It would be interesting to talk a little about all the italian westerns that were made before Sergio Leone re-invented the genre with his first masterpiece A Fistful of Dollars in 1964
Both Sergio Corbucci and Mario Caiano, who later were to direct many spaghettis, were involved in this early boom of italian made westerns.
I think Iāve only seen Corbucciās Massacre at Grand Canyon, but he also made Minnesota Clay, in the early more american style of italo-westerns.
Caiano directed Pistols donāt Argue, actually at the same time that Leone was shooting Fistful in Spain.
Of course there were many more films made. So speak out, have you seen many of these early italian westerns and what do you think of them?
Iāve seen āGunfight at red sandsā and I think it was not bad after all. It feels like an american western but it has few hints of what upcoming italian westerns will bring. And itās the first Morricone spaghetti western soundtrack (but it sounds like those from earlier american ones and I donāt like it to be honest)
I would call the pre-Fistful films italian Westerns instead of Italo- or Spaghetti Westerns.
They are very simple, like the Karl May films, but done without any style, according to the ones Iāve seen. Massacre at Grand Canyon is exactly what american critics thought how european westerns would look like. Naive copies of american models they are (all?). But Minnesota Clay, done at the same time as Fistful, contains indeed some of the stylistic characteristics that set the SWs apart.
I havenāt seen Minnesota Clay, so I donāt know how much stylistic elements there are in that film. But from what Iāve seen of other films, and from what I know of the history of the genre, no I donāt think we would ever have seen anything like the Dollars films, and in turn anything like the best films by Corbucci.
But a less distinct style of italian westerns could very well have emerged even without Leone, and to be honest many spaghettis made after Fistful donāt even share that much with Leoneās style, so they donāt owe very much to that first film at all.
Has anyone seen the British produced āTierra Brutalā (1961) (IMDB[url]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056448/[/url]), it is considered to be one of the first European Westerns, and was shot in the classic Almeria region of Spain.
Interestingly, it was directed by Michael Carreras, son of Hammer Filmās owner Sir James Carreras, and the man who took over running Hammer films in the mid-1960s, to their eventual demise.
these early examples are generally a waste of time but her is some i found entertaining
gunfight at high noon
ride and kill
already in 65 a number of realy good examples of the genre started to pop up, could it all be due to the success of leone or could the genre have developed in the same sort of direction anyway with the same sort of influences and the climate of the italian movie industry.the statements that the italians had done a couple of westerns before leone but the genre was dead when he stepped in is not really the truth,the italians had made their own westerns since ww2 and the output of the years 63/64 is quite substantial
According to C. Frayling - Girl of the Golden West (1911) is the first spaghetti western worthy of a name. Not the very first but the āfirst worthy of a nameā.
Check out pages 30-31 in āSpaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leoneā for more info on pre-spaghetti westerns. Frayling covers the topic very throughly. This is coming from a man who knows his shit and has spent his life studying the genre.
Girl of the Golden West is an opera. Iāve seen online at imdb.com there have been film adaptations under the same name but I dunno if the story lines are similar or what
I just watched the Bulles donāt Argue, an early italo-western by Mario Caiano with Rod Cameron and Horst Frank. Itās a good film with typical american-western plot about the Pat Garret who has to take two outlaw brothers in front of justice. Horst Frank is great villain and the music by Morricone is excellent as always. Very entertaining film though it doesnāt have much of the āItalian-styleā.
[quote=ākevinbellamy, post:8, topic:470ā]According to C. Frayling - Girl of the Golden West (1911) is the first spaghetti western worthy of a name. Not the very first but the āfirst worthy of a nameā.
Check out pages 30-31 in āSpaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leoneā for more info on pre-spaghetti westerns. Frayling covers the topic very throughly. This is coming from a man who knows his shit and has spent his life studying the genre.
Girl of the Golden West is an opera. Iāve seen online at imdb.com there have been film adaptations under the same name but I dunno if the story lines are similar or what[/quote]But if we count movies only I wonder if La Vampira Indiana[/url] is the first Italian western. If it really is, itās quite remarkable that it was Sergio Leoneās father who directed it.
