“That Dirty Black Bag”

 

“That That Dirty Black Bag” lands at AMC (the original first season) on January Tuesday 24. 2023 at 10pm (Est), 1am (P). For those who don't have AMC+.

 

Hopefully it will generate enough interest to warrant AMC to make a second go-round

[Thanks to Mike Ferguson for the information.]

Little Known European Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Francisco Alacid

 These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be gven and anything that you can add would be appreciated.

 

I can find no biographical information on Alacid only two film credits; Cotolay (1966) and Una bara per lo sceriffo (A Coffin for the Sheriff) (1965).

ALACID, Francisco (Francisco R. Alacid) [Spanish] – film actor.

A Coffin for the Sheriff – 1965 (Peter bank employee)

Spaghetti Western Location – “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”

 In one of the scenes in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” we see three bounty hunters capture Tuco (Eli Wallach) while one rolls out a wanted poster identifying him as Tuco Ramirez and a reward of $2,000 dollars. They don’t keep Tuco or get the reward as Blondie (Clint Eastwood) appropriately steps in and temporarily saves the day for Tuco as he guns down the three men but captures Tuco and the $2,000 for himself.

This scene was filmed at the often-used location of La Pedriza, Finca Magdalena, Manzanares El Real, Madrid. The same location was used for the widow’s ranch in “The Big Gundown”. The same location as seen in 2022. 

English voices of the Spaghetti Western – George Gonneau

 George Andre Gonneau was born in New York City on October 31, 1925. Although appearing in a few films and TV series his primary career was a voice actor at Titra Sound Studios in New York City. He was the regular English voice of Steve Reeves. One reason why so many of the American actors and their voice work is unknown is because the actors had to sign a secrecy clause because the studios did not want the fans to know their stars were being dubbed. After taking over the dubbing of Reeves on “Hercules” (1958), Gonneau continued to dub him on “Hercules Unchained” (1959), “Goliath and the Barbarians” (1959), “The Giant of Marathon” (1959), “Morgan the Pirate” (1960), “The Thief of Baghdad” (1961) and “Sandokan the Great” (1963). For reasons only known by Titra, Gonneau was selected to dub friend-of-the-hero Verus in the Reeves epic “The Slave” (1962).

In 1963 Gonneau was sent to Rome to discuss with Federico Fellini the English language version of “8½” (1963). Fellini approved of the project and Gonneau dubbed Marcello Mastroianni. Apart from providing English versions of foreign films, Gonneau and fellow Titra voice actor Norman Rose did a similar job for the New York stage. In 1985 their adaptation of "The Cost of Living" by Yves Jamiaque was presented at the Judith Anderson Theatre. Ten years later their same adaptation, as "Monsieur Amilcar," was included at the Chichester Festival in England.

Apart from his visits to Italy, Gonneau and his family lived in Paris from 1965 onwards whilst he worked for Avco Embassy Pictures. They returned to New York in 1975. On one occasion, George's son Daniel Gonneau (1961) was invited to the Titra studios to dub one of the children's parts. However, whilst Daniel went on to do boat building in Maine, his cousin Jackie Gonneau [1962] (daughter of George's brother Pierre) became an accomplished voice actress in her own right.

One of the leading voice actors on the Italian epics George supervised the English dubbing (sometimes with Lee Kresel) at the Titra Sound Studios, New York. He also narrated talking books, including "To Build a Fire" by Jack London and "The Diamond Lens" by Fitz-James O'Brien.

George died in his hometown of New York City on January 22, 1997. Since Gonneau had signed one of the secrecy clauses in his Titra contract we’ll never know how many voices or who he actually dubbed during his career.

GONNEAU, George (George Andre Gonneau) [10/31/1925, New York City, New York, U.S.A. – 1/22/1997, New York City, New York, U.S.A.] – writer, film, TV, voice actor, married to painter Sini Anita Kyllikki Snellman [1924-2006] (1951-1958) father of songwriter Pierre Gonneau.

George Gonneau’s English dubbed voices:

Fistful of Dollars – 1964 [English voice of Antonio Prieto]

The Brute and the Beast – 1966 [English voice of Franco Nero]

Special Birthdays

 Nico Fidenco (composer) would have been 90 today but died in 2022.

Carlos Cervantes (actor) is 70 today.

RIP Eugenio Martín

Veteran Spanish director and writer Eugenio Martín died in Madrid, Spain on January 23, 2023. He was 97. He was best remembered for known for three classic Spanish films “Horror Express” (1972), “The Ugly Ones” (1966) and “A Candle for the Devil” (1973). Martín was born Eugenio Martín Márquez in Ceuta on May 15, 1925, he shortly after moved to Granada. There he would grow up secretly reading Lorca and León Felipe and poisoning himself with cinema. His first contact with what would later be his trade was in the cinema-club that he founded. And so on until the censorship of a Jesuit made him desist. "Granada was a prison then," he said in an interview. When he decided to go into exile, he would get the possibility of studying at the Madrid Film Institute and there he went with what was his first short film (“Romantic Journey to Granada”). Eugenio was married to actress Lone Faerch since 1970. Martín worked on four Euro-westerns: "The Ugly Ones" – 1966 [director, writer]; "Duel in the Eclipse" – 1968 [director]; "Bad Man's River" - 1971 [director, writer]; "Pancho Villa" – 1971 [director] and was scheduled as a director on an unmade western "Musarra" in 1964.

Little Known European Spaghetti Western Actors ~ A. Abramov

 These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be gven and anything that you can add would be appreciated.

 

Anatoli Abramov was born on December 4, 1915, in Nizevoye, Vyatka Governorate, Russian Empire. He was a film and TV actor, known for “Vesna v Moskve” (1953), “Honeymoon” (1956) and “Priklyucheniya Artyomki” (1956). He died on July 10, 1983, in Leningrad, Russia, USSR.

ABRAMOV, A. (Anatoliy Vasilyevich Abramov) [12/4/1915, Nizevoye, Vyatka Governorate, Russian Empire – 7/10/1983, Leningrad, Russia, U.S.S.R.] – film, TV actor. 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – 1973 (Doctor Robinson)