.Westerns...All'Italiana!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

KILLER KID

Killer Kid – Italian title

Killer Kid – French title

Chamaco – German title

Oi kataramenoi – Greek title

Huracan sobre Mexico – Spanish title

Captain Morrison – English title

Killer Kid – English title

A 1967 Italian production [G.V. Cinematografica (Rome)]

Producer: Elsio Mancuso

Director: Leopoldo Savona

Story: Sergio Garrone, Ottavio Poggi, Leopoldp Savona

Screenplay: Sergio Garrone, Ottavio Poggi, Leopoldp Savona

Cinematography: Sandro Mancuso (Alessandro Mancuso) [Eastmancolor, CinemaScope]

Music: Berto Pisano

Running time: 103 minutes

Cast:

Scott/Captain Morrison/Chamaco/Killer Kid – Anthony Steffen (Antonio de Teffe)

Vilar – Fernando Sancho (Fernando Les)

Mercedes Hernandez – Liz Barrett (Luisa Baratto)

Ramirez – Ken Wood (Giovanni Cianfriglia)

Dolores – Virgin Darwal (Virginia Darwell)

Barnes – Tom Felleghy (Tamás Fellegi)

Captain Garrison – Fedele Gentile

El Santo – Nelson Rubien (Howard Rubien)

Pablo – Yorgo Voyagis

Ortiz – Domenico Cianfriglia

Commander – Consalvo Dell’Arti

Ramirez henchman – Ugo Adinolfi

Chico - Bruno Arié

with: Macchi Valentino (Valentino Macchi), Adriano Vitale

Captain Morris of the United States Army is ordered to break an illegal arms trafficking between his country and Mexican revolutionaries. To move through the ranks of the rebels, the man assumes the identity of a feared gunman, Killer Kid. Morrison becomes involved with Mercedes Hernandez and he begins to see the real reason for the uprising by the peons against the Mexican government. He turns his back on his mission and joins the revolutionaries.

YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl-zUNPqnlA

Happy 65th Birthday Sir Christopher Frayling

Sir Christopher Frayling was born on December 25, 1946 in England. Chris read history at Churchill College, Cambridge and gained a PhD in the study of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He was appointed a Fellow of the college in 2009. He taught history at the University of Bath and was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Arts) from that University in 2003. In 1979 Frayling was appointed Professor of Cultural History at London's post-graduate art and design school, the Royal College of Art. Frayling was Rector in charge of the Royal College of Art from 1996 to 2009. He was the Chairman of Arts Council England from 2005 until January 2009. Frayling has also been Chairman of the Design Council, Chairman of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee, and a Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum. He was a governor of the British Film Institute in the 1980s.

In 2001, Christopher Frayling was awarded a knighthood for "Services to Art and Design Education" and chose as his motto "PERGE SCELUS MIHI DIEM PERFICIAS", which can be translated as "Proceed, varlet, and let the day be rendered perfect for my benefit". He wished to suggest the well-known phrase attributed to Police Inspector Harry Callahan in the movie Sudden Impact: "Go ahead, punk, make my day". (The role of Callahan was played by Clint Eastwood.) Christopher Frayling has written several books on Spaghetti Westerns, Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood. Chris has been a friend and inspiration for me since I was co-editor of Westerns… All’Italiana! fanzine in 1982. Today we celebrate Sir Christopher Frayling’s 65^th birthday.

YouTube link: http://www.bfi.org.uk/live/video/266

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Anita Ekberg destitute after home fire.

Rome: Anita Ekberg, the Swedish blond who famously cavorted in Rome`s

Trevi Fountain in the 1960 Federico Fellini classic ‘La Dolce Vita’,

is destitute and asking for help.

Ekberg, 80, has been living in a care home near Rome for the past

three months after she broke her thighbone in a fall. She hasn`t

returned to her apartment which was robbed of furniture and jewelry.

A fire has rendered it unfit for habitation, according her accountant,

Massimo Morais, who was appointed to help manage her affairs.

Morais has written to the Fellini Foundation of Rimini appealing for

financial help and posted on the Foundation`s Facebook page.

"We ask the Foundation to help share with other benefactors that

possibility, however modest, to help a good actress," Morais said in

the letter. "A small present is always a big gift."

Ekberg`s iconic role saw her act opposite Italian Marcello

Mastroianni. Playing dreamy American movie star with only the first

name Sylvia, donning an elegant evening dress she calls out "Marcello,

come here. Hurry up", beckoning Mastroianni`s philandering character

Marcello Rubini to join her in the 17th century Baroque fountain.

Starring in more than 20 movies, including "Abbott and Costello Go to

Mars", 1953 and "War and Peace" 1956, she was married twice and

romantically linked to Mastroianni, Frank Sinatra and Gary Cooper.

Prior to film stardom, curvy Ekberg was a popular pinup girl and won

the Miss Sweden contest in 1950.

"She would dearly love to go home but the fact is she can`t as she

does not have the money to restore the house where she lives which was

damaged in the fire," Morais said.

"She also has no family to help look after her and lives on her own.

That`s why she is asking the Foundation for help."

The Rimini, Italy-based Fellini Foundation, founded in 1995, said it

plans to hold an event for Ekberg but has not yet worked out the

details.

"I feel a bit alone," Ekberg told Italian newspaper Corriere della

Sera in a September interview to commemorate her 80th birthday. "But I

have no regrets. I`ve loved, cried, been crazy with happiness."

Speaking of the movie that launched her into the pantheon of screen

icons, she said, "It was 1960. A lifetime ago."

Spaghetti Western Locations

Continuing locations for “Duck You Sucker”. After Juan and his family arrive in Mesa Verde they witness a man shot at the railroad station and he dies in Juan’s arms. Juan notices how much the town has changed with military troops everywhere. He and the family witness an execution of three revolutionaries against a wall in the city. The wall and the road behind it are located in Gaudix and are on the opposite or back side of the cathedral which Juan sees after departing the train. The wall is located on Placeta Santiago and as you can see looks the same as it appeared in the film.

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

Remembering Carlo Rustichelli

Carlo Rustichelli was born on December 24, 1916 in Carpi, Modena, Italy. He became one of the most prolific film composers in Italy from the end of the 1930s until the mid-'90s, his work was represented in more than 250 movies. Carlo studied piano and composition at the Academia Filarmonica in Bologna, and later at the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome. He began his career in music as a composer in the fields of opera and theater music, and began writing film music in 1939. He worked in movies intermittently during the early '40s, though Rustichelli wasn't closely involved in motion pictures on a steady basis for another nine years. It was his work for director Pietro Germi, on such movies as “In Nome Della Legge” (1949) and “Il Cammino Della Speranza” (1950) that altered the course of Rustichelli's career. They were both so pleased with the results of their early collaborations that Germi insisted on engaging Rustichelli for further projects, and the composer soon discovered that he could be astonishingly prolific. Over the next 50 years, he scored hundreds of movies, ranging from Sword and Sandal, Action Adventure, Spaghetti Westerns and serious subjects from Dramas to Saucy Comedies. Carlo scored 19 Euro-westerns from “Buffalo Bill in the Far West” (1965) to “Red Coat” (1975). Rustichelli is the father of actress Alida Chelli [1943- ]. Carlo died on November 13, 2004 in Rome. Today we remember Carlo Rustichelli on what would have been his 95^th birthday.