Spaghetti Western Locations

Continuing with locations from "Duck You Sucker". After the passengers from the stagecoach have been robbed and humiliated by having them remove their clothes they are loaded onto a wagon and sent off and dumped in a pig wallow. This location is at the edge of the remains of the station and is next to the shale and gravel hillside you traversed from the service road to reach the site next to highway A-92.

For a more detailed view of this site and other Spaghetti Western locations please visit my friend Yoshi ‘Garringo’ Yasuda’s excellent website:  http://y-yasuda.net/

Guess Who I Am

I was more famous as an American dancer then a film actor. Guess who I am.

I was born in 1914 and passed away in 2003. Guess who I am.

Fatman correctly guessed this week's photo as that of Archie Savage.

RIP Frances Bay

Frances Bay, who found success as a character actress in middle age playing grandmother roles in the Adam Sandler movie "Happy Gilmore" and on TV's "Happy Days," died Thursday, according to her agent, Brian McCabe. She was 92. Bay, a Canadian from Winnipeg, Manitoba, who spent much of her life as a housewife, fulfilled her desire to become an actress in the 1970s, when she was in her mid-50s. Her first movie role came in the 1976 Goldie Hawn-Chevy Chase comedy "Foul Play," and she began a string of TV guest roles on "The Jeffersons," "The Dukes of Hazzard" and as Fonzie's grandmother on "Happy Days." She also played the "marble rye lady" on "Seinfeld" and acted in several David Lynch films, starting with "Blue Velvet." Bay appeared in the French, Canadian TV co-production "By Way of the Stars" (1992) as Annie Pyle

Happy 90th Birthday Siro Marcellini

Siro Marcellini was born on September 16, 1921 in Genzano, Italy. He started out as a theater director before directing his first film "Siamo ricchi e poveri" in 1954. He would go on to direct another eleven films, writing screenplays for seven films, and was the assistant director on three films. He also worked in TV and radio and made several documentary films. He used the pseudonyms Omar Hopkins and Sean Markson. Siro was involved in three Euro-westerns "Man of the Cursed Valley" (1964) as director, "Two Violent Men" (1964) assistant director and "Black Tigress" (1967) as director and screenwriter. Today we celebrate Siro Marcellini’s 90^th birthday.

I'LL SELL MY SKIN DEARLY

Vendo cara la pelle - Italian title
Vendo caro minha pele - Brazilian title
Ja vends cher ma peau - French title
Vendo cara la piel - Spanish title
Zum Abschied noch ein Totenhemd - German title
Thavo zontanous apo ekdikisi - Greek title
O filho de Shane - Portuguese title
Idamdan kacanlar - Turkish title
The Hangman’s Tree - English title
I’ll Sell My Skin Dearly - U.S.A. title

A 1967 Italian production [Cinemar (Rome)]
Producer: Carlo Valerio
Director: Mike Fitzgerald (Ettore Fizzarotti)
Story: Giovanni Simonelli
Screenplay: Giovanni Simonelli, Ettore Fizzarotti
Cinematography: Stelvio Massi [Eastmancolor]
Music: Enrico Ciacci, Marcello Marrocchi
Song: "Come se fosse gia’ autunno" sung by Nico & The Seagulls (Nico e i Gabbiani)
Running time: 100 minutes

Cast:
Shane - Mike Marshall (Michael Marshall)
Father Dominique Magdalena - Grant Laramy (Germano Longo)
Georgiana Bennett - Michèle Girardon
Kristian Bennett - Valerio Bartoleschi
Ralph Magdalena - Dane Savours
Benson - Spean Convery (Spartaco Conversi)
Carl - Furio Meniconi
Charles - Paolo Magalotti
Pedro Gonzales - Serafino Profumo
Monco - Ake Wahl

Ralph Magdalena, his brother Dominique and two other men kill old John Shane along with his wife and daughter, in order to steal his mine. A few years later the young Shane, the only survivor returns to avenge his loved ones. He eliminates the two accomplices of the Magdalena brothers, with the help of Stumpy, a man who has his own problem with Ralph. Wounded in the leg, Shane heals with the help of the widow Georgiana Bennett and her son Kristian. Ralph Magdalena, who learns from Stumpy the return of Shane, tries to appeal to the young man by setting a trap and, to be able to strike without risking being shot, he uses Georgiana and Kristian as hostages. Shane, however, manages to kill all the Ralph’s henchmen and liberate Georgiana. Ralph carrying little Kristian, flees and goes to the convent in which lives his brother Dominique, who became a monk for the repentance of the crime he committed. Entrusting him with Kristian he promises to leave the area forever. Shane, however, catches Ralph and kills him. Dominique is shot by his brother and dies. Now Shane, Mrs. Bennett and Kristian will be able to form a new family together.

You Tube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfz2YGKSrM0

Who are Those Guys? - Gérard Barray

Gérard Marcel Louis Baraillé was born on November 2, 1931 in Toulouse, France. His father, originally from Mazamet, was an engineer of arts and crafts and ran a factory in Toulouse. His mother was born at Montauban and was a graduate in French, Latin and Greek language with a BA. His parents divorced shortly after Gérard’s birth and his mother decided to return to Montauban with her son. She studied to become a midwife and then managed a maternity hospital. Around the age of 15 Gérard discovered jazz and developed a deep passion for the music that has never faded away. He participated in a few nightclub shows while pursuing his studies and received a bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Toulouse. He then studied medicine wanting to become a physician and obstetrician. He had hoped to succeed his mother as head of the maternity clinic but was not motivated enough to follow through. His tastes drifted more towards drama and comedy. He took the advice of actress Camille Ricard who had become a professor at the Conservatory of Toulouse and advised him to go to Paris with a letter of recommendation for one of her friends, Noël Roquevert who put him in a few scenes on the Roquevert theatrical tour. Afterwards he was accepted at the Cours Simon and four years later won the Jury Prize. He became a leading man succeeding Jean Marais and became famous for his role as D’Artagnan in "The Three Musketeers" (1961) and as Commissaire San Antonio in 1968's "Sale temps pour les mouches". Now known as Gérard Barray he married actress Theresa Lorca [1943- ] in 1965 when the couple met and appeared in Barray’s only Euro-westerns "Pyramid of the Sun Gods" and "The Treasure of the Aztecs". Still active, Barray last appeared on TV in the 2006 series "El comisario". He was appointed an Office in the French Order of Arts and Letters in January 2010.

BARRAY, Gérard (aka G. Barray) (Gérard Marcel Louis Baraillé) [11/2/1931, Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, Midi-Pyrenees, France - ] - stage, TV actor awarded Officer in Order of Arts and Letters [2010].Pyramid of the Sun Gods - 1965 (Count Alfonso di Rodriganda y Sevilla)
The Treasure of the Aztecs - 1965 (Count Alfonso di Rodriganda y Sevilla)

RIP Alvaro Mancori

I found out today that producer, production manager, director, screenwriter and cinematographer Alvaro Mancori passed away on June 24, 2011. There were no obituaries in the Italian press. Alvaro was born in Rome on September 15, 1923 and was the brother of cinematographers Guglielmo Mancori [1927- ] and Sandro Mancori [1933-2009]. Alvaro was the cinematographer on over 50 films from 1940 until 1966. He started his career in the Golden Age of Italian Cinema in 1940 as a studio technician. In 1941 he became an assistant cameraman and in 1946 he was the lead cameraman on "Come scopersi l’America" by Carlo Borghesio. He became a regular on the Toto films and was the cinematographer on a dozen of the comedian’s films. In 1963 Alvaro created Elios studios where one of the major Italian western sets was built. He became a director in 1964 and directed both "Hercules the Invincible" and "Racconti a due piazze" (1965). Alvaro participated in four Euro westerns as a producer and cinematographer "The Magnificent Brutes of the West" (1964) and "The Tramplers" (1965) and producer on "Run, Man, Run" (1968) and "Bastard Go and Kill" (1971).  For sure one of the instrumental players in the Euro-western.

[Pictured above is Mancori on the left with Pier Paolo Pasolini]