Christmas 2025

 

Little Known Spaghetti Western actors ~ Julian del Monte

[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.]

Julián del Monte Jorge is/was a Spanish character actor who appeared in twelce films between 1966 and 1978 and one television mini-series in 1985.

His only Spaghetti western was as one of the Kitchinger brothers in 1973’s “Verflucht dies Amerika” (Yankee Dudler).

I can find no biographical information on him.

del MONTE, Julián (aka Julian del Monte) (Julián del Monte Jorge) [Spanish] – film, TV, voice actor.

Yankee Dudler – 1973 (Kitchinger brother)

First photo Lucky Luke, the series: did you recognize this star of the French action film in the costume of the famous cowboy?

The eight-episode drama "Lucky Luke" will be available in the spring of 2026 on Disney+, then broadcast on France Télévisions. While waiting to see the series adapted from the comic book, a photo of Alban Lenoir in the skin of the cowboy has been shared...

Allocine

By: Florian Lautré

December 18, 2025

Finally! After long months of waiting, the arrival of the Lucky Luke series is imminent. Indeed, the eight-episode fiction carried by Alban Lenoir will be available on the Disney+ platform in the spring of 2026, then will be broadcast on the small screen on France Télévisions.

Alban Lenoir becomes "Lucky Luke"

To make the spectators wait a little longer, a small Christmas gift has just been offered to the public: a first photo of Alban Lenoir in the costume of the cowboy as phlegmatic as he is fearless has been unveiled by Disney!

In this image, the entire panoply of the comic book character is there. The hero finds himself in an arid landscape of the Wild West and rides his faithful companion, allowing him to move: the fastest horse in the West aka Jolly Jumper.

Perched on the valiant steed, Alban Lenoir wears the iconic outfit of the protagonist. The actor who we could see in the films Antigang and Lost Bullet obviously has a cowboy hat on his head, a red scarf, a yellow shirt, a black sleeveless vest, a belt, jeans and cowboy boots on his feet... In short, the total!

The story of the Lucky Luke series begins when the legendary lonely cowboy must help Louise, an eighteen-year-old girl who is as endearing as she is unpredictable. Together, they embark on a quest through the Wild West to find Louise's mother, who has mysteriously disappeared... while foiling a plot that could change the course of U.S. history!

Between duels, chases, furious ball blows and unexpected alliances with the Daltons, Billy the Kid or Calamity Jane, our unlikely duo will discover that the greatest challenge is not to save America... but to team up! A thrilling adventure where the man who shoots faster than his shadow will have to face the ghosts of his past and confront the origins of his legend.

As for the cast, Alban Lenoir plays opposite very well-known actors such as Billie Blain (Louise), Alice Taglioni (Charlie), Jérôme Niel (Joe Dalton), Camille Chamoux (Calamity Jane) and Victor Le Blond (Billy the Kid).

AlloCiné is more than 40 articles every day dealing with cinema and series news, interviews, streaming recommendations, unusual and cinephile anecdotes about your favorite films and series. Subscribing to AlloCiné on Google Discover is the assurance of exploring the richness of a site designed by enthusiasts for enthusiasts on a daily basis.

The Balkan Westerns of the Sixties [Part3 of 3]

 

By Sergey Lavrentiev

1/12/2013

In the end, Soviet boys never got to see Winnetou die. Not that the ones who did get to mourned him for long. The box office success of the film was so impressive that the producers decided to postpone the closure of the project and, in 1966, Harald Philipp released a very weak Half-Breed / Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi, followed, in the same year, by another Vohrer film Thunder at the Border / Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand. Harald Reinl was also convinced to return to the beloved hero with The Valley of Death/ Winnetou und Shatterhand im Tal der Toten, in 1968. Pierre Brice continued to play the Indian hero in all of these films, and they were all shot in Yugoslavia, the country that had, by then, been hosting ‘cowboys and Indians’ films for nearly a decade.

And there is yet another country that needs to be mentioned in the story of ‘red westerns’. In 1965, Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej, who had been the Communist leader of Romania since 1947, died. In his place, the party chose a young dynamic leader, Nicolae Ceausescu who, for a few years, looked poised to become a second Tito. He proclaimed a policy of friendship with all the other socialist countries, ignoring the serious rifts that had, by then, appeared in the communist bloc, sent a friendly telegram to Brezhnev as he was “flying over the Soviet territory …” on his way to Beijing to meet Mao Zedong (when Sino-Soviet relations were frozen), met with Albanian leader Enver Hoxha, was a friend of Kim Il Sung … And he began to flirt with the West.

In August 1968 (unheard-of insolence!) he refused to participate in the occupation of Czechoslovakia, denying Soviet troops the right of passing through Romanian territory. This move certainly enhanced his prestige in the eyes of Western champions of freedom and democracy. Loans, investments and other favors were not slow to appear.

The late sixties and early seventies were perhaps the best times for Romanian cinema during communism. A lot of films were produced, and there was even some allowance for criticism of classical Stalinism. Films which were banned in Bulgaria, Poland, East Germany, or Czechoslovakia (after 1968) were sometimes shown in Romania. Many westerns also, even some which had been deemed malicious by Soviet film censors could be seen in theaters in Bucharest.

Like Tito’s Yugoslavia had done before, Romania also opened its doors to co-productions. Blessed with exquisite natural conditions – mountains, valleys, a wonderful coastline – no worse than in Yugoslavia, the possibility of obtaining virtually free labor and extras (the army was often used for this), Romania became a paradise for Western producers who wanted to get solid results with minimal financial investment.

It all began with historical super-productions like Dacians (Dacii, 1967, incidentally, a film which features Pierre ‘Winnetou’ Brice in the part of Septimius Severus, a Roman officer), The Column (Columna, 1968), The Battle for Rome (Bătălia pentru Roma, 1968), and then came the turn of the ‘westerns’.

Around the years 1968-1970, the French and the West Germans teamed with Romanian studios to create their own adaptations of Fenimore Cooper’s novels. A number of TV movies were produced at that time: The Last of the Mohicans, Prairie, Adventures on the Shores of Ontario, Deer Slayer. Each film had two directors: one from the guests’ side, another from the Romanian. Both guest directors were French: Jacques Drevil (Adventures on the Shores of Ontario, The Last of the Mohicans) and Pierre Gaspard-Huit (Prairie, Deerslayer). Their Romanian counterpart was a novice: Sergiu Nicolaescu.

Being a self-taught filmmaker, Nicolaescu’s participation on these projects (as well as on Dacians and Battle for Rome) was a kind of film school. He had graduated from the Polytechnic Institute and then, in the early sixties, he landed a job at the Bucharest film studios at a friend’s recommendation, where he made a few documentaries and short films. His first feature length was Dacians, the big international co-production which effectively launched his career as the most successful Romanian film director of all time.

Nicolaescu quickly understood the essence of directing grand cinematic spectacles. The artistic quality of his films usually comes second to their entertainment value. Despite that (or maybe because of that), spectators in Romania, and in the Soviet Union, adored his films. In the 1970s and 1980s, Romania gradually fell under the spell of Ceausescu’s cult of personality and became an increasingly paranoid and isolated neo-Stalinist state. Perhaps much of Nicolaescu’s fame and fortune are also due to the lack of any serious competition, and to the people’s desperate need for Western-style cinematic entertainment, of which he became the sole provider allowed by the regime.

In any case, his career soared to heights that were incomparable with any of the later performances of his French colleagues with whom he co-directed the Fenimore Cooper adaptations. Jacques Drevil and Pierre Gaspard-Huit’s names do not remain associated with any important achievement in the history of film. Those co-productions themselves are now remembered only by specialists and enthusiasts of the European western.

The image of Ceausescu’s Romania and the Romanian cinematography doubtlessly benefited from this period of international co-productions. The western adaptations were successful at the time, especially in the other socialist countries. In the USSR, the black-and-white, abridged versions of Prairie and Adventures on the Shores of Ontario were received quite warmly in the context of the rather bleak offer of imported films distributed in 1972, even though the films had only been made for television and not for the big screen. Luckily, in the late sixties, video had not yet been invented and even the movies made for television were filmed on 35mm.

So this was the golden decade of the sixties, the golden decade of the Balkan western. During the last two decades of communism only Romania continued to produce ‘red westerns’; the Bulgarians and the Hungarians (after György Szomjas’ 1976 ‘goulash western’ The Wind Blows Under Your Feet) stopped making them. One much later exception is the 1996 film Pretty Village, Pretty Flame by the Serbian director Srdjan Dragojevic, a great homage to Yugoslav partisan films (the so-called “Gibanica westerns”). And, of course, one can also count Dragojevic’s last film The Parade (2011), a tragi-comical remake of The Magnificent Seven with the action set in Belgrade’s gay world. The Serbian director’s films give us a nice illustration of how it is still possible to escape from the Balkans through the western genre.

Special Birthdays

Fernand Gravey (actor) would have been 120 today but died in 1970.

Jürgen Roland (director) would have been 100 today but died in 2007.

Little Known Spaghetti Western actors ~ Tony Del Monaco

[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.]

Del Monaco was born on December 27, 1936, in Sulmona in Abruzzo, Italy He started in show business as an actor, appearing in the 1961 musical comedy “L'adorabile Giulio” (The Adorable Julio), starring Carlo Dapporto and Delia Scala. In 1965, he performed on the TV show ‘Campioni a Campione’ (Champions at Campione) singing "Vita Mia" ("My life"), which he'd composed and which entered the Italian pop charts.

In 1959, he debuted at the Vibo Valentia song festival, ranking 3rd with the song "Al ciel manca un angelo" ("Heaven is Missing an Angel"). In 1967, he participated in the Sanremo Festival with "È più forte di me" ("It's Stronger Than Me"), paired with Betty Curtis, and released "Una spina e una rosa" ("A Thorn and a Rose") the same year. Del Monaco competed in Sanremo again in 1968, paired with Dionne Warwick, with the song "La voce del silenzio " ("The voiceSound of silenceSilence"); in 1969, with "Un'ora fa" ("An hour agoHour Ago") paired with Fausto Leali; and in 1970, with the Claudio Villa song "Serenata".

In the 1960s and 1970s, Del Monaco composed many songs that were covered by star singers of that era, such as "L'ultima occasione" (as "Once There Was A Time") by Mina and Tom Jones.

He died on 27 May 1993, in a clinic in Ancona, Italy.

“Per un pugno di canzoni” (A Fistful of Songs) as a performer.

Del MONACO, Tony (Antonio Del Monaco) [12/27/1936, Sulmona, Abruzzo, Italy – 5/28/1993, Ancona, Marche, Italy] – film actor, singer, songwriter.

A Fistful of Songs – 1966 (performer)

The Balkan Westerns of the Sixties [Part 2 of 3]

 

By Sergey Lavrentiev

1/12/2013

The Sons of Great Bear was the screen adaptation of a novel by Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich, in which the Indians are portrayed as noble, while the whites are all bloodthirsty. This was, of course, an absolute must for the script to be approved. Ironically, the white villain’s name was Red Fox, but he was not that important. The important thing was that the noble Indian, played by the young, beautiful athlete Gojko Mitić, provided the youth of the socialist bloc with a credible star of their own: Mitić became the instant idol of millions.

The success of The Sons had satisfied the authorities. Of course, in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, where the film distribution system was wide open for ‘Western westerns’, the film could not compete with other American films of the genre. But in the other, more ‘ideologically unblemished’ states, the box-office results were encouraging.

The main difference between The Sons and the pictures made at the Jadran studios by the West Germans was in the central element of the plot structure. Winnetou is brave and noble, but he remains in the shadow of his pale-faced brother who is the main hero. The screen adaptations of Karl May’s novels are all about the good white guy who helps the Indians fight against the bad whites. In parentheses it should be noted that while the Ostern Sons was shot in Yugoslavia, Old Surehand became the first film of its rival West German series to be purchased for distribution in the USSR, during the short period of liberalization between October 1964 and August 1968 (the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia). Changing the title of the film, the Soviets accidentally emphasized its ‘white-guy bias’, naming it The Faithful Hand, Friend of Indians. Needless to say, the film was a big hit and made a lot of money for the Soviet distribution system, back in 1968.

Despite its reasonable success, the production of The Sons of Great Bear marked the end of an ambitious attempt by the East to beat the capitalists at the western genre. After that, the East Germans ceased to travel around the world in search of spectacular locations for big productions aimed at international audiences (The Sons never managed to find an audience in the West), and began to stamp their ‘right westerns’ for its own audience, as well as for the benefit of their most friendly markets: the post-1968 ‘normalized’ Czechoslovakia, the USSR, Bulgaria, and Mongolia.

Meanwhile, in Yugoslavia, the West Germans continued to actively develop their gold-mine, Winnetou. With Alfred Vohrer’s 1965 production of Old Surehand, which was successfully screened even in the Soviet Union, the franchise was well established, and the films generally passed, for most of the inexperienced viewers in Europe, as genuine American westerns. Of course, as with the Italian ‘spaghetti westerns’, that was their main intended purpose. Stewart Granger, the ‘absolutely true, absolutely American’ star of Old Surehand, was an actor with a clear understanding of the nature of the genre – with him as a central figure what else could they need for convincing the audiences?

Stewart Granger, a star of the fifties – Beau Brummel(1954), Scaramouche(1952) – was not the only Hollywood actor to cross the Atlantic in the early sixties, to revive a genre that was all but dead in America. The little-known Clint Eastwood was another. Unlike Granger, who arrived with great ambitions to re-launch a once brilliant career, Eastwood went to Spain only to spend one summer and earn a little money. Instead, Sergio Leone made him one of the greatest cinematic figures of the second half of the twentieth century. Granger, though, was unable to repeat his triumph. European filmmakers were happy to have him in their movies, and the European audiences received him enthusiastically but for the Americans, he remained an artist “from the past.”

In 1965, Harald Reinl completed the movie Winnetou 3 in which he attempted to kill Winnetou, believing, apparently, that the series had exhausted itself. Artistically, this is definitely the best film in the series, and it has a well-accomplished look and feel even now, forty years after its creation. In the end, Winnetou sacrifices himself to defend the life of his pale-faced brother, shielding him from the treacherous bullets with his own chest.

The Soviet Purchasing Commission did not buy Winnetou 3 for distribution in the USSR. They may have disagreed with the final sacrifice of the native chief for the benefit of the white hero. Or it may have been for a different, more prosaic reason.

In the brief liberal period before August 21, 1968, two West German westerns, shot in Yugoslavia, had been purchased and distributed in the Soviet Union. It is quite likely that the distributors were planning to buy a few more films from the successful series and had no interest in purchasing the film in which Winnetou dies. However, in the late sixties the opportunity was foiled. And by the time the ban was lifted in the mid-seventies, a new artistic and ideological obstacle appeared.

Initially, East German “osterns” were produced at a quality that was comparable with that of their rival West German “westerns”. However, by the beginning of the seventies, the osterns from GDR became so tedious and anemic that they could no longer even remotely compare with their rivals. The result was that the evidently superior Winnetou series could no longer be shown without exposing the other – “ideologically correct” – osterns to ridicule.

[To be continued]

Who Are Those Gals? ~ Sylvie Fennec

 

Sylvie Marie-Thérèse Fassio was born in Paris, France on May 19, 1946. She began her professional career as a model and cover girl. As Sylvie Fennec she made her film debut in 1968 in the film “Adélaïde” with Jean Sorel and Ingrid Thulin.

For nearly ten years, from 1974 to 1980 and from 1983 to 1985, Sylvie Fennec was the face of the Monsavon brand. After her acting career, she embarked on the job of a film set designer.

She was the wife of Jean-Daniel Simon and the mother of Dimitri, born in 1971. Since 2004, she has been married to the actor François Marthouret for more than 20 years.

Fennec appeared as Sheba in Sergio Corbucci’s “Gli specialist” (The Specialist aka Drop Them or I’ll Shoot) starring Johnny Hallyday and Mario Adorf.

FENNEC, Sylvie (Sylvie Marie-Thérèse Fassio) [5/19/1946, Paris, Île-de-France, France -     ] – production designer, film actress, married to director, writer, actor François Marthouret (François René Henri Marthouret) [1943-    ] (2003-    ).

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

23 Little Known Spaghetti Western actors ~ Anais de Melo

[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.]

 Anais de Melo was born in Portugal on May 9, 1960, she is a naturalized Mexican actress.  De Melo began her career in Mexican cinema in the mid-1970s. One of her earliest appearances occurred in the 1976 Arturo Ripstein film “Foxtrot”, where she played a young woman but did not appear in the credits. Four years later she landed her first major role in the horror film “A Rat in the Dark”, in which she played a young woman who is stalked by a strange being in a haunted house. In the film she shared the main role with actress Ana Luisa Peluffo. Two years later she joined the cast of the film “The Caveman”, starring Ringo Starr. In 1984, she starred opposite Charles Bronson in the action film “The Evil That Men Do”. From then on, she appeared in more than sixty-five films, being a popular face in Mexican cinema between the 1980s and 1990s. She had a special participation in the telenovela ‘El extraño retorno de Diana Salazar’ (1988) playing the character of Yoko. She currently owns the public relations agency UFFF!, one of the most prestigious in Mexico.

Anais has appeared in two Spaghetti westerns: “El triunfo de un hombre Hamado Caballo” (Triumphs of a Man Called Horse) in 1982 as Dorothy and “La rebelión de los colgados” in 1986 as a whore.

de MELO, Anais (aka Anais D'Melo) [5/9/1960, Portugal -     ] – film, TV actress, owns the public relations agency UFFF!.

Triumphs of a Man Called Horse – 1982 (Dorothy)

La rebelión de los colgados – 1986 (whore)

The Balkan Westerns of the Sixties [Part 1 of 3]

 

By Sergey Lavrentiev

1/12/2013

Balkan Westerns represent an important part of a cultural phenomenon which took place in the European Eastern bloc during the second half of the 20th Century: the phenomenon of the ‘Red Western’, or the ‘Ostern’.

In the Soviet Union, the western was considered a “reactionary genre which praised the white colonialists’ extermination of poor Indians. American westerns were distributed in the USSR only in the 1920s. Some westerns also managed to reach the Soviet screens after 1945, when the Reichsfilmarchiv (Reich Film Archive) was removed from Berlin and taken to Moscow. Then, from the 1950s on to the 1980s, during the last 40 years of communism, there were only 5 (five!) US westerns in the Soviet film distribution system.

Nevertheless, because these films were always received with great enthusiasm by the Soviet public, the Party bosses decided to allow Soviet filmmakers to come up with “our own westerns with the right content”. The result was the ‘Red Western’, and there were dozens of them produced in the USSR during that period.

Of course, no one officially called these films westerns’; they were “heroic adventure movies”. Sometimes they became great box office champions: Little Red Devils (Tsiteli eshmakunebi, Ivane Perestiani, 1924), and its remake Elusive Avengers (Неуловимые мстители, Edmond Keosayan, 1967), with the sequel New Adventures of the Elusive Avengers (Новые приключения неуловимых, 1968) were great hits. Sometimes the films were real works of art: 13(Trinadtsat, Mikhail Romm, 1936), or Nobody Wanted to Die (Niekas nenorejo mirti, Vytautas Zalakevicius, 1966). In any case, the Red Western had its own history, with a brilliant beginning in the twenties and a sad ending in the late eighties, a history which mirrors, in a way, the story of Soviet society in 20th century. It also mirrors the story of Soviet state censorship, and a lot of other stories, small and great, too many to be all included in this presentation.

But there is one great story that needs to be mentioned: the Red Western has a father and it is not Ivane Perestiani, Lev Kuleshov, or Mikhail Romm, but Josef Stalin.

Indeed, Stalin was a film freak and a great admirer of the western. The Russian State Film Archive (Gosfilmofond), founded in 1948 on the base of the Reichsfilmarchiv, contains plenty of evidence of the Great Leader’s passion for westerns. And at least two Soviet ‘red westerns’, 13, and “Brave People” (Смелые люди, Konstantin Yudin, 1950) were made at his direct wishes and orders.

If Stalin was the father of the ‘Soviet Red Western’, the ‘Balkan Western’ had three fathers. Their names: Josip Broz Tito, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, and Nicolae Ceauşescu. 1962 was ‘the year when the Balkan western was officially born’. Two events took place during that year, in two separate countries, which, although apparently not connected, are nevertheless both pivotal for the history of the Balkan western.

First, in 1962, filmmakers from West Germany decided to film the stories of their compatriot Karl May (1842-1912), who wrote about the Wild West. In the USSR, his writings were not known, but in Germany they were far more popular than the works of James Fenimore Cooper or Thomas Mayne Reid.

At the heart of Karl May’s novels there are two characters: one Indian, named Winnetou, and the other white (sometimes Old Surehand, sometimes Old Shatterhand). The first film to be made about their adventures was The Treasure of Silver Lake (Der Schatz im Silbersee, Harald Reinl, 1962). It is not known whether director Reinl ever supposed that his film would only be the first in a long series of many other pictures featuring the two inseparable friends, but the success of the film had surpassed all expectations and soon, the producers launched the pipeline: from 1962 onwards, almost until the end of the sixties, each year marked the release of at least one new film about Winnetou on European screens. But what has all this got to do with the Balkans?

The German producers of the films, like their Italian counterparts who were shooting their ‘Spaghetti westerns’ in Spain, were looking for locations that were both spectacular and cheap. In the beginning, they had also considered Spain but, in the end, they found an even better (and cheaper) place: it was Yugoslavia.

After his historical quarrel with Stalin, Tito had started to build his relatively? liberal brand of socialism. And he was also a great western admirer. During the 1950s, US westerns were often shown on Yugoslav screens, and they were very popular. More than one generation of young Yugoslav boys grew up with these movies. So, when the Germans suggested a co-production, the Yugoslav comrades were happy to agree.

It proved to be the ideal partnership: the Balkan side was open and friendly, and the Germans were given total production freedom and low prices in addition to fantastic shooting locations in Croatia. Soon enough, Winnetou and his white brother received permanent residency in the “happiest barrack of  the socialist camp".

The results pleased everyone. After The Treasure of Silver Lake (which also received financing from the French), in 1963, Reinl shot “Winnetou”. Now, along with the French and the Germans, Italy was also credited among the producing countries, and the franchise was on a roll. During that same year, and with the same 3 countries as co-producers, another director, Hugo Fregonese, was called in to shoot Old Shatterhand with the same actors (Pierre Brice – Winnetou, Lex Barker – The White Brother). Then 1964 saw Winnetou 2 by Reinl, and Alfred Vohrer’s “Among the vultures”, where Lex Barker was replaced by Stewart Granger.

The Yugoslavs were involved in all these films, and not just as the country that provided the locations. All the films credit the Zagreb studio, Jadran Film, immediately after the name of the main German concern, indicating an equal partnership.

The Soviets would get to see some of these films later, but none of them were shown immediately after they appeared in the early 1960s. Instead, Khrushchev granted the opportunity to screen a real US western in the USSR.

The times they were a changing. In 1959, Khrushchev made his historical visit to the United States, during which he also went to Hollywood, where he met Marilyn Monroe, Frank Capra, and Gary Cooper. A new film agreement was signed then, according to which The Magnificent Seven (1960) was purchased for Soviet distribution.

The Magnificent Seven became a landmark success and a social phenomenon in the Soviet Union. Between 1962 and 1964, the citizens of the USSR never tired of seeing the film. Tickets became impossible to get. Stadiums and other open areas were used for the projection when regular cinemas could no longer cope. All men wanted to dress like cowboys, and since there were no Soviet shops where one could buy jeans, hats and boots, the costumes were all made at home from scrap materials.

The most curious thing about the whole national craze that engulfed The Magnificent Seven is that, according to statistics, the picture was not a box-office champion. Evidently, the numbers had to be manipulated, but be that as it may, the fact remains that an American western was able to stir the Soviet public so much that they seemed to forget all about their allegiance to their communist identity and ideals in the process.

Party leaders began to grumble. First, they forbade children from watching it. Then, the classic ‘letters from the workers started appearing in the central press. Finally, in 1964, just before Khrushchev’s removal from the head of the party, the film was withdrawn from distribution, before its export license had expired.

With Khrushchev gone, the communist party bosses decided to make their own response to imperialist propaganda, and encouraged the wide production of ‘Red westerns’, with the ‘reds’ playing the good guys and the ‘whites’ given the parts of villains. Recalling the huge success of Perestiani’s 1924 film Little Red Devils, a remake was ordered, which led to the creation of The Elusive Avengers in 1967, and, sure enough, the film became a major hit. The Civil War after the Bolshevik revolution became the time and historical arena for Soviet Red Westerns and, before long, Soviet boys started to forget The Magnificent Seven.

In 1966, comrades from East Germany received the ‘advice’ to try their own hand at making a classical western with reds and whites. This they did, and the result was The Sons of Great Bear (Die Söhne der großen Bärin, by the Czech director Josef Mach). For this production, the East Germans also went to Yugoslavia, since they wanted to beat their Western compatriots and rivals on the “same battlefield”. Their co-producer was Bosna Film studios in Sarajevo. Sure enough, history had since proved that it was not possible to compete with the West in general, and in film production in particular, but until 1968, the communists did not abandon hope, so the East Germans decided to step into the ring and fight.

[Russian posters courtesy of Michael Ferguson]

[To be continued]

Special Birthdays

Hannes Fischer (actor) would have been 100 today but died in 1989.

David Gilliam (actor) is 75 today.

Little Known Spaghetti Western actors ~ Ino Alcubierre

[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.]

Inocencia Alcubierre Rodríguez was born in Uncastillo, Spain in 1901 and moved to Barcelona during her childhood with her parents. As a teenager, she worked as an usher in a movie theater.

In 1921, she received the lead role in her first film, a western called, Lilian. She acted for director Ricardo de Baños, as Doña Inés in the production of Don Juan Tenorio in 1922. Alcubierre took a three-year hiatus to care for her baby daughter. After appearing in a film that had no significant impact in 1925, she appeared in Nobleza baturra, which went on to become one of the most successful silent films in Spain, however, no copy of the film survived. Her performance as María del Pilar, a "representation of the pain and heart heat" was praised. In 1926, she played a role in La malcasada, which discussed the then-controversial subject of divorce. She appeared in five films between 1922 and 1926.

Alcubierre died in a traffic accident in Madrid

As Ino Alcubierre she appeared in the 1921 silent Euro-western “Lillian” as Elliot Dorsan.

ALCUBIERRE, Ino (Inocencia Alcubierre Rodríguez) [6/16/1901, Uncastillo, Zaragoza, Aragón, Spain – 8/12/1930, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain (car accident)] – film actress. married to ? mother of a daughter.

Lillian – 1921 (Elliot Dorsan)

 

Spaghetti Western Locations Then and Now “The 5-Man Army”

This scene from 1969’s “The 5-Man Army” shows the house where the team met the Dutchman and discussed their plan to rob the Mexican army train.

Here’s the same location as seen this year. Nothing remains of the building.

European Western Comic Books - I Cineromanzi della Vita > Collana Amena per Ragazzi (Bill Brand - Dix Ranger - Biri Gnao)

 

The Photo-Novels of Life: Entertaining Series for Young People

ENTERTAINING SERIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE (1) ENTERTAINING SERIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE (Bill Brand - Dix Ranger - Biri Gnao)

This Parallel comic strip series uses the same numbering and dates as the album-format series. Issue #6 of the Bill Brand series was found, but the cover shows Dix Ranger Series #3 "The Triumph of the Law". Publication intended for surprise envelopes.

Issue #5 of Series I bears the inscription "supplement".

Issues #1/3 of Series II are published as supplements to issue #7 of the Amusig Series for Boys (2).

This comic book was published in 1955 with issue #1 being released on October 11, 1955, and ended in 1956. It was published by Edizioni Economiche Romane in Milan, Italy under the director Gino Giusti. Each issue contained 16 black and white pages with color covers.

 

Titles

Series I

01 (10.11.55) -

02 (18.12.55) - "L'eroe indiano" [Dix Ranger n. 1] (The Indian Hero)

03 (00.00.56) -

04 (25.02.56) - "Il ranger in pericolo" [Dix Ranger n. 2] (The Ranger in Danger)

05 (01.03.56) - "Biri Gnao" [ricopertinato dell'omonimo albo della COLLANA AMENA PER RAGAZZI (2)]

06 (07.03.56) - "Il trionfo della legge" [Dix Ranger n. 3] (The Triumph of the Law)

 

Series II

01 (25.03.56) - "È fuggito il mostro" (The Monster has Escaped)

02 (25.03.56) - "L'ira dell'eroe" (The Hero’s Wrath)

03 (25.03.56) - "Il più forte" (The Strongest)

04 (00.00.56) - "L'imperatore dei mondi" (The Emperor of the Worlds)

05 (00.00.56) -

06 (00.00.56) - "Il rapimento di Milena" (Milena’s Kidnapping)

07 (00.00.56) - "Furia umana" (Human Fury)

08 (00.00.56) - "S.O.S. Terra" (S.O.S. Earth)

09 (00.00.56) - "Tradimento" (Betrayal)

Special Birthdays

Bogic Boscovic (actor) would have been 95 today but died 1991.

Pippo Caruso (composer, singer, actor) would have been 90 today but died in 2018.

RIP James Ransone

 

According to a Los Angeles, California Medical Examiner report actor James Ransone committed suicide by hanging on December 19^th. He was 46. Born James Finley Ransone III in Baltimore, Maryland, Ransone was best known for roles such as Ziggy Sobotka in ‘The Wire’, Corporal. Josh Ray Person in ‘Generation Kill’, Deputy So-and-So in “Sinister” and its sequel, and adult Eddie Kaspbrak in “It Chapter Two”. He was a versatile performer with over 70 credits. By the age of 27, Ransone had developed a heroin addiction and a debt of $30,000 but became sober in 2007. He was married to Jamie McPhee, with whom he has a son. James appeared as Wyatt in the 2015 Euro-western “The Timber”.

From the WAI! vault

 

Little Known Spaghetti Western actors ~ Gil Delmare

[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.]

Gilbert-Yves de la Mare de la Villenaire de Chénevarin was born in Paris, France on October 14, 1924. A law student, Gil at the age of 20 decided to give up his studies to become a trapeze acrobat in a circus. Later, practicing skydiving, he was a co-world record holder in free fall (9509 meters), being cast in Jacques Dubourg's film “The Birdman” (L'Homme-oiseau, short film), where he performs jumps from the plane and glides with the help of wings made of canvas. Bringing innovations in this field, Gil Delamare would then begin his career as an exceptional stuntman and master’s in special effects, becoming very well-known during the 1960s.

He recorded sequences that have become memorable in cinema: the pursuit by the Germans and their pumpkin bombing in “The Great Wandering”, Bourvil's 2CV splitting in two in “The Fool”, the "two-wheeled" chase made by the nun of the “Gendarmerie of Saint-Tropez”, the American paratrooper (dubbing the actor Red Buttons) hanging from the façade of the cathedral of Sainte-Mère-Église from the movie “The Longest Day” or the final sequel to “Fantômas”.

During the filming of the film directed by Christian-Jaque, “The Saint Lies in Wait” (1966), which takes place on a section of the A1 motorway then under construction, one of the scenes in which he double Jean Marais, he happened to make an uncontrolled skid with his car, a pirouette around the vertical axis, failing the proposed figures. Delamare decides to continue, with stuntmen Gaston Woignez and Odile Astier by his side. Around 5:30-5:50 p.m., the car skidded instead of sliding. Under the force exerted on the tires by the braking grip, a rear axle arm breaks, causing the convertible to overturn several times, expelling the passengers, but unfortunately trapping Gil Delamare under it. He died as a result at the scene of the accident on May 30, 1966, in Bobigny, Seine, France

Gil Delmare’s only Euro-western was as Harry in 1958’s “Sérénade au Texas” (Texas Serenade).

DELMARE, Gil (aka Delamare, Gil Delmare) (Gilbert-Yves de la Mare de la Villenaire de Chénevarin) [10/14/1924, Paris, Île-de-France, France – 5/30/1966 Bobigny, Seine, France (stunt car crash)] – SFX, stuntman, film actor, married to model, skydiver Colette Louise Duval [1930-1988].

Texas Serenade – 1958 (Harry)

50th Anniversary of the premier of “Get Mean”

 

Today marks the 50^th anniversary of the premier of “Get Mean” this U.S.A, Italian co-production was directed by Ferdinando Baldi and starred Tony Anthony, Lloyd Battista and Diana Lorys. It tells the story of a drifting cowboy called ‘The Stranger’ (Tony Anthony) who is offered $50,000 in gold to deliver the Princess Elizabeth Maria (Diana Lorys) to her native Spain. Arriving in Spain the princess and the cowboy are caught between two warring factions who are fighting over a fortune of hidden treasure. Princess Elizabeth turns out to be the only one who knows where the fortune is located. When Diego’s (Raf Baldassare) forces win, they take Elizabeth captive and leave ‘The Stranger’ dangling on a rope by his heels. With the help of a gypsy girl (Mirta Miller) ‘The Stranger’ manages to infiltrate Diego’s fortress and duels with Sombra (Lloyd Battista), Diego’s arms expert. Finally, having had enough ‘The Stranger’ gets mean and destroys the fortress with guns, dynamite and a surprise for Diego. In so doing he’s able to single-handedly destroy the fortress and uncover the treasure.

 

Get Mean – U.S.A. title

Get Mean – Italian title

O Pistoleiro e os Bárbaros - Brazilian title

Get Mean (Time Breaker) - Dutch title

Dynamiittimies - Finnish title

Pendez-le par les pieds - French title

Time Breaker - German title

O leon tis Romis - Greek title

Con el sol en los ojo y la pistola en la mano - Spanish title

Get Mean the Dynamite Man - English title

Beat a Dead Horse - English title

Vengeance of the Barbarians - English title

Get Mean - English title

 

A 1975 U.S.A., Italian film co-production [Cee Note, A Strange Films Production

     (Rome)]

Producers: Tony Anthony (Anthony Petitto), Terence McGovern, Ronnie Schneider, C.B.

     Selnik

Director: Ferdinando Baldi

Story: Ferdinando Baldi, Lloyd Battista, Wolf Lowenthal

Screenplay: Ferdinando Baldi, Lloyd Battista, Wolf Lowenthal

Cinematography: Mario Perino [Technicolor, Techniscope]

Music: Bixio (Franco Bixio), Frizzi (Fabio Frizzi), Tempera (Vincenzo Tempera)

Running time: 87 minutes

 

Cast:

‘The Stranger’ - Tony Anthony (Anthony Petitto)

Sombra - Lloyd Battista

Princess Elizabeth Maria - Diana Lorys (Anna Vega)

Diego - Raf Baldassarre (Rafaelle Baldassarre)

Sombra henchman - David Dreyer (David Petitto)

Morelia - Mirta Miller (Mirta Chatard)

Barbarian - Sherman ‘Big Train’ Bergman, Remo De Angelis

Emir – George Rigaud (Pedro Delissetche)

Gypsy - Raul Castro, Ferdinando Baldi

Stunts: Remo De Angelis

Who Are Those Singers & Musicians? ~ Karl Stegger

 

Karl Stegger was born on January 11, 1913, in Aarhus, Denmark. He was a Danish actor, who appeared in 157 films which makes him the second-most used Danish film actor after Ove Sprogøe.

He mostly appeared in comedy roles but also had some serious roles e.g. as the vicar in “Præsten i Vejlby”. He became famous in 1955 when he replaced Ib Schønberg as the father in the popular “Far-til-Fire”-film series (Father of Four). Later he appeared in several of the Olsen-banden-movies and the TV series ‘Matador’ as Consul Holm. Stegger died in Copenhagen on April 13, 1980 at the age of 67.

Stegger sang “Venner venner” in 1970’s “Tough Guys of the Prairie” starring Dirch Passer.

STEGGER, Karl (Carl Johan Stegger Sørensen) [1/11/1913, Åarhus, Denmark – 4/13/1980, Copenhagen, Denmark (pneumonia)] – actor, singer, married to Frederikke Hansen (1938-1980) father of one child.

Tough Guys of the Prairie – 1970 [sings: “Venner venner”]

Special Birthdays

Bernard Farber (actor) would have been 90 today but died in 1996.

Gianni Dei (actor) would have been 85 today but died in 2020.

Alessandro Perella (actor) is 80 today.

 

From the WAI! vault