I am trying to compile a list of films where women had strong parts. They can even be secondary parts, as long as they were outside the normal, which would include bit parts as, old women, dancers or prostitutes.
Wouldn’t it be easier to make a short list of spaghs where women don’t had strong parts?
There are some in this old topic about lead roles.
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I re-watched Return of Ringo with my wife last night and was remarking that one of the things I really like about it is that Ringo/Montgomery Brown is not at all heroic for most of the film. He acts according to self-pity, jealousy, and occasionally a sense of machismo.
It’s his wife Hally who provides the impetus for his heroism in the last act of the film. When they meet again, his inclination is to get their daughter and cut and run. She says she won’t be doing that. She’s been doing hard work to protect their daughter and a town that she cares about while he’s been gone, and doesn’t want all of that to be for naught.
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Its been forever since I seen the Ringo films. Might be time for another view. Thank you. I have the Arrow release of the films.
Thank you! That helps a lot!
Kill The Wicked is mentioned in that Female Leads thread, and I was also thinking maybe this one… probably one of the stronger female characters I’ve seen in an SW, although its been a long time since I watched it
I also maybe want to say Cemetery Without Crosses, but although she’s a strong character, still a pretty typical role of getting a man to help her so…
Even the so called strong roles for women in SW are generally still full of stuff that makes them objectified and whatnot…
There’s also Sonny & Jed, which is a different kind of SW featuring a female as one of the leads, but plenty of things to find wrong with it as well
The 60’s/70’s audiences didn’t want women in lead roles. And that’s why SW’s grabbed the genre and guided it to its greatest successes.
Women had more important key roles. Big difference.
Check out “VOTE For TOP 10 Spaghetti Western ACTRESSES” in the Town Hall
Oh no, another SD topic from the past. 
Well this one doesn’t seem to go usual bat shit crazy though.
SD should be nominated for the misc spaghetti hall of fame 
Maybe for swdb shitlist. Along with Thomas Weisser. lol
From my top fifty:
Once Upon a Time in the West
The great silence
El Puro
Django
California
Companeros
The Bounty Killer
Cemetery Without Crosses
A Town Called Bastard
The Mercenary
Run Man, Run!
Antonio das Mortes
I Want Him Dead
And the Crows Will Dig Your Grave
A Bullet for the General
Death Played the Flute
El Bandido Malpelo
Keoma
The Belle Starr Story
Find a Place to Die
Why Go On Killing?
Vendetta per vendetta
A Pistol for Ringo
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This topic is broadly defined, given that “strong part” entails a plethora of female Spaghetti Western characters’ possible roles and functions, ranging from making a strong visual impact, e.g. bit parts for good-looking actresses, to actually being a film’s protagonist. The latter category comprises only a fistful of Euro-Westerns, among them Louis Malle’s Viva Maria ! (1965), Rudolf Zehetgruber and Sidney W. Pink’s Frauen, die durch die Hölle gehen / The Tall Women (1966), Siro Marcellini’s Lola Colt. Faccia a faccia con El Diablo (1967), Piero Cristofani and Lina Wertmüller’s Il mio corpo per un poker / The Belle Starr Story, Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent’s Fedra West, Gian Rocco’s Giarrettiera Colt (all 1968), Burt Kennedy’s Hannie Caulder, Christian-Jaque’s Les Pétroleuses (both 1971) and, more recently, Thomas Arslan’s Gold (2013) and Martin Koolhoven’s Brimstone (2016). Most of them already mentioned here or there.
Looking at the other end of the spectrum, special mention has to be made of Enzo G. Castellari’s Ammazzali tutti e torna solo (1968), a Western that avoids female characters altogether; the same can be said of Tonino Valerii’s Una ragione per vivere e una per morire (1972).
One of my favorite “strong” female roles in Italian Westerns is Rosalba Neri’s Agnes in Tonino Ricci’s Monta in sella, figlio di …! (1972).
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Where does this co-director credit come from?
Was that the original director before Wertmüller took over?
As far as I know the sole directing credit must go to Wetmüller.
I do not know. The French credits on my DVD tell me the film was directed by Nathan Wich (“réalisation”). Our own database, IMDb.com and Kevin Grant (A. G. C. P., p. 447) credit Lina Wertmüller and Piero Cristofani as directors. Giusti?
How about the matriarch of the Baxters in ‘Fistful of Dollars’?
Wich is only Wertmüller’s pseudonym, as is George Brown who is named for co-screenplay (together with Wich).
Cristofani started the film, but when Wertmüller took over, as a favour for Martinelli over to save the production, she threw away everything which was already shot and wrote a new screenplay and simultaneously already began to shoot the film.
That this film was shot by Wertmüller was widely unknown for several decades.
Interesting. Thanks for the info. Where did you find those details?
From a German book about Wertmüller (Hanser Reihe Film). Some more details in the films thread.
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