Happy 80th Birthday Yvonne Bastien

Yvonne Bastién was born on September 17, 1933 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the daughter of a French father and Spanish mother. At thirteen she attended the National Conservatory and studied voice hoping to become an opera singer. She then studied drama at the Teatro Experimental in Buenos Aires under the direction of Josefina Díaz and Manuel Collado. In Argentina she acted under the pseudonym Yvonne de Lys and appeared in several film. Bastién then met Antonio Román [1911-1989] at a party and had a brief relationship with the director during the production of “Último día” (1952) and then returned to Argentina marrying Héctor Julio Díaz the Transportation Minister under Dictator Juan Domingo Perón before the military coup of 1955. Her husband was imprisoned by the new rulers and died there in 1956.

 
Yvonne moved to Spain and stuck up a new relationship with Román. The two were married in 1958. Yvonne was happy to stay home and raise Román’s two boys. In 1961 she appeared in Román’s film “La moglie di mio marito”. Antonio Román was a friend and protégé of director Mario Bava and talked Bava into using Yvonne in his 1963 western “Apache Fury” in a bit role. Yvonne also appeared in “A Gunman Called Nebraska” (1966) originally directed by Román but was fired for his slow pace and replaced by Bava. Her last film appearance was in 1972’s “Trappola per sette spie”. When Román died in 1989 Yvonne returned to her singing career recording solo as well as a duet album with Nino Nardini. Eventually she returned home to Argentina where she continues to sing and record. Her latest CD being released in 2010 called Yvonne Bastién Volume 2.
 
Today we celelbrate Yvonne Bastién’s 80^th birthday.

RIP Jimmy Herman

Native actor Jimmy Herman, who rose to prominence with a role in the Academy Award-Winning film “Dances with Wolves”, died in Edmonton September 13, 2013. He was 72.

Born on the Cold Lake Reserve, Herman attended a residential school and battled alcohol before taking up aboriginal studies at Grant MacEwan College and going to work for the Native Counseling Services of Alberta.

In 1989, he decided to pursue performing arts and a year later was cast as a Sioux warrior in Kevin Costner's epic film, a portrayal that launched a distinguished career.

The son of a fur trapper who lived off the land in northeastern Alberta, Herman appeared in numerous movies and television programs over the last two decades, including a 10-year stint as Joe Gomba - a fur trapper - in the CBC series North of 60. He was also cast in the film Reindeer Games, had a cameo role in Clint Eastwood's Oscar-winning western Unforgiven, played Geronimo in a made-for-cablemovie and appeared on the X-Files.

Jimmy appeared in seven Euro-westerns: “Phantom Town” (1997), “Gunslinger’s Revenge” and 'Winnetou Returns' (TV) (both 1998)  “The Claim” (1999) , “Grey Owl” (2000), ‘Johnson County War’ (TV) (2002), DreamKeeper (TV) – 2003

New Film Release

A new western film, starring non-actors, shot in the mines and forests, former prisons and landscapes of Pietrasanta. The director of the short film "The Green Furies" is 19 year old Diego Bonucelli, Pietrasanta resident with a huge passion for film. Horse chases, shootouts, saloon, the good and the bad, with a sheriff and an outlaw always on the border between good and evil: Bonucelli, with infinite attention to detail, is staging a film that, in all likelihood, is destined to be a leader in the coming festivals dedicated to short the film genre. For those wishing to learn more can go to The Green Furies Facebook page.

The Green Furies – English title

 
A 2012 production [Goodbird Films (Pietrasanta)]
Producer: Diego Bonuccelli
Director: Diego Bonuccelli
Story: Diego Bonuccelli
Screenplay: Diego Bonuccelli
Cinematography: Diego Bonuccelli [color]
Music: Fabrizio Pala
Running time: 40 minutes
 
Cast:
Fhloston Flanagan – Markus Goodbirds (Marco Bonuccelli)
Porter Murphy – R. W. Columbini (Robert Walter Columbini)
Miller – Marco Bonuccelli
Tommy – Tomasso Bonuccelli
Penn Blackwater – Cesare Tarabella
With: Cesare Paccoman Poli, Alessandro Biagi, Fabrizio Palla, Lora Anita Santini, Antonio Meccheri, Mariaclara Nardini, Tessa Nardini Lorenzo Bertolaccini, Karla Seahands, Antonio Susy Meccheri, Fabrizio Palla, Laura Togni, Diego Bonuccelli, Silvia Federigi, Stefania Neri, Roberto Panichi, Silvia Stronati, Lawrence Thomas Martinelli, Marty Maffei, Laura Esme Brocchini, Marisa Savino, Tommasso Del Signore, Francesco Andreozzi, Carlo Dati, Valentina Bonini

YouTube trailer: https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=361902880582180&set=vb.342821079157027&type=2&theater

SHOWDOWN FOR A BADMAN

Per una bara piena di dollari – Italian title

Una bara di dollari per una carogne – Italian title
Por um Caixão Cheio de Dólares – Brazilian title
Kirstullinen dollareita – Finnish title
Nevada Kid – French title
Pour une biere pemplie de dollars – French title
Für einen Sarg voller Dollars - Adios Companeros – German title
Adios Companeros – German title
Ena feretro femato dollaria – Greek title
Nevada Kid – Greek title
Pour un ataud lleno de dolares – Spanish title
En krista full med dollar – Swedish title
Teks, Gece Kartali – Turkish title
Pray to Kill and Return Alive – English title
A Barrel Full of Dollars – English title
A Coffin Full of Dollars – English title
Nevada Kid – English title
Showdown for a Badman – English title
 
A 1971 Italian production [Tarquina Internazionale Cinematografica/Elektra Film (Rome)]
Producer: Massimo Bernardi, Diego Spataro
Director: Miles Deem (Demofilo Fidani)
Story: Teodoro Ricci (Tonino Ricci)
Screenplay: Demofilo Fidani, Teodoro Ricci (Tonino Ricci)
Cinematography: Joe D’Amato (Aristide Massaccesi) [Eastmancolor, Panavision]
Music: Lallo Gori (Coriolano Gori)
Song: “I Know My Love” sung by Mark Wolf (Marco Wolf)
Running time: 91 minutes
 
Cast:
Dan Hagen/Slander – Klaus Kinski (Nikolaus Nakaszynski)
Tamayo – Hunt Powers (Jack Betts)
John – Gordon Mitchell (Charles Pendleton)
Mark/George ‘Nevada Kid’ Hamilton – Jeff Cameron (Geoffredo Scarciofolo)
Sam – Rai Saunders (Wilfred Saunders)
Ramirez – Dennis Colt (Benito Pacifico)
Monica Benson/Irene – Simone Blondell (Simonetta Vitelli)
Charles Benson – Dean Reese (Attilio Dottesio)
Sheriff – Renzo Arbore (Lorenzo Arbore)
Wells – Custer Gail (Amerigo Castrighella)
Paco – Giglio Gigli
Tamayo henchmen - Lucky McMurray (Luciano Conti), Alessandro Perella
Townsman - Angelo Casadei

Dan Hagen, the brains behind a gang of desperadoes operating near the Mexican border. When his two brothers are killed by the Nevada Kid in retaliation for the murder of his own brothers, he flips out, and shoots one of his own men for delivering the news. Hagen sends his right-hand henchman Tamayo to exact revenge on those responsible. The gang sets fire to a ranch, killing everyone, but not before Tamayo leaves behind a piece of evidence – the musical watch that Hagen had given one of his brothers. The watch is found by Sam and given to the Nevada Kid  when he returns home to find his family slaughtered. The Nevada Kid teams up with a cackling bounty hunter named John to find the owner of the watch.

YouTube trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70MTAXPua74

Happy 85th Birthday Henry Silva

Henry Silva was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 15, 1928. Of Sicilian and Spanish descent he grew up in Harlem and quit school when he was 13 years-old to attend drama classes, supporting himself as a dishwasher and waiter in a Manhattan hotel. By 1955, Silva felt ready to audition for the Actors Studio. He was accepted, one of only five successful applicants. When the Studio staged Michael V. Gazzo's play, A Hatful of Rain as a classroom project, it proved so successful that it was presented on Broadway, with students Ben Gazzara, Shelley Winters, Harry Guardino, along with Anthony Franciosa, Paul Richards and Silva, in key roles. Silva would also appear in the play's film version.

 
Moving to Hollywood, he played a succession of villains in films including “The Tall T” (1957), “The Bravados” (1958), “Green Mansions” (1969), and the original “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962). He played Roger Corneal, one of the 11 casino robbers in the 1960 Rat Pack caper film “Ocean's 11” (1960).
 
Silva had gradually been typecast in the role of heavies. Although he did play a comic role as one of the stepbrothers in the 1960 Jerry Lewis film “Cinderfella”, and appeared in starring roles in two filmed episodes of ‘The Outer Limits’. He also played heavies on television, such as a hitman in the episode ‘Better Bargain’ on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Other television roles included episodes of ‘The Untouchables’ an episode of Rod Serling's ‘Night Gallery’ and the episode "The Enemies" from the first season of ‘Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea’
 
In 1965, an Italian film producer made Silva an offer to star as a hero for a change and he moved his family overseas. Silva's turning-point picture was the Spaghetti western, “The Hills Run Red” (1966), which made him a hot box-office commodity in Spain, Italy, Germany, and France. Between 1966 and 1977 he starred or co-starred in at least 25 movies, the majority of which were mafia tales, Euro-westerns or police tales of some sort, where he normally played the villain or hitman, or an anti-hero.
 
Returning to the United States in the mid-1970s, he co-starred with Frank Sinatra in TV’s ‘Contract on Cherry Street’ (1977), then signed on as Buck Rogers' evil adversary “Killer Kane” in the TV movie ‘Buck Rogers in the 25th Century’ (1979)
 
In the 1980s and 1990s, he appeared as a drug-addicted hitman in Burt Reynolds' “Sharky's Machine” (1981), the villainous CIA agent Kurt Zagon in Steven Seagal's debut, “Above the Law” (1988), as a sinister mob hitman in “Dick Tracy” (1990) and providing the voice of the super-villain Bane in “Batman: The Animated Series” (1994) and “The New Batman Adventures” (1998). He also played the 'heavy' in Chuck Norris' movie “Code of Silence” (1985). Silva also starred as himself in a spoof of Ripley's Believe It Or Not-type shows in the comedy “Amazon Women on the Moon” (1987) for a segment titled Henry Silva's "Bullshit, or Not!" and again played himself in The 2001 version of “Ocean’s Eleven”. Silva appeared in Mike Malloy’s recent documentary “Eurocrime!” (2012).
 
Today we celebrate Henry Silva’s 85^th birthday.

Remebering Alvaro Mancori

Alvaro Mancori was born in Rome, Italy on September 15, 1923. A brother of cinematographers Guglielmo Mancori [1927-1995] and Sandro Mancori [1933-2009] and uncle of child actor, sound mixer David Mancori [1962- ], Alvaro was a 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 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" in 1965. Alvaro participated in four Euro-westerns as a producer and cinematographer on "The Magnificent Brutes of the West" (1964) and "The Tramplers" (1965) and producer on "Run, Man, Run" (1968) and "Bastard Go and Kill" (1971).

 
Alvaro died on June 24, 2011 in Rome, Italy.
 
Today we remember Alvaro Mancori on what would have been his 90^th birthday.

Spaghetti Western Locations

We end our search for locations for “Death Rides a Horse”. After their duel Bill mounts his horse and leaves Ryan at the village and rides off into the setting sun. This area has been seen in dozens of Euro-westerns over the years including: “The Deserter”, “The White, the Yellow and the Black”, “The Big Gundown”, “A Man a Colt”, “Run Man Run”, “Arizona Colt” (aka “The Man from Nowhere”), “The Last of the Mohicans” among many others.

 
The area is known as La Salinillas and requires one to hike back through one of several ramblas to reach the location.

For a more detailed view of this site and other Spaghetti Western locations please visit my friend Captain Douglas’ excellent website: http://www.western-locations-spain.co                 

and Yoshi Yasuda’s location site: http://y-yasuda.net/film-location.htm