Who Are Those Composers? ~ Gianfranco Plenizio

Gianfranco Plenizio was born in Sedegliano, Udine, Italy on January 10, 1931. Gianfranco studied piano and composition with Enrico De Angelis Valentini, conducting with Franco Ferrara and Zoltán Peskó. Fundamental to his training were his visits to Luigi Dallapiccola, Bruno Maderna, Hermann Scherchen and Gillo Dorfles, his professor of aesthetics at the University of Trieste.

After starting his activity as a director of opera, he dedicated himself to music for film collaborating, in the two roles of composer and conductor, with prestigious filmmakers including Pietro Germi, Billy Wilder, Renato Castellani, Franco Rosi, Elio Petri, Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Dino Risi, Ettore Scola, Ermanno Olmi and Federico Fellini - for which he composed the music for the film "E la nave va".

In the meantime he continued his concert activity, both as a pianist and as a conductor. He was the artistic director of the "Incontri Musicali Romani" a contemporary music festival. For almost thirty years he dealt with the despised repertoire of Italian chamber romance, and collected an archive containing about 20,000 vocal passages.

Plenizio wrote several musical scores for the theater, but his main production was film music. He composed the music for thirty films and conducted the orchestra in more than 250.

In 1985 he was awarded the SIAE - International Year of Music award and in 2004 the National Performing Arts Award.

Gianfranco Plenizio died in Rome, Italy on February 7, 2017.

PLENIZIO, Gianfranco (aka Gianfranco Plemizio, G. Ployer) [1/10/1931, Sedegliano, Udine, Italy - 2/7/2017, Rome, Lazio, Italy] – composer, conductor, muscian (piano), essayist.

Garter Colt – 1967 [composer, conductor]

Boot Hill* – 1969 [conductor]

El Puro* – 1969 [conductor]

The Price of Power* – 1969 [conductor]

They Call Me Trinity* – 1970 [conductor]

Bastard Go and Kill* – 1971 [conductor]

Trinity is STILL My Name* – 1971 [conductor]

The Three Musketeers of the West* – 1973 [conductor]

White Fang to the Rescue – 1974 [conductor]

Eh? Who’s Afraid of Zorro!* – 1975 [composer, conductor]

Red Coat – 1975 [conductor]

Spaghetti Western – 1975 [composer]

Zorro* – 1975 [conductor]

Django Strikes Again*- 1987 [composer, conductor]

*Available on CD

Special Birthdays

Arthur Askey (screenwriter, actor) would have been 120 today, he died in 1962.

Miguel Iglesias (screenwriter) would have been 105 today, he died in 2012.

Helmuth M. Backhaus (director) would have been 100 today, he died in 1989.

Frits van Wenkop  (actor) would have been 95 today, he died in 1971.

Lola Forner (actress) is 60 today.

Spaghetti Western Trivia ~ The Fryes’

Virgil Charles Frye was a Golden gloves boxing champion. Born in Estherville, Iowa in 1930 he appeared in one Euro-western “Lucky Johnny – Born in America”. During his acting career he appeared in over 50 films but he’s best remembered as the father of actor Sean Frye and actress Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster). Virgil died from Pick's Disease or Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) on May 7, 2012 in Orange County, California.

 

Once Upon a Time in Spaghetti Westerns Podcast

Today at 12 Noon PST join us for our weekly podcast on Facebook and You Tube.
Today's Special Guest will be our friend and Euro-western star Robert Woods.

Spaghetti Western Location ~ Altopiano di Camposecco

Camposecco Plateau, Regional Natural Park Monti Simbruini is located in Lazio, Italy. The Monti Simbruini regional natural park is a protected natural area among the largest natural reserves and parks in the Lazio Region, with peaks reaching and exceeding 2100 meters. The name "Simbruini" derives from the Latin subbribus elocution, translatable with "Under the Rains". Already the ancient Latins, in fact, noticed the abundance of rainfall in this area, in some years even double the regional average.

You’ll quickly see it for approximately 10 seconds in a riding scene for the movie "Boot Hill" (1969), directed by Giuseppe Colizzi, starring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer.

Voices of the Spaghetti Western ~ “$10,000 for a Massacre”

As we know most of the Euro-westerns were co-productions from Italy, Spain, Germany and France which incorporated British and American actors to gain a worldwide audience. The films were shot silent and then dubbed into the various languages where they were sold for distribution. That means Italian, Spanish, German, French and English voice actors were hired to dub the films. Even actors from the countries where the film was to be shown were often dubbed by voice actors for various reasons such as the actors were already busy making another film, they wanted to paid additional salaries for dubbing their voices, the actor’s voice didn’t fit the character they were playing, accidents to the actors and in some cases even death before the film could be dubbed.

I’ll list a Euro-western and the (I) Italian, (S) Spanish, (G) German and (F) French, (E) English voices that I can find and once in a while a bio on a specific voice actor as in Europe these actors are as well-known as the actors they voiced.

Today we’ll cover “$10,000 for a Massacre”

[(I) Italian, (S) Spanish, (G) German, (F) French, (E) English]

Django – Gianni Garko (I) Sergio Grazziani, (S) Héctor Cantolla, (G) Gert Günther Hoffmann, (F) Michel Barbey

Manuel Vasquez – Claudio Camaso (I) Pino Locchi, (S) Eduardo Jover, (G) Jürgen Thormann, (F) Serge Sauvion

Mijanou – Loredana Nusciak (I) Rita Savagnone, (S) Lucia Esteban, (G) ?, (F) Lily Baron

Dolores Mendoza – Adriana Ambesi (I) Vittoria Febbi, (S) ?, (G) ?, (F) ?

Stardust Vasquez - Fernando Sancho (I) Carlo Romano, (S) Claudio Rodriguez, (G) Martin Hirthe, (F) Jean Clarieux

Seven Dollars – Pinuccio Ardia (I) Lauro Gazzolo, (S) ?, (G) ?, (F) Henry Djanik

Fidelius – Fidel Gonzáles (I) Oreste Lionello, (S) Ángel Egido, (G) Paul Bürks, (F) ?

Héctor Cantolla  (1946 - )

Héctor Cantolla Ocejo was born on June 11, 1946 in Laredo, Cantabria, Spain. He is a Spanish voice actor who dubbed Cookie Monster on the Castilian Spanish dub of Sesame Street beginning in 1974. He reprised the part on the 1976 album Abrete Sesamo and also dubbed the Newsman on El Show de los Teleñecos (The Muppet Show).

Cantolla began his dubbing career in the late 1960s, initially in small roles and then becoming the Spanish voice of Terence Hill in Spaghetti Westerns and other films. He has often dubbed Burt Reynolds and Arnold Schwarzenegger (including Predator, Twins, and The Escape Plan). He dubbed Marlon Brando in Superman, Michael Caine in Deathtrap, Kris Kristofferson in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Paul Benedict in The Goodbye Girl, and Charles Durning in Dog Day Afternoon. Cartoon roles include Satan on South Park and Bruce Wayne on Batman Beyond.

Cantolla is a frequent announcer for car commercials in Spain. In video games, he dubbed Count Nefarious in Toonstruck, various roles in the Assassin's Creed series, Crowe in Far Cry, and the Sheriff in Cars Race-O-Rama. He has appeared occasionally in films, with prominent roles in the 1996 drama Como un relámpago and the 1997 comedy Brácula (Condemor II) (as Dracula).

Special Birthdays

Jose Torres (actor) is 95 today.

Mario Gariazzo (producer, director, screenwriter) would have been 90 today, he died in 2000.