RIP Martin Grace

James Bond stuntman Martin Grace passed away in Spain on January 27th. He was 67. Grace was born in Kilkenny, Ireland and joined a stunt agency in the 1960s. His first commercial work was in commercials as the mysterious Cadbury man of action. This led to work on “Dr. Who” (1965) and then in “You Only Live Twice” (1967). In 1975 he became Roger Moore's stunt double on “The Spy Who Loved Me” and continued to double Moore until 1985. He suffered terrible injuries during the train filming sequence of “Octopussy”. Over his career Grace appeared in more than 70 films. He suffered a motorcycle accident this past November and fractured his pelvis. Developing breathing problems in late January he was taken from his home to a hospital in spain where he died on an aneurism and died on Januart 27th. Martin Grace was the stunt coordinator on the Euro-western “North Star” (1996) starring James Cann and Christopher Lambert.

CHARLEY ONE-EYE

Charley le borgne – French title
Charley One-Eye – British title

A 1972 British production [David Paradine Productions, Saga (London)]
Producer: David Frost, James Swann
Director: Don Chaffey (Donald Chaffey)
Screenplay: Keith Leonard
Cinematography: Kenneth Talbot [Technicolor]
Music: John Cameron
Song: “Don’t You Know That it Might Rain” sung by ?
Running time: 109 minutes

Cast:
The Black Man - Richard Roundtree
The Indian - Roy Thinnes
bounty hunter - Nigel Davenport (Arthur Davenport)
officer’s wife - Jill Pearson
Mexican driver - Aldo Sambrell (Alfredo Brell)
Mexican youth - Luis Aller
Mexican leader - Rafael Albaicín (Ignacio-Rafael Escudreo)
Tony - Alex Davion (Alexander Davion)
Bob - Johnny Sekka
Penelope - Madeline Hinde (Madeleine Hinde)
Richard - Patrick Mower
Chris - Imogen Hassall
Holstrom - Edward Woodward
Honeydew - William Mervyn (William Pickwood)
colonel - David Lodge
bounty hunter - Nigel Davenport


A Union Army deserter heads to Mexicn after killing his commanding officer when he's caught with the officer's wife. He takes refuge in a small Mexican church where he encounters a crippled Indian who has been cast out from his tribe, and his pet chicken 'Charley One-Eye'. They are forced into helping each other when a bounty hunter arrives tracking down the soldier for a $500 reward. Several of the villagers are killed and the when the soldier runs out of amunition the villagers stone him to death.

Happy 80th Birthday Gene Hackman

Born Eugene Allen Hackman on January 30, 1930 in San Bernardino, California and is the brother of actor Richard Hackman. Gene was raised in Danville, Illinois but he left home at 16 and joined the U.S. Marine Corps. At 26 he decided to become and actor and joined the Pasadena Playhouse but along with classmate Dustin Hoffman was voted least likely to succeed by their classmates. He then took a bus to New York City where he met up with another struggling actor named Robert Duvall. Hackman began appearing off-Broadway plays. In 1964 he was offered a part in the play “Any Wednesday” with actress Sandy Dennis. This opened the doors for him for film work. His first film was “Lillith” with Warren Beatty. He would later become a star in another Beatty film “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967). In 1970 he was nominated for an Academy Award for “I Never Sang for My Father”. The next year he won an Academy Award for Best Actor as Popeye Doyle in “The French Connection” During this time he made his only Euro-westen 1971's “The Hunting Party” as Brandt Ruger opposite Oliver Reed and Candice Bergen. He was now a major star and found plenty of work in the 1980s and 1990s. He received his second Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor in Clint Eastwood's “Unforgiven” (1992). In the 2000s he turned to writing novels and by mid-decade had retired from films. Not bad for an actor voted least likely to succeed. Today we wish Gene Hackman a happy 80th birthday.

RIP Angio Zane

Director, screenwriter, film editor Angio Zane died in Salo, Italy on January 27, 2010 of natural causes. He was 84. Born Angleo Zane in Salo, on August 17, 1925 the son of Senator Francis Zane his house was flanked by former film studios Ondastudios, which for many years was called Little Cinecitta. He later turned his home into a museum filled with appliances and equpiment from the past film industry such as cameras and hundreds of photographs.

He dedicated his talents to making documentaries and short films making over 100 of them in his long career. He made his debut in 1956 with “La capinera del mulino". He made a series of short childrens films featuring a character named White Cloud. His one Spaghetti Western being “Okay Sheriff” in 1964. He later made business oriented audiovisual creations. He continued making documentary and short films until the late 1990s.

New DVD Release!

Mercenario der Gefürchtete (aka The Mercenary)
Label: KOCH
ASIN: B0000755WR
Region: 2
Format: PAL 16:9 - 2.35:1 anamorphic, widescreen, Dolby
Languages: English mono, German mono, Italian mono
Subtitles: German
Running time: 102 minutes
Extras: Chapter selections
Original Release date: January 29, 2010
Delayed until February 4, 2010

CHARGE OF THE 7th

El séptimo de caballería, – Spanish title
L’assault du fort Texan – French title
Vergeltung am Wichita-Paß – German title
Apache, ta tsakalia tis Dyseos – Greek title
Epelasis tis 7 is taxiarhias – Greek title
Gli eroi di Fort Worth – Italian title
Assault on Fort Texan – English title
Heroes of Fort Worth – English title
Charge of the 7th – English title

A 1964 Spanish, Italian co-production [Fénix Cooperativa Cinematográfica (Madrid), Cineroduzioni (Rome)]
Producer: Silver Bem (Emo Bistolfi), Eduardo Manzanos Brochero, Arturo Marcos
Director: Martin Herbert (Alberto De Martino)
Story: Eduardo M. Brochero (Eduardo Manzanos Brochero), Silver Bem (Emo Bistolfi)
Screenplay: Herbert Martin (Alberto De Martino), Eduardo Manzanos Brochero
Cinematography: Eloy Mella [Eastmancolor, Totalscope]
Music: Manuel Parada (Manuel de la Puente), Carlo Rustichelli
Running time: 100 minutes

Cast:
Major “Sugar” Patterson - Edmund Purdom
Colonel George Bonnet - Eduardo Fajardo
Amanda - Mónica Randall (Aurora Sarasa)
Nelly Patterson/Bonnet - Priscilla Steele (Ida Galli)
Lieutenant Webb - Isarco Ravaioli
Chief Wild Horse - Rafael Albaicín (Ignacio-Rafael Escudero)
Major Sam Allison/Sam Shane - Paul Piaget
Colonel Maxfield - Umberto Raho
saloon owner - Tulio Altamura
lawman - German Longo
with; Tomás Blanco (Tomás Garcia), Victor Bayo, Ricardo Lilló, Rogelio Madrid, Luis Barboo, Miguel del Castillo, Adolfo Arlés, José Marco (José Davo), Emilio Rodríguez, Francesco Sormano, Francisco Vilches, Gonzalo Esquiroz, Antonio Cuenca, Román Ariznavarreta, Antonio Orengo (Antonio Alonso), Edmundo Espinosa, Ángel Alonso, Leonidas Guerra



In 1863 during the end of the Civil War a band of Southern soldiers with the aid of an Indian tribe try to go to Mexico and elicit help from Emperor Maximilian. The soldiers must pass through a narrow pass near at the Texas border defended by Union soldiers stationed at Ft. Worth. The Southern soldiers and Chief Wild Horse devise a plan where the Indians will attack the neighboring town of Chesapeake and when the Union soldiers leave to aid the settlers the Southerners will attack Ft. Worth. Just in time to time to stop a massacre the Southerners are discovered by the Seventh Cavalry.

Spaghetti Western Locations

The main road through the ruins of Flagstone was used as the road to Bret McBains ranch at Sweetwater. Leone then filled in scenes of the journey from footage he filmed in Monument Valley. Today the countryside looks the same except for those blasted wind machines that litter the area.



For a more detailed view of this site and other Spaghetti Western locations please visit my friend Yoshi “Garring” Yasuda’s excellent website: http://garringo.cool.ne.jp/