Credit page has been added…
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You have 2 pictures of young Antonio Ruiz, as the boy at the station and as an unknown ‘Elias soldier’
Thanks again for your expertise on these lists, very useful and interesting.
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Got to meet the lovely Martine Beswick yesterday. She has very fond memories of making this film, and working with the likes of Kinski, Volonté, Castel and Damiani. A very friendly lady with a great sense of humour and plenty of stories to tell. She really loved these high quality stills of her I managed to capture myself, since there’s not much out there.
My friend @sarahvista was also there, who even asked her about John the Bastard. It’s great to ask about these films, as Martine is mainly known for being a Bond Girl.
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What a lovely treat to meet Martine … was it a specialist film festival event ?
Love the picture of her trying on her new hat with cigar … really in character.
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It was actually a charity event in London with celebrity signings. Caroline Munro was there, who is always amazing to meet. Along with many more people, mainly from Bond, Hammer and Star Wars films.
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That’s amazing Dean 
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Oh yeah, Martine was also very surprised when I told her Damiani didn’t consider it a Western, haha.
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Very cool!
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In the U.S. ‘A Bullet for the General’ opened in San Francisco on September 18 1968, followed by a general release in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston, San Angelo etc, November 7/8, 1968. Was it the truncated version with William Berger’s voice as Bill Tate - who knows.
No respect accorded in the UK as it was hacked to an incomprehensible 77mins and co-billed with ‘All Neat in Black Stockings’. It opened in Manchester, 20th April 1969 and widely distributed throughout May/June/July 1969. There were a few random screenings later in the year before disappearing altogether by January 1970. It fleetingly resurfaced with ‘The Devil Rides Out’ in Stoke-on-Trent, August 1971. The film made its TV debut on 2nd September 1990 as part of the 3rd season of Moviedrome (BBC2 22:05 - 00:05).
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Re Martine Beswick.
Already in the 1960s girls wore crop tops, or they tied their shirts so the stomach was left bare. Sometimes this was a very short women’s shirt that was supposed to be tied, or the shirt was a normal one that was just tied that way.
Martine had the very short type in the Bond movie Thunderball (1965), while Ursula Andress had a normal shirt in Dr No (1962).
Some old fashion ad.
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Saw this film again, it was quite a while since last time. I don’t have it on BR, but the Koch Media DVD, the one with the yellow cover. It has good enough picture and sound quality for my TV setup.
This is not a perfect film, still very good though, and it’s a better constructed and more engaging film than Tepepa. It is also clearly a true spaghetti western just like Tepepa, even if both these films are more on the serious side, would be stupid to suggest anything else.
Anyway, A Bullet for the General is not exactly about promoting communism, even if some of the filmmakers involved had leftist political view. It is mostly about the meddling by the United States in Latin American countries. The episode with the wealthy landowner Don Felipe is the most “communist” in the film, and it’s not very sympathetically presented.
Furthermore all the bandits except one are at the beginning only in it for the money. There is a lot of noisy action and other such SW elements, some humour as well, although not as stylishly directed as in some other SWs. And it all ends with the main character having a change of heart. No dramatic duels or other rituals as you know, but still a fitting conclusion.
Martine Beswick is very good in this one. Volonte overacts a bit, he is too flamboyant sometimes pehaps, still good though. Klaus Kinski and Lou Castel are ok too. The others are mostly unfamiliar faces. Aldo Sambrell has a small part.
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Both A Bullet for the General and Tepepa were shot in scope and this is great. 
