Spaghetti Western Podcast Season 9, Episode 8 #148

 

Please join me today for another episode of The Spaghetti Western Podcast. We’ll cover in our ongoing series of the History of the Spaghetti Western the 1966 film “In a Colt’s Shadow” starring Stephen Forsyth and Conrado San Matin. Then we’ll discover who stunt actors and actors the Zamperla brothers are. Also, in Whatever Happened to I’ll talk about Sancho Gracia. The Film of the Week is “A Bullet for SAndova” starring George Hilton and Ernest Borgnine. I’ll cover the LP/CDs of the week that go with these films. We’ll have a book of the week, some posters and an autograph to show. Unfortunately, the News of the Week includes a large Boot Hill section So please join me at high noon today PST as we kick off another interesting season of podcasts.

From the WAI! vault

 

Little Known Spaghetti Western actors ~ Jean Pierre Clarain

[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.]

Jean Pierre Clarain is/was a French character actor. He appeared in thirteen films between 1967 and 1980. I can find no biographical information on him.

Among those films were four Spaghetti westerns: “Buon funerale amigos... paga Sartana” (Have a Nice Funeral My Friend) in 1970 as one of the Piggot brothers, “La Spacconata” (White Fang and the Gold Diggers) in 1974 as Smitty, “Keoma” in 1975 as Farrow and “Zanna Bianca e il cacciatore solitario” (White Fang and the Hunter) in 1975.

CLARAIN, Jean Pierre [French] – film actor.

Have a Nice Funeral My Friend – 1970 (Piggot brother)

White Fang and the Gold Diggers – 1974 (Smitty)

Keoma – 1975 (Farrow)

White Fang and the Hunter – 1975 (trapper)

10 Miles to Bisbee

 

10 Miles to Bisbee

 

10 Miles to Bisbee – International title

 

A 2014 Spanish short film production [ESCAC Films (Madrid)]

Producers: Sergi Casamitjana, Anna Salgado

Director: Oriol Rigata

Story: Pol Cortecans, Oriol Rigata

Scrennplay: Pol Cortecans, Oriol Rigata

Cinematography: Oriol Barcelona (Uri Barcelona) [color]

Music: Javier Gimeno (Javier Bayon)

Running time: 13 minutes

 

Cast:

Dom - Nikola Stojanovic

Sergio Juárez - Ricardo Mestres

Bob - Bruno Sevilla

Two street vendors, Dom & Bob, set out on the hunt and capture of a dangerous bandit, putting their lives and friendship on the line.

Who Are Those Singers & Musicians ~ Katrina Ranieri

 

Katrina Ranieri (Caterina Ranieri) she was born on August 31, 1925, in Follonica, Grosseto, Italy she was an actress, songwriter and singer. She was married to an aviation officer named Eusepio Sternini (1944-1964) and the mother of Ernesto Sternini. She then was married to composer, conductor, songwriter, actor Riz Ortolani (Riziero Ortolani) [1926–2014] from 1964-2014. She was the mother of production manager Rizia Ortolani born in 1966. Katrina died in Rome on September 2, 2018, at the age of 93. She sang the main theme song “Johnny West” in 1965’s “Left-Handed Johnny West” starring Dick Palmer and “How Much You Miss Me” in the 1967 Spaghetti western “Beyond the Law” starring Lee Van Cleef and Antonio Sabato

RANIERI, Katrina (aka Benjamin, Mae Kroville, Rina Ranieri, Katyna Ranieri) (Caterina Ranieri) [8/31/1925, Follonica, Grosseto, Italy – 9/2/2018, Rome, Lazio, Italy] – actress, singer, songwriter, married to aviation officer Eusepio Sternini (1944-1964) mother of Ernesto Sternini, married to composer, conductor, songwriter, actor Riz Ortolani (Riziero Ortolani) [1926–2014] (1964-2014) mother of production manager Rizia Ortolani [1966-    ].

Johnny West – 1965 [sings “Johnny West”]

Beyond the Law – 1967 [sings “How Much You Miss Me” as Katyna Ranieri]

Special Birthdays

Ramón Torrado (director, writer) would have been 120 today but died in 1990.

Armando Acosta (actor) would have been 100 today but died in 1976.

Gianni Rizzo (actor) would have been 100 today but died in 1992.

Giovanni Cianfriglia (actor) would have been 90 today but died in 2024.

Bruno Zambrini (writer, composer) is 90 today.

Gianfranco Barra (actor) would have been 85 today but died in 2025.

Dominique Darel (actress) would have been 75 today but died in 1978. 

Spaghetti Western Trivia – 1977 “Canada Dry Ginger Ale” Commercial

 

I discovered this amazing 30-second Canada Dry Ginger Ale commercial from 1977.  What a cast!  Aldo Ray, Broderick Crawford, and Jack Palance!  I don’t remember it, so it might have aired only in the U.S.  The exteriors of the first two scenes look like they were shot in California.

Broderick had just hosted ‘Saturday Night Live’ earlier that same year.  While Oscar winners Broderick Crawford and especially Jack Palance made several spaghetti westerns, even Golden Globe-nominated Aldo Ray made at least one macaroni war movie: “Suicide Commando” (1968).

At first, I thought Jack was imitating Dr. Fu Manchu (over a decade later, Harry Alan Towers announced Jack for that role in a project that was unfortunately unrealized).  Yet, on second viewing, I realized that he was reprising his 1954 role as Attila the Hun from “Sign of the Pagan!”  I’d really like to see that Douglas Sirk picture, which was apparently Universal-International’s first film in CinemaScope (in the unusual 2:55 aspect ratio).

You Tube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fQhvtiqL0c

 [submitted by David Shaw, Michael Ferguson]