Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Eugenia Capela

[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.]

Eugenia is/was a Romanian costume designer who appeared in at least one film and that was the 1978 Euro-western “Artista, dolarii şi ardelenii in Romanian” (The Actress, the Dollars and the Transylvanians) in an uncredited role.

I can find no biographical information about her.

CAPELA, Eugenia [Romanian] – costume designer, film actress.

The Actress, the Dollars and the Transylvanians – 1978

A new German Blu-ray, DVD release of “Matalo”

 

“Matalo”

(Bad Man’s River)

(1971)

 

Director: Eugenio Martin

Starring: Lee Van Cleef, Gina Lollobrigida, James Mason, Gianni Garko

 

Country: Germany

Label: Hansesound / Lighthouse

Discs: 1

Blu-ray, DVD

Resolution: 1080p widescreen

Languages: German, English

Subtitles: None

Running time: 92 minutes

Extras: Reversible cover, trailer

ASIN: ‎B0D6WFVBYX

Available: September 13, 2024

50th Anniversary of the Premier of “Carambola”

 

Today marks the 5oth anniversary of the premier of “Carambola”. Directed by Ferdinando Baldi and starring Michael Coby and Paul Smit it tells the story of  Coby (Michael Coby) an ex-soldier and billiard champion. He and his friend Len Rothman (Paul Smith) accept the sum of $50,000 dollars to investigate the trafficking of arms across the Mexican border. However, the film takes a twist when the pair come across a new, revolutionary revolver. The film set off a number of Bud Spencer and Terence Hill look alike movies starring Coby and Smith.This film was followed by a sequel “The Crazy Adventures of Len and Coby”. After Bud Spencer turned down the role of Bluto in Robin Williams 1980 movie “Popeye” Paul Smith was offered and accepted the rôle.

 

Carambola – Italian title

Carambola – Brazilian title

Mon nom est Trinita – Belgium title

Caramba-veljekset – Finnish title

Si ce n’est toi…c’est donc ton frere – French title

Vier Fäuste schlagen wieder zu – German title

Nos llaman Carambola – Spanish title

Carambola! – Slår alltid först – Swedish title

Karambol – Turkish title

Strange Adventures of Coby and Ben – English title

Carambola – English title

 

A 1973 Italian film production [B.R.C., Aetos (Rome)]

Producer: Manolo Bolognini

Director: Ferdinando Baldi

Story: Nico Ducci, Mino Roli

Screenplay: Ferdinando Baldi, Nico Ducci, Mino Roli(Erminio Pontiroli)

Cinematography: Aiace Parolin [Eastmancolor, CinemaScope]

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

     Songs: “You Can Fly”, “Milk Serenade” sung by Dreambags

Running time: 100 minutes

 

Cast:

Coby/Toby/Trinity - Michael Coby (Antonio Cantafora)

Clem/Ben/Lynn/Butch/Len Rothman - Paul Smith

Kelly - William Bogart (Guglielmo Spoletini)

Captain Howard Johnson - Luciano Catenacci

Lieutenant Stevens - Remo De Angelis

Clydeson - Horst Frank

Sheriff - Pino Ferrara

Professor Max Lager - Franco Fantasia (Francesco Fantasia)

Mexican revolutionary - Pedro Sanchez (Ignacio Spalla)

Roger - Pietro Ceccarelli

Laredo merchant – Lina Franchi

Clydeson henchmen - Nello Pazzafini (Giovanni Pazzafini), Elio Bonadonna, Artemio

     Antonini, Enrico Chiappafreddo, Roberto Dell Acqua, Wladimiro Daddi (Wladimir

     Daddi), Roberto Messina, Giovanni Bonadonna, Sergio Testori

Howard's assistants - Pietro Torrisi, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Fred Robsahm

Bartender - Benjamin Lev

Tug-o’-war brawler – Angelo Susani, Claudio Ruffini

Tug-o’-war observer – Paolo Sceusan

Indian – Giglio Gigli (Pio Giglio)

Pamela - Melissa Chimenti (Maria Chimenti)

billiard player - Gaetano Russo

Billiard bookmaker - Mike Morris (Horst Weinert)

Billiard spectator - Angelo Boscariol

Saloon bouncer – Armando Bottin

Townsman – Marcello Meconizzi

With: Luigi Antonio Guerra

Special Birthdays

Maurice Jarre (composer) would have been 100 today but died in 2009.

Elio Angelucci (actor) would have been 90 today but died in 2019.

Mike Marshall (actor) would have been 80 today but died in 2005.

Keith Neubert (actor) is 55 today.

RIP Kenneth Cope

 

RIP Kenneth Cope Veteran British theater, film and television actor Kenneth Cope died at his home in the northern seaside town of Southport in Sefton, Liverpool on September 11^th. He was 93. Born Kenneth Charles Kope on June 14, 1931, in Liverpool. He was an “incredible icon of British TV and film.” Cope and Renny Lister, his wife of 63 years, met in 1961 when they both joined the cast of long-running ITV soap ‘Coronation Street’. He played petty crook Jed Stone as a semi-regular through the early and mid-1960s. He later returned to the role after an absence of 42 years. The 1960s proved to be a breakthrough decade for him with the double whammy of him playing in ‘Coronation Street’ and, starting in 1962, he spent a year appearing with David Frost, Millicent Martin, Roy Kinnear, David Kernan, Willie Rushton, and Lance Percival on ‘This Was The Week That Was’, a seminal late-night satirical show that aimed its sharp wit at the establishment. Cope appeared in the Euro-western “The Desperados” in 1969 as Carlin and also played the role of Percy ‘Jesse’ James on the British TV western takeoff series ‘Bootle Saddles’.

Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Dirk Capel

[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.]

Dirk Capel was born in Sweden on August 7, 1923. He was a regular for the Dutch Rex Films between 1944 and 1964. For Henk van der Linden he appeared in 21 films for Rex Films and 7 for van der Linden. 

His only Euro-western was for the Dutch children’s western “De jongen uit het wilde westen” (Adventures in the Wild West) in 1963 as the outlaw leader.

In 19993 while vacationing in the United States Dirk was a survivor of the Amtrak’s Sunset Limited train wreck in Saraland, Alabama. The train was traveling from Los Angeles, California to Miami, Florida. Capel had slipped off his shoes to get comfortable for the overnight leg of his journey. He lost his luggage, money, passport and tickets in the wreckage. By day’s end, he was wearing Red Cross-donated sneakers. The nightmarish wreck occurred at 3 a.m. just minutes after the train’s had left the Mobile, Alabama station. Upon crossing 500 foot long bridge built in 1909 the train’s locomotives plunged off the bridge and exploded one of the passenger cars was swallowed by the water of Bayou Canot and a second car was partially submerged. 41 victims were pulled from the water. Another seven were pulled from the wreckage the following day.

Dirk died sometime in 2010 at the age of 87.

CAPEL, Dirk [8/7/1923 – 2010] – film actor.

Adventures in the Wild West – 1963 (outlaw leader)

“A Vampire’s Tale”

 

Umbrage – British title

A Vampire’s Tale – International title

 

Umbrage: The First Vampire – UK

Umbrage: The First Vampire – Australian title

Vampir – German title

 吸血鬼 - Japanese title

The First Vampire – English title

 

A 2009 British film production [Motion Picture House (London)]

Producers: Rupert Bryan, Yoram Halberstam, Francis Wallinger, Drew Cullingham,

     Charlie Falconer

Director: Drew Cullingham

Story: Drew Cullingham

Screenplay: Drew Cullingham

Cinematography: James Friend [color]

Music: Captain Bliss, Huskie Jack

Running time: 94 minutes

 

Cast:

Jacob – Doug Bradley

Rachel - Rita Ramnani

Phelan – Jonnie Hurn

Lilith – Natalia Celino

Lauren - Grace Vallorani (Kylie Maron-Vallorani)

Stanley – James Fisher

Travis - Scott Thomas (Scott North)

Adam - Yoram Halberstam

Older Adam - Yoram Halberstam

Sammaelson Aj Williams

Stunt coordinator: Dominic Kinnaird

Jacob (Doug Bradley) is an antiques dealer who sets off with his new young and pregnant wife Lauren (Grace Vallorani) and his stepdaughter, Rachel (Rita Ramnani) to a forest homestead in a hopeful effort to heal bonds between feuding family members. He also carries a large, mysterious and ancient Babylonian mirror, smuggled out of the Middle East, which he plans to sell for profit. Lilith (Natalie Celino), a sultry ornithologist appears out of a bird hide by a noisy pair of friends hiking through the woods. Gaining their confidence, she and one of the men, Travis (Scott North) go into the woods for a quick tryst, but immediately there is a blood curdling scream. The other camper, Stanley (James Fisher), rushes toward the sound and finds his friend mutilated and near dead. Near Travis, Lilith explains to Stanley that the shadows had come to life and attacked them, and the two set off to seek help. When they end up at Jacob's cabin, the entire group comes under attack by supernatural forces of darkness. Rachel discovers Irish cowboy Phelan (Jonnie Hurn) hanging out in their barn. Phelan is a vampire and himself a former vampire hunter. He tells Rachel that the real danger to everyone is Lilith, and explains how Lilith had been Adam's willful first wife who, since having been exiled from the Garden of Eden, had been spawning demonic offspring in the world of man. Considered the mother to the Succubi, ruler of shadows, slaughterer of children, and consort to the devil himself, she had been re-awakened by, and drawn to the location of, the occult power inherent in the mirror carried by Jacob. Phelan has been harboring a centuries-long grudge against her for she having "turned" him 120 years earlier, and he had been tracking her for decades, equipped with the one relic that might finally kill her... a bone splinter from the rib of Adam himself.

 

Trailer link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9pQGN_3EzA