The book contains the secrets of 'Oro vil,' a film directed by Eduardo García Maroto, which he shot in La Pedriza in 1941, and of which no copies remain.
Writers Miguel Olid & Víctor Matellano recover in 'Oro vil. Spanish Pioneer Western' the script and filming details of this almost forgotten movie that was shot in 1941.
“Oro vil” is proof that Eduardo García Maroto was a
precursor of Spanish cinema, and as such, he paid the price. He was always one
step ahead, which meant he was never in the right place at the right time,”
explain Miguel Olid and Víctor Matellano. They have just published "Oro
vil. Spanish Pioneer Western" (Pigmalion, 2024), a book about the first
Spanish western film, predating any Euro-western and even Joaquín Romero
Marchent's “El Coyote” films, whose footage has been lost, but for which they
have managed to republish the script and recover numerous photographic
materials
In October 1941, the pioneering Spanish western “Oro vil” was filmed under the direction of Eduardo García Maroto from Jaén, in the Madrid landscape of La Pedriza, in the municipality of Manzanares El Real, within the judicial district of Colmenar Viejo. A police motorcyclist even arrived on set to immediately take the director to Madrid. The production team feared that the director had gotten involved in some political matter, as he had previously clashed with the censorship of the dictatorship. But no. It turned out that Maroto had to temporarily take charge of José Luis Sáenz de Heredia’s “Raza” (released 01/05/42), which was filming in Barcelona, based on Franco’s novel of the same name. The film that exalted the national-Catholic ideology of the Francoist regime, “by imperative obligation”.
Two years after the Civil War ended, and when only pre-“Stagecoach” westerns had reached this country, since that movie wouldn't be released here (10/44) for a few years after 'Oro vil", the great western enthusiast García Maroto, as brave as he is determined, dared to tackle a western, but not as a parody—instead, in a dramatic key.
Rovil [?] was/had a precarious way of approaching the Far West: it cost one hundred and fifty thousand pesetas compared to "Raza"'s one million six hundred and fifty thousand, so there were neither suitable revolvers nor horses for the specialists to use for action. And it was not exactly a success, but it was pioneering in that wonderful anachronism of filming stories of the American Far West in Spain. It was created to make up for a scam [?], and because García Maroto knew the landscapes of La Pedriza, having filmed “La hija del penal” (released 01/13/36), there.
It seems that no copy of “Oro vil” has been preserved to this day, although the script and some on-set photos, stills, and posters do exist, giving an idea of what the film was like. It tells the story of a Spaniard arriving in a land inhabited by Native Americans, where gold prospectors abound. Due to its limitations, it didn't have grand horseback chases, but it did feature skirmishes and fistfights. Up to that point, the westerns García Maroto had been able to see, and which had still captivated him, were quite simple and primitive in terms of plot and characters—very basic, good guy-bad guy characters in low-budget "horse operas," the popular horseback tales. And “Oro vil” has much of that kind of look, perhaps even more primitive in this case, which makes García Maroto's effort an even more heroic undertaking. The script and photographs included in this volume attest to this.
A pioneer in
many things, García Maroto is also one in the Western genre, later
participating in other American productions of the genre filmed on Spanish
soil, such as “The Return of the Seven” in the provinces of Alicante and
Madrid, or “Villa Rides”, in Colmenar Viejo, among other locations. The book,
besides reviewing the filming epic of “Oro vil” or the biography of this author
to be recognized, Eduardo García Maroto, also discusses other milestones of the
Western in Spain, such as the first films in Hoyo de Manzanares and Colmenar
Viejo, in this year 2024, which marks sixty years since “A Fistful of Dollars”.
Submitted by Michael Ferguson
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