Welcome to the July 2024 newsletter from the Spaghetti Western Database, your regular newsletter of what happened last month in the world of European westerns.
How to receive this newsletter automatically: Read instructions here on how to receive this to your inbox or notifications newsletter. Contact us if you have any questions or news/rumors/contributions.
NEW STUFF IN AND AROUND THE SWDB IN JULY 2024:
WANTED:
We’re still trying to get in touch with our friend from Finland who went by the name of Shobary (with the popular SW website with that title). If anyone has reliable contact information, please send us a message. We want to rescue and preserve the remnants of these two websites, like we’ve done with A Fistful of Pasta.
New around the SWDb:
- Let us know if you want to help with our new master calendar Calendar - The Spaghetti Western Database and company directory Company directory - The Spaghetti Western Database. These are just slowly progressing but are meant to be mostly companions to ongoing efforts to improve release date information in the database, as well as biographical information. Please contact us at any time with any info you have that is missing in the database, it’s all highly appreciated.
- A steadily rising number of film pages in the database now have picture-powered dedicated credits pages. These are incredibly valuable in a lot of peoples’ quests to identify actors and characters. More are added every week.
- … as always: join the SWDb, help out, it will make it better You don’t have to become a full time editor or official staff to contribute. Anything from being active in the forum to correcting mistakes to joining entire improvement projects is more than welcome. From all over the world, in all languages, we welcome help!
Emerging, ongoing and future improvement projects
- Improving locations information with the locations project
- Cataloging home video special features with the featurettes project
- Improving and expanding information about VHS releases in the database (these aren’t nearly as reliable and complete as we have it for DVD and BluRay). We are starting to include more Super8 information, starting with cover images.
- Improving soundtrack pages (not started, volunteers welcome)
- Adding more company, production and box office data
- technical improvements for the SWDb, including a better search, which will require time, expertise and likely money, all of which aren’t plentiful. Donations welcome, maybe at some point I could hire someone to do it.
- We are also working on making actor pages and categories tidied, including overview pages such as “actors by picture” and so forth, a new project led by @ItalianStranger
- Lastly, more outreach is in order to reach into the far corners of the internet, and beyond the English-speaking spots.
SWDb Letterboxd
If you’re a Letterboxd user, we hope you follow the official SWDb Letterboxd HQ account. Click here to learn more about that. And your reminder: all the revised film pages in the SWDb have a direct link to their respective LB entry and the bottom.
Latest exclusive on our LB page:
Locations
The reconstruction of the Betterville POW camp has begun in Spain. Follow the activities on Facebook here.
Home video news:
In July we kenw we had a quiet month on our hands. While Paramount’s new Once Upon a Time in the West version made its debut on Japanese disc, it went into it’s second print run in the UK. The Unholy Four made its subtitle-deprived debut in Germany.
August will not be that much more exciting. Arrow is on its re-issue of the highly recommended Blood Money set, and re-issues are also in the books in the UK (Navajo Joe) and Japan (Django for the umpteenth time). Paramounts Once… makes its debut in Australia. More interesting is (as often) Germany, where Winnetou II makes a jump to 4K UltraHD (and the third instalment of the series will, too, before the end of the year). A Town Called Hell makes its HD debut in Germany and Fabulous Trinity gets its first ever digital treatment.
If we look further into the late summer and fall, things will start to get really exciting again. And also, we know there is more announcements coming, this isn’t the end yet. We keep learning more and we keep filling the calendar, we often update it several times a day.
Red Sun makes its 4K UHD debut in September, for example. A highly anticipated Italian 4K UHD release of Once Upon a Time in the West will arrive in October, and we are hoping for it to be better than Paramount’s mediocre effort. In November, a whole stack of releases comes out in France, including the HD debut of O’Cangaceiro and there will be a new book on/by Leone. Stay tuned and keep sending us rumors and inside info! Don’t forget to use our Amazon links if you can.
Visit the SWDb home video release calendar
Obituaries
Our head of obits, the spaghettiologist @Tom_B had to update the boot hill cemetery with an unfortunate 5 new obituaries over the course of the last four weeks.
Check out “Cemetery with crosses”
Reviews:
Please contact us if you want your reviews published. We are especially looking for reviews of movies that have no, or very few, reviews in the SWDb. We publish them in all languages, and you don’t need to be a professional writer!
Underseen & Overpriced: LeĂłn Klimovsky's Dos mil dĂłlares por Coyote - The Spaghetti Western Database
Die fĂĽnf GefĂĽrchteten BluRay Kritik - The Spaghetti Western Database
Deguejo Recensione - The Spaghetti Western Database
Those of you who feel inclined to donate a dollar or euro or yen or real or whatever, head here. PayPal has improved the donation experience, check it out - and you don’t even need a PayPal account to donate. Also, whenever you shop at Amazon, click on one of the SWDb’s Amazon links first, it doesn’t matter which one and what you buy.
See you next month!