Re-reading bits of Alex Coxâs book he mentions that 1979 saw a spaghetti western version of Red Harvest produced starring Gianni Garko and Roberto Camardiel! Is this a joke, a mistake or deliberate attempt by Cox to âwatermarkâ his book?
I canât find anything in Garkoâs filmography for '79 that could remotely fit this even if Cox had gotten it wrong and this is a cop movie. SW or not this sounds intriguing.
Heâs joking I suppose but of course cannot be sure.
At least Iâve never heard of it before and there is no imdb site (even rarity like porno erotico western has one), so I guess alleged Red Harvest never existed.
But I might be wrong. Even though I canât imagine that film with such a cast could become so forgottenâŠ
Just rewatched La Ciudad Maldita, aka La notte rossa del Falco, the last western made by Barcelona director Juan Bosch, based on Dashiell Hammettâs novel Red Harvest. (On the novel, see Sherpshutterâs Four Artists and a Man with No Name.)
Released in Italy 29 November 1978 it might well be the last Italian -Spanish co-production to be made in the 1970ies bar none, and the last of the spaghettis as such, or am I mistaken?
I have some more info on it and should perhaps review it for the SWDB. But I have only seen a shitty copy of the Spanish release. Does anybody here have a decent Spanish copy or an Italian copy?
I havenât seen the movie, but Iâve just checked Giustiâs book. He says Garko and Camardiel are in it. According to the text, Garko is an agent whoâs investiganting a series of crimes in the West. He also lists this odd pseudo âChet Bakonâ (written with a k in this case) that Garko supposedly used for this movie.
The name of Camardiel is only listed, but we kearn nothing about his precise role in the movie.
Question: Did you recognize Garko (and Camardiel)?
(I have no copy of the movie)
Edit:
Found a couple of screenshots, I havenât recognized Garko:
And I donât know about Camardiel either. According to Boschâ filmografia revised by himself, Camardiel is Thaler. Iâll lift a couple of screenshots from my copy tomorrow.
He shouldnât be too difficult to identify, unless he lost a lot of weight. I remember seeing him in a movie made a couple of years before his glory days; I didnât recognize him but I realized that I had seen that face before: he had put on a lot of weight since that movie and that had changed his features.
I did know about the Garko rumor when I watched the film the second time, so I kept an eye out for him. He is nowhere in the film. Bosch himself commented on this rumor saying Chet Bacon was a âthird-rate regional actorâ, often confused with Gianni Garko, (according to JesĂșs Ăngel GonzĂĄlez LĂłpez on Don Herronâs blog âUp and Down these Mean Streetsâ). Heaven knows why.
I didnât know there was an issue about Camardiel, so I didnât particularly look for him. It seems he is the sheriff, Noonan, as stated on the SWDBâs page on the film. Here some mugshots (actually, I think he has lost some weight):
Thereâs a chapter that covers this film in Critical Perspectives on the Western: From A Fistful of Dollars to Django Unchained (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016) edited by Lee Broughton.
The chapter is ââGoing Blood-simpleâ: Red Harvest in Filmâ by JesĂșs Ăngel GonzĂĄlez.
I just received an order update on this one. Delivery date postponed to November 23âŠ
âGoing blood simpleâ is from the novel. The OP at some point complains he is going âblood-simple like the nativesâ because of all the killings. The Cohen brothers used it for their first film.
In my opinion Craig Hill, previously directed by Bosch in And the Crows Will Dig Your Grave and My Horse My Gun Your Widow, would have been the better choice for the Continental detective (in 1978 he appeared in The Bloodstained Shadow).
Waiting to know his real name, a couple pictures of Chet Bakon
