RIP Iga Cembrzynska

 

Iga Cembrzyńska, the famous Polish actress and singer died in Warsaw. She was 87 years old. Iga was born Maria Elizbieta Cembrzyńska on July 2, 1939, in Radom. She made her debut on the big screen in 1964, playing Princess Emina in the cult film "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa" directed by Wojciech Jerzy Has. It was the beginning of a long-term career, during which she created many memorable creations. In the following years, she appeared in acclaimed productions, such as "Salto" by Tadeusz Konwicki, "Jowita" by Janusz Morgenstern, "The Wall of Witches" by Paweł Komorowski and "The Scream" by Barbara Sass. She also collaborated with Andrzej Wajda. Iga appeared in the 1967 Polish TV western, “Komedia z pomylek” as Lora Neuman.

From the WAI! cault

 

Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Ilona Drash

[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.]

Ilona Drash was an actress of unknown origin, possibly British, whose film career encompassed

four films between 1964 and 1969. Her largest role was as Margie in “La jena di Londra” (The Hyena of London) in 1964 where she was credited as Denise Clar.

Drash appeared in one Spaghetti western, “Bill il taciturno” (Django Kills Silently) in 1967. She’s seen as the woman killed in the opening scene of the film.

DRASH, Ilona (aka Denise Clar) – film actress.

Django Kills Silently - 1967

Spaghetti Western Directors, Screenwriters, Cinematographers

Spaghetti Western Director ~ Terence Hill

Terence Hill was born Mario Girotti; March 29, 1939 in Venice, Italy. He is an Italian actor, film director, screenwriter, and producer renowned for his starring roles in spaghetti westerns and action-comedy films, particularly his long-running partnership with Bud Spencer that defined a genre of lighthearted buddy movies in the 1970s and 1980s.

Born to a German mother and an Italian father who worked as a chemist, Hill spent part of his early childhood near Dresden, Germany, before returning to Italy after World War II. He began his acting career as a child in the early 1950s, appearing in about 20 films during the 1950s, including roles in historical epics such as “Hannibal” (1959), and continued with “The Leopard” (1963), often credited under his birth name. His early work at Rome's Cinecittà Studios established him as a versatile performer in peplum and adventure genres before transitioning to more mature roles in the 1960s.

Hill's international breakthrough came in the spaghetti western genre, where he first collaborated with Bud Spencer (born Carlo Pedersoli) in “God Forgives... I Don't!” (1967), playing the quick-draw gunslinger Cat Stevens opposite Spencer's slow-witted partner Hutch Bessy. This duo's chemistry propelled them to stardom with hits like “They Call Me Trinity” (1970) and its sequel “Trinity Is STILL My Name” (1971), which became the highest-grossing Italian films worldwide at the time, blending parody, slapstick, and anti-hero tropes that subverted traditional western conventions.

In addition to acting, Hill ventured into directing with “Lucky Luke” (1991), a live-action adaptation of the beloved comic series, and “The Troublemakers” (1994), a western comedy. His career extended into television in the 2000s, where he gained widespread acclaim as the titular detective in the long-running Italian series ‘Don Matteo’ (2000–2025), and solidifying his status as a beloved figure in Italian popular culture. More recently, Hill has appeared in series like ‘Un passo dal cielo’ (2011–2015) and, in 2024, announcED work on a new film featuring his iconic Trinity character; he maintains an active presence through his official website and merchandise, reflecting on a legacy that spans seven decades in European cinema.

Terence Hill directed three Spaghetti western films and three television films and series: ‘Lucky Luke’ (TV) from 1990-1991, “Lucky Luke” in 1991, ‘Doc West’ (TV) with Giulio Base and “Triggerman” with Giulio Base both in 2008, “Botte di Natale” (Troublemakers) in 1994 and in production since 2021 “Trinity, the Nun and the Gun”.

HILL, Terence (aka Girolamo Girotti, Marco Girotti, Terence Hill) (Mario Girotti) [3/29/1939, Venice, Veneto, Italy -     ] – producer, director, writer, film, TV actor, married to Lori Hill (Lori Zwicklbauer) [1945-    ] (1967-    ) father of producer, assistant director, writer, cameraman, film editor, stuntman, actor Jess Hill [1969-    ], adopted son actor Ross Hill [1973-1990], awarded Roseto First Work Festival Lifetime Achievement [2005], David di Donatello Award for Lifetime Career [2010], IOMA Lifetime Achievement [2012].

Lucky Luke (TV) – 1990-1991
Lucky Luke - 1991

Doc West (TV) – 2008 (co)

Triggerman (TV) – 2008

Troublemakers – 1994

Trinity, the Nun and the Gun - 2021

Spaghetti Western Screenwriter ~ Ian Danby

Ian Danby is yet another little-known entity. He is/was a writer, theater, film and television actor. He was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and appeared in eleven films and TV shows. He also was a writer on eight films and four as a dialogue coach and dubber nothing more can be found about his life.

Ian Danby co-wrote one Spaghetti western, “La morte non conta i dollari” with Riccardo Freda, and Luigi Masini. Danby also worked on adapting screenplays to English on  , “Rimase uno solo e fu la morte per tutti!” (Brother Outlaw), “Il suo nome era” (Pot His Name was Pot, They Called Him Joy) – 1971, “Era Sam Wallash!... lo chiamavano... E Così Sia” (Savage Guns), and  “Quelle sporche anime dannate” (Paid in Blood) all in – 1971 and “Jesse & Lester - Due fratelli in un posto chiamato Trinità -Jesse & Lester” (Two Brothers in a Place Called Trinity) in 1972.

DANBY, Ian (aka John Danby) (John Everrett Danvy) [1/18/1931, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada - 2010, Rome, Lazio, Italy] – writer, theater, film actor.

Death at Owell Rock – 1966 (co)

Rimase uno solo e fu la morte per tutti! Brother Outlaw – 1971 [adapted English version]

Il suo nome era Pot His Name was Pot, They Called Him Joy – 1971 [adapted English version]

Era Sam Wallash!... lo chiamavano... E Così Sia Savage Guns – 1971

[adaption coordinator]

Quelle sporche anime dannate Paid in Blood – 1971 [adapted English version]

Jesse & Lester - Due fratelli in un posto chiamato Trinità -Jesse & Lester - Two Brothers in a Place Called Trinity1972 [adapted English version]

Spaghetti Western Cinematographer ~ Stelvio Massi

Stelvio Massi was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer renowned for his work in the poliziotteschi genre of crime-action films during the 1970s, blending influences from American cop thrillers with Italy's socio-political tensions of urban violence and corruption. Born in Civitanova Marche on March 26, 1919, he began his career as a camera operator and cinematographer, notably contributing to Sergio Leone's spaghetti western “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964) before transitioning to directing in 1973 with “Macrò – gioco della mafia”. Massi's films often featured tough, incorruptible police protagonists battling organized crime and institutional decay, reflecting the era's "strategy of tension" amid political unrest, terrorism, and social paranoia in Italy.

Among his most notable works are “Squadra volante” (Emergency Squad, 1974), starring Tomas Milian and the “Mark il poliziotto” series (1976–1979) with Maurizio Merli, including “Mark il poliziotto” (The Cop in Blue Jeans, 1976) and “Mark il poliziotto spara per primo” (Shoot First, Die Later, 1974), which achieved significant commercial success and defined the genre's vigilante cop archetype. Massi also directed “Il conto è chiuso” (The Last Round, 1976), a loose remake of “A Fistful of Dollars” set in a modern crime context, starring Luc Merenda.

Throughout his prolific output, he helmed over a dozen poliziotteschi titles, often emphasizing proletarian heroes confronting wealthy villains, and occasionally ventured into giallo thrillers like “Cinque bambole per la luna d'agosto” (Five Dolls for an August Moon, 1970, as cinematographer) and later action films such as “The Black Cobra” (1987). His contributions helped sustain the genre's popularity into the early 1980s, offering cathartic narratives of justice amid Italy's "Years of Lead," though he never specialized exclusively in crime films, drawing from broader Italian genre traditions like spaghetti westerns and horror. Massi passed away in Velletri, Rome, Italy on March 26, 2004, on his 75th birthday, leaving a legacy as one of the key architects of Italy's sensational crime cinema.

Stelvio Massi was a cinematographer on fifteen Spaghetti westerns: “Doc, manos de plata” (The Man Who Came to Kill) with Mario Capriotti in 1965, “All’ombra di una colt” (In a Colt’s Shadow) with Julio Ortas and “Per il gusto di uccidere” (A Taste for Killing) both in 1966,

“Vendo cara la pelle” (I’ll Sell My Skin Dearly), “Il momento di uccidere” (The Moment to Kill), “Le due facce del dollar” (The Two Faces of the Dollar) all in 1967, “Quindici forche per un assassin” (15 Scaffolds for a Killer) in 1968, “Dio perdoni la mia pistola” (God Will Forgive My Pistol) and “Il prezzo del potere” (The Price of Power) both in 1969, “C’e Sartana... vendi la pistola e comprati la barer!” (Fistful of Lead), (Fistful of Lead), “Buon funerale amigos... paga Sartana” (Have a Nice Funeral) both in 1970, “Gli fumavano le colt…lo chiamavano Camposanto” (Bullet for a Stranger), “Testa t’ammazzo, croce... sei morto... Mi chimavano Alleluja” (Guns for Dollars) both in 1971, “Il West ti va stretto, amico... è arrivato Alleluja” (The Return of Hallelujah) in 1972 and “Lo chiamavano Tresette… giocava sempre col morto” (The Man Called Invincible) in 1973.

MASSI, Stelvio (aka Stefano Catalano, Don Edwards, Massi, Steve Rock, Max Steel) [3/26/1929, Civitanova Marche, Italy – 3/26/2004, Velletri, Rome, Lazio, Italy] – director, writer, cinematographer, cameraman, married to ? father of director, assistant director, writer, actor Danilo Massi [1956-    ].

The Man Who Came to Kill – 1965 (co)

In a Colt’s Shadow – 1966 (co)

A Taste for Killing - 1966

I’ll Sell My Skin Dearly – 1967

The Moment to Kill – 1967

The Two Faces of the Dollar - 1967

15 Scaffolds for a Killer – 1968

God Will Forgive My Pistol – 1969

The Price of Power - 1969

Fistful of Lead – 1970

Have a Nice Funeral My Friend - 1970

Bullet for a Stranger – 1971

Guns for Dollars – 1971

The Return of Hallelujah - 1972

The Man Called Invincible – 1973

The crazy story of ABKCO (the company behind Blindman & Silent Stranger)

SWDB

BY AWT

July 14, 226

I thought it might be interesting to some to hear the crazy story of Allen Klein & his company ABKCO (Allen and Betty Klein Company), which still holds the rights to some spaghetti westerns and many famous music bands of the 1960s (such as the Kinks, Herman’s Hermits, the Animals, and Mick Jagger’s famous girlfriend Marianne Faithful, whose publishing rights he gained along with the pre-1971 Rolling Stones catalogue when he managed them).

He also managed the Beatles in their final years.

The company was primarily involved in the music industry, but funded spaghetti westerns as a side venture. (To be fair, since this summary will be mentioning Klein’s ruthless tactics, it should be noted that the company is now managed by Klein’s son Jody, who seems to have a different approach to business).

Allen Klein treated the music & films he owned (via ABKCO) like a rare commodity and thought they would only appreciate in value if kept rare (even long after the CD came out, many ABKCO owned hits of the 1960s were only available on Vinyl, because Klein would refuse deals to press CDs if he didn’t keep the overwhelming majority of the earnings and kept total control. Letting others profit from “his” works felt like a personal defeat to him).

He also held back some works out of pure spite, as his confrontational/litigious nature often led to feuds with studios and the talents he managed.

ABKCO holding the rights to “Blindman” is probably part of the reason why it still has no BluRay release, and why Jodorowsky’s works such as the acid-western “El Topo” were unaccessible for 30 years until Arrow managed to negotiate a 4K release (when the decades-long feud between Klein and Jodorowsky finally ended).

But let’s start at the beginning:

When I asked AI for a summary, the first sentence it came up with was “His journey from a motherless kid in a New Jersey orphanage to the most feared man in rock-and-roll is a masterclass in accounting and contract manipulation.”

(I wrote this article myself; I just used AI to help gather sources and will note wherever I quote AI).

After serving in the army, Klein started as an accountant but quickly realized the music industry was cheating their often-naive young stars out of the money they were worth. So, he approached rockabilly singers with the offer to audit their labels, in exchange for a cut of the money he recovered for them. Soon he was seen as a savior by artists, and as a threat by industry executives.

He then approached Soul icon Sam Cooke (who was being exploited by his record label), but RCA Records refused to let him audit them.

So, he created a company, Tracey Ltd (named after Cookes daughter), which leased Cooke’s future work to RCA for 30 years. However, the contract was set up so that Klein was actually the company’s owner, and Cooke an employee of his manager.

When Cooke got shot and killed in 1964, Klein bought out the remaining rights to Cooke’s catalogue from Cooke’s widow (these were the first permanent assets of future ABKCO).

He then flew to London, where he found UK artists of the British Invasion era were making very little money due to horrible contracts and high taxes.

He ended up renegotiating the contracts for bands like The Animals and Herman’s Hermits, resulting in massive cash advances, and convincing the bands to put them in NY bank accounts held by his company, and paid them in small increments over 20 years. This gave him the capital for his next, ultimate coup.

In 1965, the Rolling Stones’ young manager Andrew Oldham brought him in to help negotiate with Decca Records.

Over the next few years, Klein slowly pushed Oldham out. By the time the Stones realized what was happening, Klein had used complex contracts to transfer the master recording and the publishing rights of all their 1960s hits (from Satisfaction to Brown Sugar) directly to his company. They fired him in 1970, but after many lawsuits, he ended up walking away with their entire 1963-1971 catalogue (including hits like “Brown Sugar” or “Satisfaction”).

(Note: the last few sentences are a shortened summary of AI output).

In 1968, he bought Cameo-Parkway Records and merged its assets into the newly founded ABKCO Industries. John Lennon was impressed with his working-class demeanor and insisted on hiring him, to which Ringo Starr and George Harrison agreed, but this was the actual legal reason for the breakup of the Beatles, as Paul McCartney refused to work with Klein (having been warned by Mick Jagger not to get involved with Klein). The Beatles fired Klein in 1973, but ABKCO took a 20% cut of their earnings in their final years, and by the time he left all the band members were suing each other.

George Harrison had series of particularly bitter court battles with Klein that lasted until 1998, because Klein used knowledge gained during his time as Harrison’s manager to sue him for “unconscious plagiarism” for his single “My Sweet Lord”. During one of these lawsuits, a judge noted how “disgusting” Klein’s practices were.

BTW, George Harrison thus funded (and also played a cameo) in the 1978 TV film “The Rutles - All you need is cash” written by & starring Eric Idle (the former Monty Python comedian) and co-written/starred by Neil Innes (the Monty Python’s songwriter, often called “the 7th Python”), which parodies the story (i.e. the “Beatles Anthology” documentary) and the musical style of the Beatles brilliantly, and has guest appearances from Mick & Bianca Jagger, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Paul Simon of Simon & Garfunkel, Monty Python Michael Palin, Gwen Taylor, and Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones playing a “Hell’s Angel”.

In this film, John Belushi brilliantly plays “Ron Decline”, who’s clearly supposed to be Allen Klein, the manager “so feared his employees would rather commit suicide than meet him”.

You can find the film on YouTube btw, and also the much weaker 2002 sequel, “Can’t buy me lunch” aka The Rutles 2 (with Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, Steve Martin, Conan O’Brien, and many others).

Tony Anthony was ABKCO’s in-house movie star, and Klein used ABKCO’s deep music-industry pockets to fund and co-produce almost all of Anthony’s major projects. This included his signature “Stranger” spaghetti western trilogy (“A Stranger in Town”, “The Stranger Returns”, and “The Silent Stranger”), as well as his avant-garde 1971 drama Come Together. (And “Blindman” of course). (Note: The last 2 sentences are taken from AI).

”The Silent Stranger” was actually shelved for 7 years after its completion, because of a fallout between MGM and Klein. MGM held back “The Silent Stranger” to spite Klein.

Klein in turn had a fallout with Alejandro Jodorowsky, and shelved his works out of spite for about 30 years (films like “El Topo” were hopelessly lost to the public until Arrow re-released them in 2009).

”Blindman” seems to be the last remaining victim of this “hoarding” tactic.

When the Stones’ “Satisfaction” was blasted during the climax of the mediocre 80s Schwarzenegger action flick “Raw Deal” (which looks cheap today, but wasn’t cheap to produce), film critics at the time even joked that DEG (Dino DeLaurentis production company) likely spent more money securing the rights to “Satisfaction” from ABKCO than they did filming the actual action scene. (Note: 2nd half of sentence is AI generated).

My conclusion: In retrospective, Klein’s approach to treat the art he held rights to as a rare commodity backfired, as the astronomical fees he demanded to license the hits he held the rights to for films or other media mostly resulted in them being replaced with more reasonably priced music (unless the song was crucial to have, as in the aforementioned Raw Deal, where the song is an integral part of the scene). Hollywood may pay the price for a prominently placed Rolling Stones song in a movie, but probably much less likely for 1960s one-hit-wonders.

And once a hit is forgotten because it never gets played anywhere for licensing reasons, it’s much harder to attract new generations to the music of yesteryear’s artists than when you can’t find them on various “hits of the 1960s” compilation CDs, or hear them in various movies (like “My Generation” by The Who, or the Monkees “I’m a Believer”, which are so often played in various movies that they’ll never be forgotten).

Same goes for movies: when a film has been lost for 30 years, the old fan base has largely forgotten it, and a new fan base would have to be built from scratch.

So, by the time the son brought in a new approach, many tracks that were once famous hits were no longer relevant.

Examples of Artists/Songs that suffered this fate (AI generated list):

Chubby Checker (The Twist, Let’s Twist Again, Limbo Rock)

Bobby Rydell (Wild One, Volare)

The Orlons (The Wah-Watusi)

The Dovells (Bristol Stomp)

The Tymes (So Much in Love)

? and the Mysterians (96 Tears)

You can probably find a lot more interesting details if you read up on the story of Klein/ABKCO, but since this is such a crazy story with so many big names involved, I thought it’s worth to bring it to the attention of anyone potentially interested.

And since ABKCO was also closely tied to Tony Anthony and his spaghetti westerns, I thought this would be a story worth posting here (as the company did produce some spaghetti westerns).

I apologize if I got anything wrong (if I did, please feel free to correct me, and let me know if you want me to edit this text to correct it).

I hope this was interesting to someone, and I can strongly recommend the Rutles film to any fan of the Beatles, the Monty Python’s, or old-school British humor (it’s a criminally underrated gem that is largely unknown/forgotten, as it was just a TV film - an NBC/BBC co-production). John Belushi’s short appearances as “Ron Decline”/Allen Klein are absolutely hilarious, and Neil Innes’ parodies of Beatles music were so close to the original that John Lennon rightly warned them they’d get sued over their “Get Back” spoof “Get up and go”. I won’t go into more detail on the outrageous portrayal of Yoko Ono in the film to avoid spoilers, but that alone is worth watching it.

Voices of the Spaghetti Westerns - “Three Silver Dollars”

As we know most of the Euro-westerns were co-productions from Italy, Spain, Germany and France which incorporated British and American actors to gain a worldwide audience. The films were shot silent and then dubbed into the various languages where they were sold for distribution. That means Italian, Spanish, German, French and English voice actors were hired to dub the films. Even actors from the countries where the film was to be shown were often dubbed by voice actors for various reasons such as the actors were already busy making another film, they wanted to be paid additional salaries for dubbing their voices, the actor’s voice didn’t fit the character they were playing, accidents to the actors and in some cases even death before the film could be dubbed.

I’ll list a Euro-western and the (I) Italian, (S) Spanish, (G) German and (F) French, (E) English voices that I can find and once in a while a bio on a specific voice actor as in Europe.

Today we’ll cover “Three Silver Sollars"

[(I) Italian, (S) Spanish, (G) German, (F) French, (E) English

Allan Burton – Charles Southwood (S) Juan Lombardero, (G) Claus Jurichs

Hondo – Julian Mateos (S) Juan Carlos Ordóñez, (G) Thomas Braut

El Condor – Mirko Ellis (S) José Guardiola, (G) Wolfgang Amerbacher

Chicano - Pietro Ceccarelli (S) Luis Marín (G) Alwin Joachim Meyer

Juana – Alida Chelli (S) Delia Luna, (G) Marianne Kehlau

Luis Garcia - Ivano Staccioli (G) Victor Agramunt, (G) Alf Marholm

Juan Lombardero  (1949 -     )

Juan Lombardero Pozas is a Spanish image actor, director and dubbing actor. Lombardero made his professional debut in film and voice acting in 1974, although he had appeared in the casts of short films as early as 1972. He was a member of the María Guerrero Theatre Company and performed in plays such as “Henry IV”, “Macbeth”, and “El archiduque largo de Liechtenstein”. In film and television, you may have seen him in “Tigres de papel”, “Mujeres al borde...”, “Yo soy Bea”, “Amar es para siempre”, “El clavo de oro”, and “Arde Madrid”.

On TV he appeared in an episode of the TV series “El Pícaro” by Fernán Gómez. The episode also featured Eduardo Calvo, Juan Antonio Castro, and Fernando Sánchez Polack.

Special Birthdays

Robert de Nesle (writer, composer) would have been 120 today but died in 1978.

Isabel de Castro (actress) would have been 95 today but died in 2005.

Zvonimir Crnko (actor) would have been 90 today but died in 2008.