WARTIME SPAGHETTI: PARTE DOS: DIRTY GOLD

1942, Spain

Aka… Vil Oro / ‘Vile Gold’ (Sp)

Ex… Dirty Old (Ex)

T: 72 (Sp)

Pc: CEA-Consorcio Cinematográfico [Eduardo Garcia Maroto] (Mad) and Eduardo G. Maroto Film (Mad)

Dist: Hispania Tobis (1942, Sp)

D: Eduardo Garcia Maroto; St: Antonio Martín; Ph: Andrés Pérez Cubero; M: Daniel Montorio

C: Ricardo Merino, Mari Santamaría, Florencia Bécquer, Pablo Álvarez Rubio, Rufino Inglés, Manuel de Hita, Pilar Delgado, Conrado San Martín, Erasmo Pascual & Emilio Santiago

Syn: Mexico. A doctor emigrates to the United States to forget his fiancée and seek his fortune during the gold rush.

     Comm: [Filmed at La Pedriza, Madrid in 1941] Adventure drama. Eduardo Garcia’s Maroto’s DIRTY GOLD was the second Spain-made western, but the first to be completed and exhibited. The first to be shot amongst mountains and hills, north of Madrid, that would later become synonymous with the “Spaghetti Western” was a very obscure silent era film.  It was filmed in 1918, but for whatever reason, it went unfinished and most importantly, untitled (now ‘untitled Spain #1’). Nearly forgotten. It did receive a mention, and little else, in "Historia del Cine" by Fernando Mendez-Leite (Cine Club Monterols de Barcelona, 1965).

      Nonetheless, DIRTY GOLD is still notable for being the first sound era ‘Spanish western’, and for predating Joaquín Romero Marchent's pair of "El Coyote" films (1954-56).  García Maroto knew the landscapes of Madrid’s La Pedriza well. He had filmed the drama “La Hija del Penal” aka ‘The Prison Daughter’ (01/13/36) there. When it came time to make DIRTY GOLD he again chose ‘La Pedriza’, north of Madrid in the Guadarrama mountain range as a locale, more than a decade before Marchent would.

Although the script was written as a parody, censors under General Francisco Franco, forced the production company to transform it into a drama. The resources the producers had allocated to DIRTY GOLD would have been adequate for a comedy, but not for a serious drama. In the end the critics called it "a step backwards for Spain".  As a drama the final product may have been closer to what the filmmakers originally intended.

Surviving footage, displayed in a book and a documentary, makes it look like a straight western, with lots of riding scenes and gunplay, although the critics of the day had laughed (see below).

     DIRTY GOLD is very similar to the Czechoslovakia comedy ‘western’ PANCHO’S WEDDING (1946). Both were made during the second world war, set in Mexico and were comedies. Where PANCHO’S WEDDING was allowed to be a comedy, DIRTY GOLD wasn’t.

     CEA was founded on 17 March 1932 at Ciudad Lineal, Madrid as both a production house as well as a film studio. It consisted of six sound stages, photographic laboratories, set construction workshops, dressing rooms and a swimming pool. CEA closed in 1966 during the height of the 60’s, most likely due to disrepair. CEA made four films during the forties, all directed by DIRTY GOLD’s Garcia Maroto.

     According to Wikipedia, Garcia Maroto had to interrupt his work on DIRTY GOLD to temporarily go to Barcelona and replace director José Luis Sáenz de Heredia, who had taken ill, on “Raza” aka ‘Race’ (01/05/42, Sp).  “Raza” was based on El Generalissimo Franco’s novel of the same name and took precedence. Actual release information for DIRTY GOLD is unknown. Sources say 1941, but if the above is true it would have been in ‘42 that it actually got projected. Wiki also says that the film set during the ‘Gold Rush’, which would have placed it in California between 1848–1855. The later ‘Gold Rush’ of 1897-1904 happened in Alaska and Northwestern Canada and isn’t the setting of DIRTY GOLD.

     The producers of both DIRTY GOLD and PANCHO’S WEDDING at least deserve credit for setting both films in old Mexico. Most likely Wallace Beery’s performance in “Viva Villa!” (04/10/34, US, 03/35, Sp and 10/35, Cz, respectively) had a lot to do with both films getting ‘thunk-up’ and financed.

     The press materials from the time show that DIRTY GOLD featured standard Mexican characters, cowboys and a rearing horse. The film's script (as both a drama and comedy) and production details were covered recently in book form: titled "Oro Vil: Western Pionero Espanol” / ‘Oro Vil. Spanish Pioneer Western’ by Miguel Olid & Víctor Matellano in 2024 (Pigmalion).

     An older Maroto later worked on such American productions as RETURN OF THE SEVEN (in Alicante and Madrid, 1965) and VILLA RIDES (in Colmenar Viejo, 1967). Most likely as a production coordinator.

     Actors Rufino Inglés & Conrado San Martín went on to co-star in multiple later Spaghetti westerns of the 50’s and 60’s. Their presence sealed DIRTY GOLD fate as a true Spaghetti.

 

By Michael Ferguson