.Westerns...All'Italiana!

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Happy 75th Birthday Perla Cristal

Perla Cristal Lijtik was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on September 29, 1937. A star in her home country of Argentina, Pearl Crystal has managed to reach and maintain a leading and prominent place in the world of entertainment. An interpreter of remarkable intensity and magnetism a solo singer and actress, she became a regular presence and star in films and television exploiting her racial and curvaceous body, participating in both the most bizarre genre cinema at the hand of director Jesus Franco (“The Awful Dr. Orloff” (1962) “The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll” (1964) etc.) and Spaghetti westerns, and in the commercial cinema (“Búsqueme a esa chica” (1964), “Hoy como ayer” (1966), “Crónica de nueve meses” (1967), “Juicio de faldas”, “Por qué pecamos a los cuarenta” (both 1969)), and even appeared in some of the most remarkable new Spanish cinema (“Culpable para un delito” (1966) “Oscuros sueños de agosto” (1967), “Hay que matar a B,” (1975)) Although her star fell after the mid-seventies, she is still working occasionally for the small screen, and became a regular face in the glorious days of the Studio 1 and other similar dramas. Perla appeared in 7 Euro-westerns from “Ballad of a Bounty Hunter” 1965 to “Dust in the Sun” (1973). Today we celebrate Perla Cristal’s 75^th birthday.

Happy 100th Birthday Lukas Ammann!

Lukas Ammann was born in Basel, Switzerland on September 29, 1912. The son of a singer and a painter he attended Max Reinhardt’s acting school in Berlin after high school and went into the theater in 1933. Then he appeared first in St. Gallen, and the Schauspielhaus in Zurich. After the war Ammann joined the ensemble of the theater "Kleine Freiheit" in Munich. He appeared in guest performances and tours which took him to stages in Austria, Scandinavia and the U.S.A..

In 1939, Ammann made his first film appearance in the Swiss thriller “Sergeant Studer”, based on the novel by Friedrich Glauser. From the 1950s on he was mainly seen on German television series. In 1961, he starred in the series,” Serie Gestatten, mein Name ist Cox” with Günter Pfitzmann, Ellen Schwiers and Paul Edwin Roth. In 1963, he was one of the jurors in Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose. 1966 found Ammann playing in Germany's first color television series “Adrian der Tulpendieb” and additional appearances in series such as “Das Kriminalmuseum”, “Die fünfte Kolonne”, “Der Forellenhof” and “Der Kommissar”. In 1967 he appeared in his only Euro-western “Day of Anger” as Judge Cutchell, starring Lee Van Cleef and Giuliano Gemma. In 1973 he was in the horror film “Hexen – geschändet und zu Tode gequält”.

Ammann found great popularity from 1967 in the title role in the soon to reach cult status, long-lived series “Graf Yoster gibt sich die Ehre” in which he played an aristocratic amateur detective and crime writer. From 1994 to 2000 Ammann was successful in the role of the head of the family in “Die Fallers” a television series. In 1998 he played in Dani Levy’s movie “Meschugge” about alleged Holocaust survivors. In 2005, the then 92-year-old played the title role in Micha Lewinsky's film “Herr Goldstein”, which was honored at the Locarno Film Festival for Best Swiss Short Film.

As a voice actor Lukas lent his voice to such actors as Peter Sellers and Lucky Luke in the film comic book adaptation of 1971.

Today Lukas Ammann lives in retirement in Munich, Germany where he is celebrating his 100^th birthday.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Guess Who I Am

I’m an Italian actor born in 1943 in Montelepre, Italy.

I appeared in 7 Euro-westerns from 1967 to 1972.

My son is also an actor.

Guess who I am.

Bill Connolly, John Nudge and an Anonymous poster both named Antonio Sabato as this week's photo.

2nd Annual Almeria Film Festival

The legacy of the western film returns to Almeria at the Almeria Western Film Festival from October 11 to 13, 2012. Tabernas is the hard ground that reflected the spaghetti western and is host of the 2^nd annual festival, which this year has nine films in competition and will also be screening several classics of the genre.

Among the nine films in competition is a strong presence of titles coming from outside of Spain, demonstrating the interest in the gender worldwide, with American, Spanish, Brazilian and French productions

The Festival will also feature a number of activities such as the screening of classic spaghetti westerns outdoors, shorts, retrospectives, panel discussions and tributes to important figures of the genre. In addition the closing party will be held at Fort Bravo where the music and performances and will all be free.

Festival co-director, Cesar Mendez, announced the five members of the jury, which will consist of actors Dan Van Husen, Gianni Garko and Antonio Mayans, journalist and writers Carlos Aguilar and his wife Anita Hass.

Deputy of Culture, Maria Vazquez, noted the importance of the Festival "It retrieves a genre that has been located in the province of Almeria and is one of the most important international film locations." The MP stressed the importance of this initiative and that "not only has an impact on the film scene but also in the tourism in this sector of the province."