Kaiman

 

Buck Kajman

This comic book collection is a series of volumes presenting the unpublished western stories of  Buck Kajman created by Pini Segna and reprints of other characters such as Giungla King and I Volontari Del West by Segna and Gino Dauro. It was published by Edizioni della Bilancia (EDB) in Milan, Italy under the direction of Matino Voghi from June 1967 to November of that year. Each issue contained 128 black and white pages with color covers.

 

Titles

01 (00.06.67) - "La notte del giuramento" (The Night of the Oath)

02 (00.07.67) - "Tomahawk" (Tomahawk)

03 (00.09.67) - "Sterminio sull'Europa" (Extermination Over Europe)

04 (00.10.67) - "Una lotta spaventosa" (A Terrifying Fight)

05 (00.00.67) - "Desperado" (Desperado)

Special Birthdays

Vladimír Novotný (cinematographer) would have been 110 today but died in 1997.

Gil Delamare (actor) would have been 100 today but died in 1966.

Jaroslav Rozsival (actor) would have been 100 today but died in 1996.

Norbert Gastell [voice actor] would have been 95 today but died in 2015.

From the WAI! vault