Shifted timelines: Spaghetti western release dates in Europe and America

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One thing that has fascinated me and kept my mind busy in recent years is the chronology of how the beginnings of the spaghetti western era actually played out. I began to form an idea in my head, but it is only after looking at the exact dates and sequence of events that an actual picture emerges, partially confirming my notion: the chronology of the spaghetti western is different on both sides of the Atlantic, especially when looking at the starting phase.

The spaghetti western did not just emerge, become successful and then fade away. It had both precursors and an afterlife. We know that much. Where perspectives differ is how moviegoers back then first got in touch with the genre and how the success of these films actually played out.

In Europe, especially Italy (but also France, to some lesser degree Germany where films often took months to be dubbed and then be released, as well as Spain), the emergence of the spaghetti western was quick, often just with some delay, but following the releases in Italy. In Northamerica, the spaghetti western hit with some delay, often attributed to the legal dispute that held up A Fistful of Dollars, which led to the entire trilogy then being released more or less all at once, after it had been settled. And it is this delay that is often forgotten when looking through the SWDb from the lens of Italian release dates. In the USA, A Fistful of Dollars got released three years after it opened in Italy. By then, there were already tons of other films made, and Leone had already shot and released The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Django and The Great Silence never got released theatrically in the USA back then, of course.

To illustrate this, let me give you some data, with a sample of films side by side.

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This a a very amateurish take on this aspect, and I wonder how this looks like if we took a much much larger sample, especially with more 1964 to 1966 films, and also added data for France, Spain, Germany, the UK and Japan… maybe someone out there is a data nut :slight_smile:

I leave you with this, I don’t really have a … point, or punch line, it’s just something that I keep thinking about. By the time the spaghetti western really came up in the USA, it had already almost reached its climax back where it originated.

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The timeline in the UK was even weirder. No wonder critics couldn’t work out the major works and timelines.

Like in the USA the dollar movies were held up due to the Kurosawa lawsuit. First 2 in 1967, TGTBTU not till 1968.
A Pistol for Ringo came out in 1966 before the dollar films. Return of Ringo not until 1970. Arizona Colt also 1970.
Face to Face released in 1968 but The Big Gundown not until 1969.
Bullet for the General in 1968 in heavily cut 77m version.
Ace High released in 1969 but God Forgives I Don’t not until 1972 and then mentioned ‘The Trinity Boys’ on the poster.
Sartana rejected. The only Sartana movie shown theatrically was Light the Fuse and that didn’t show up until till December 1975.
Django rejected. Django Kills not released until 1969.

The Sabata movies feared better with first 2 released about a year after Italy. Third one not until 1973 and missing about 20m.
The two Trinity movies about a year later also.

No release for Great Silence, Run Man Run, Tepepa or any of the Gemma ‘comedy’ westerns. Hardly any Steffen or Lawrence westerns released.

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That’s really just skimming over the UKs … there were tons more released even before the phrase ‘Spaghetti Western’ was coined.

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I wonder what the very first was ?

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the very first spaghetti western in US theaters? very good question, I asked myself that as well… we could have an answer, but the SWDb release data is not quite far yet, but in the future I hope that the SWDb would have a very easy answer for that.

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Dear Sebastian,
I’m sure you could find out from Sir Christopher Frayling’s “Spaghetti Western”, the first chapter of which traces the release of the various films of this kind very painstakingly–so much so that he identifies–with absolute certainty–“A Fistful of Dollars” (1964) as the 25th–and, of course, most influential–spaghetti western–and–to a lesser degree, as it is mainly concerned with the genre’s–or, rather, more accurately, sub-genre’s–greatest artist, and not with the spaghetti western itself–Sir Christopher’s “Something About Death”, the English scholar’s bestselling–and, to date, the only–biography of Sergio Leone, a true cinematic giant.

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that’s not an answer to the question though, which was, which spaghetti western(s) were first shown in US theaters (vs. the Italian release dates we sort the films by in the database)

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Quite frankly, I believe it’s a perfectly good answer. I thought–and still do–that you can find your answers about the release dates of numerous spaghetti westerns in Frayling’s books.