OK, I’ll jump on it at the weekend so we can get it up and running.
@Seb
I have added some text for Giusti’s Dizionario to the page and here is something for Fridlund’s book if you’d like to use it.
This thematic analysis from Swedish academic Fridlund focuses on the construction of the stories presented in spaghetti westerns; examining their content using concepts borrowed from scholars studying pre-industrial narratives. Plot, the constellation of characters, their relationships to each other and their motives are studied while elements such as bounty hunters, the deprived hero, partnerships, betrayal and comedy are also probed. There is also an excellent appendix detailing the top grossing Italian westerns between 1964 and 1975. Academic in nature but very accessible and readable for anyone interested in the genre.
cool, thanks so much!
so some text about the other frayling book is missing, then we can go live. just have a quote from stanton so far.
Just bought it for £5 on amazon.co.uk. New it’s £999 …
Ok done from my end. We cal always improve on it, but I guess for now it could be considered ready to be published
The Gian Lhassa three volume set is still not included in the list of books - looks like you made a page without linking it.
Well it is already 12 books on a list that says it’s a list of 10 
Here’s our main book category, if it’s not in there we’ll have yet to put it up, but I can’t do everything on my own I am afraid 
Category:Books - The Spaghetti Western Database
Yes, I meant on the general book list not the top-10 one. You made a nice page for it but then didn’t provide any link to it so nobody will know it is there.
Will put it on my list to do if nobody else jumps in
Has anyone read Matteo Mancini’s 3-volume “Spaghetti Western” set? I have volumes 1 and 2 so far and will probably get vol. 3 (1968-71) when I next place an order at Amazon.de. I cannot read these books all the way through because they’re in Italian but I can read bits here and there thanks to having studied a year of Italian many years ago.
A tidbit from volume 2 (1967)-- his best of the year, in order: Face to Face, Requiescant, Days of Anger, Death Rides a Horse, Django Kill, Fury of Johnny Kidd, Any Gun Can Play, God Forgives I Don’t, Two Crosses at Danger Pass, Days of Violence, The Last Killer, God Does Not Pay on Saturday, Death Sentence, Man Pride and Vengeance, The Hellbenders, $100000 for a Massacre, Sugar Colt and Time of Vultures.
My favorites are Grant’s Any Gun Can Play, The Opera of Violence, Austin Fisher’s Radical Frontiers, and the three Glittering Images volumes. Brückner’s book is great for reference. I don’t own Giusti.
I would love an English edition of Kessler!
I was about to ask how they compare to Giusti’s “Dizionario” which is my go-to reference book, but then I saw your follow-up post:
I don’t own Bruckner (and can’t really read German anyway) so can’t compare there. Reading Tom Bett’s review of Mancini, it sounds like it is more like Grant’s “Any Gun Can Play” in style than a dictionary like Giusti or Bruckner.
Yes, closer to Grant than to Brückner and Giusti. There is much in this book-- the volume on 1967 alone contains ~250 pages of info, commentary, stories and history of the films. I only wish I didn’t have to crawl through it little bit by little bit, accompanied by my Garzanti dictionary. 
I know that this has been discussed elsewhere but I must make a strong “anti-recommendation” for Thomas Weisser’s Spaghetti Westerns: The Good, The Bad and The Violent. After placing the dvd in the player tonight I looked up “La notte dei serpenti” (Petroni, 1969). Here is Weisser’s description of the film (p. 226):
“The ‘Serpent’ is a notorious bandit (Luigi Pistilli) who wreaks havoc on Silver City when, after attempting a bank robbery, he and his gang are trapped inside a saloon.”
Burn this book, shred it, do not waste money or time on it. And whatever you do, if you have the misfortune of owning this p.o.s., do not base your viewing or buying on what you read in it.
You veterans on this board will be able to spot problems, but newcomers to the genre would be very poorly served by this book.
OItalian Western: The Opera of Violence by Staig and Williams is a valuable book written just after the decline of the filone.
The authors’ love for the SWs is obvious, but consider this from page 23:
“…the now defunct Italian Western undoubtedly had a total of ninety percent dross…” That’s rough!
Some of the popular films are savaged:
Sentenza di morte-- "mediocre."
A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die–"appalling."
The “Stranger” films of Tony Anthony and all 3 Sabatas-- "bad works."
None of the Sartanas are even mentioned.
I dunno, Charlie; I think they’ve probably got a point. 
Alex Cox’s book kinda irritated me at first with all the weird opinions, contradictions & errors, but I can’t deny it was a fun read.
I agree with you, Dean. I remember the chapters on “Giú la testa” and “Il ritorno di Ringo” as being particularly bizarre in their (alleged) reasoning and criticism. A fun book, but way, way down the list of my favorite SW books.
1 Like
See, I bloody love Alex Cox’s book. It’s written from a highly subjective viewpoint of course but, so what? I’m interested (within the context of reading 10,000 Ways to Die) in Alex’s opinion on this film or that. If I want a definitive, objectuve synopsis on any spag under God’s yellow sun I’ll just ask @stanton. 
Alex Cox’s passionate hatred toward Tony Anthony and Stranger films was weird. And his interpretation of For a Few Dollars More (that PLL in the flashback is actually LVC as a yonger man) was just laughable and wrong.
1 Like