I have changed the text a little:
- The categorical 'only two were genuine adaptations of literary fiction about the Far West’ has been changed into:
'Only a handful were genuine adaptions of literary ficton about the Far West, among them:’
*El precio de un Hombre/The Bounty Killer (based on a novel by Marvin H. Albert) was added to the two already mentioned examples of such films
El Precio de un Hombre/The bounty killer is predominantly Spanish and the director is not Italian, still I have accepted it as a ‘Spaghetti western’. Criteria must be workable, but will never be water proof, so as far as border cases are concerned personal ideas or feelings must turn the scale (If itlooks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck)- in my opinion this film looks, walks and quacks like the genuine stuff, so it must be real.
I found out that this Marvin H. Albert was quite a prolific writer; not only westerns like The Law and Jake Wade and Guns of Diablo were based upon his work, but he also created Tony Rome, that Blue Eyed detective appearing in two films, Tony Rome and Lady in Cement. Chris seems to know his work, maybe he can tell us a little more about the guy.
As far as the relation Film/literary fiction is concerned: some of the films mentioned were (imo) either no spaghetti westerns or no genuine adaptions of literary fiction. Kid Rodelo is clearly a predominantly American production shot in Spain; as such it anticipates productions like El Condor and Shalako. To be a ‘genuine adaption’ at least the story line of the novel source must have been respected. I’m very familiar with the works of Jack London and can tell you that the Zanna Bianca movies only have some names and settings in common with the novels. Apart from that both White Fang and its predecessor Call of the Wild aren’t really literary fiction on the Old West; they’re more metaphysical studies about the human - and animal! - condition, and the way the two species see each other. Uncas, el fin de una raza could be consired as an adaptation; I haven’t seen it but J.F. Cooper’s storyline has been respected more or less, according to some descriptions of the movie. The question is of course, whether it can be regarded as a film on the Far West. Even when you accept more eastern locations as acceptable for a ‘western’ (why not?), it’s rather doubtful if the novel belongs to the literal genre of ‘western fiction’ : I think most people wouldn’t classify it as such, just like Capote’s In Cold Blood or Dostojevski’s Crime and Punishment usually are not classified as ‘crime fiction’, even though they’re novels about crimes …