One Silver Dollar / Un dollaro bucato (Giorgio Ferroni, 1965)

[quote=“scherpschutter, post:23, topic:117”]I have reworked my review of this movie.

Thought about One Silver Dollar while discussing things on lordradish’s thread
Like Return of Ringo, it’s a very relevant movie when you look at westerns from a historic angle
It’s of course an Italian movie, and it’s probably more relevant to Italians and their history than to others, but I also realized, while looking at some aspects of the movie, that there are similarities to Eastwood’s The Outlaw Josey Wales :

[size=12pt]http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/One_Silver_Dollar_review[/size][/quote]

One Silver Dollar was a huge hit box office wise, I think it actually outgrossed the Ringo films, although over time the Ringo films have gone on to be more famous. Another surprisingly historically relevant film is 100,000 Dollars for Ringo, which was a routine film, but a huge hit. Surprisingly, it is relatively obscure now, but it was hugely popular back in the day. Richard Harrison never achieved that status ever again.

Then again you have films like the Great Silence, which actually fared rather poorly at the Italian box office, only to have its reputation grow over time.

My fault, Colonel, I probably should have used historical (from the historian’s point of view) instead of historic (belonging to history, in this case the history of the genre). Anyway, the sentence I wrote is not one my best ever.

I meant to say that One Silver Dollar is a relevant film if you look at westerns with the eyes of a historian (which is what lordradish is doing for his project): in an allegorical way, it has something to say about Italian history.

That said, you are of course right: the film was an enormous hit and made a star out of Gemma (along with the Ringo movies).
By the way: I often consult your post with Italian box-office results

Silence wasn’t a hit, but also not a flop. About a million admissions isn’t that bad for such an “unhappy” film.

I love this one. I got a rush of blood to the head and gave it five stars, which is a tad too generous. It’s a four star movie at least for me, though.

I think I’m just not a big fan of the early SWs
 To me many of them seem more like American westerns. Maybe lack of a Morricone or Nicolai soundtrack. I thought it was ok but not anything I’m in a hurry to rewatch.

Crossing various sources (all containing errors) I have managed to reconstruct the cast of this one, giving the right roles to Andrea Scotti, Massimo Righi/Max Dean, Gino Marturano, Franco Lantieri, Luigi Tosi, Ignazio Spalla/Pedro Sanchez and others.

A problem is given by the identification of the actor playing the seventh member of Brad’s gang: someone knows who he is?

The idea of the life-saving dollar, is taking from medieval tales of chivalry. Knights departing for the crusades, often wore a token around their neck, a personal gift from their ‘lady’, that saved their life at a crucial moment in the narrative. It feels a little odd in the context of the western, but it’s well-integrated into the story

In the film is strongly implied that a sort of supernatural element resides in that coin: originally part of Philip’s savings, not only protects the hero saving his life but even indicates the way to the evidence his brother had concealed.

The American influences are certainly prevailing, but in my opinion Gianni Ferrio’s main theme and all the part regarding Brad’s gang and the “Casaccia”, with those grim faces and situations typical of the genre, are hundred-per-cent SW.

He reminds me of one of the baddies in Navajo Joe. Possibly an uncredited Ángel Ortiz?

Thanks Carlos, undoubtedly there is a certain resemblance between the two. I may be mistaken, but it seems to me there’s no complete correspondence (see for example ears that stick out); besides, in this one there’s only a minority French co-production (Pierre Cressoy and Bernard Farber), so the presence of Spanish actors as Angel Ortiz and Jack Rocha is unlikely.

Speaking of Bernard Farber, since his presence in the film is sure, are there certain pics of him?

Westernsall’italiana.blogspot.com says that Alfredo Rizzo (the pic below is from Il venditore di morte/Price of Death) plays “Buddy”, but I haven’t seen him and in the Italian dub there isn’t a character with that name.

These are one hundred per cent certain roles

Ignazio Spalla/Pedro Sanchez = emigrant (not henchman)
Andrea Scotti = man questioned by Peter’s henchmen (not Slim)
Gino Marturano = Brad
Franco Lantieri = Slim
Massimo Righi/Max Dean = ex-Confederate bandit (not Brad)
Luigi Tosi = blacksmith
Pietro Ceccarelli = Rex
Osiride Peverello = bearded avenger at the end of the film

and this one is not confirmed yet but highly probable

Giulio Maculani = member of Brad’s gang called John

In the original version the character played by Benito Stefanelli is called James.

Do you mean any pic?
Here’s one I saved from Django sfida Sartana as Phillip Singer

OK, thanks!

Farber in this one is the bandit with check shirt sent to kill Donaldson together with Rex (Pietro Ceccarelli) and another member of Brad’s gang.

Watched this the other night in local cinemateque as a part of Gemma tribute. Unfortunately, they probably showed us the same tape they’ve used almost 50 years ago and in those days tape would travel around country to every town with cinema, so in the end it would accumulate a lot of runs. So the color was almost completely gone (that is, all but brown), but at least the sound was OK (except for the hiss of the tape). There were also lots of unexpected Death proof-style cuts, I don’t know if they are consequence of usage or the original tape was cut like that. Still it was great to see SW on big screen, and the cuts actually added to the fun.

Movie is a mixture of spaghetti style and that dated feel that many here call “American”, but similar feel I get from Winnetou movies
 That said, I like SWs with post-war themes, those kind of themes are close to me, so I always find interest interpreting the allegories (castrated guns, corrupt law and bankers, robbed landowners). Other than that, greatest fun was a lot of crazy death scenes in which camera is following a guy as he falls from a roof for 30 seconds, lands on his feet, then continues to roll on a floor some more :smiley:

Definitely a 3 star movie for me. Unfortunately, my DVD freezes at the last 10 minutes so ive yet to see the end. :’(

Tape is not the correct word if you mean a 35 mm film.
Apart from that these are the usual problems with old 35 mm film. The colours begin to deteriorate, with red becoming the dominant color. Redish colors, splice cuts and visible dirt and print damage are typical for old film copies. Actually watching older films in a cinema is only a appropriate experience if newer copies are available. But due to the digital revolution there is no interest any more to renew worn-out 35 mm film.

Quotes from the Adios Gringo/Wanted - NEW releases thread

[quote=“Provvidenza, post:10, topic:2588”]One Silver Dollar has the scene where Gemma is beaten up in a far poorer quality than the rest of the movie. The parts where someone pushes their thumbs into Gemmas eye balls is missing (present on the latest Cinifil/Imagica Japanese release), we just see Gemmas head banged against the wall and he falls unconcious.
How NEW dare to slap UNCUT all over the DVD packaging is unclear, pehaps they don’t even know those parts are missing from the cut scenes they re-inserted, anyhow I’m not very happy about it to put it mildly.
[/quote]

[quote=“Provvidenza, post:12, topic:2588”]Errr slightly embarrasing for me, appears I made a mistake, there is no eye gouging scene in One Silver Dollar, I’m confusing it with another Gemma SW. :-[
NEW DVD is UNCUT and does have the beating scene intact but in much lower quality than the rest of the movie.[/quote]

Look closely at Gary’s left cheek at 1:04:48

[url]- YouTube

Gemma scarred with a spur and the fingers in his eyes were cut, just as a previous beating sequence. In addition the scene starting at 1:05:10 was longer.

Too American for my tastes, despite the violence (the best thing in it) and Gemma seems too self-satisfied in his role (a problem I find quite a lot with him when he isn’t playing a character that is supposed to be smug a la Ringo or Johnny Yuma) and Ferroni’s direction is pedestrian (never one of the distinguished directors of the genre). I viewed it earlier this year but even now it’s hard to remember much beyond the general details of the film, which leads me to dub it with the unenviable epithet of “forgettable”.

Gemma wasn’t Johnny Yuma, that was this guy:

Of course! Mark Damon, the wannebe Gemma ;)! It reminds me in fact that I haven’t seen it in a long time and Guerrieri always repays a visit.

In the trailer we can see a few seconds of the censored part.

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Just re viewed this one via a fandub of a blu ray disc. Nice print. Not viewed a western with Gemma for a while, and it was a nice ride back. Yes its more American for sure. Thats fine with me, as thats one of the reasons why I like alot of these early ones. But take the english dub and music for example, its not quite American :smiley: . One of the early films of the star that just cements his appeal for me.

Is the blu-ray release of this cancelled or what?