SWDb May 2022 recap

Magazine Newsletter
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Welcome to the May 2022 newsletter from in and around the Spaghetti Western Database, your regular newsletter of what happened last month.

Background: See Newsletter category of our forums :mailbox_with_mail: All forum members receive this :incoming_envelope: newsletter. Contact us if you have any questions.

:newspaper: NEW STUFF IN AND AROUND THE SWDB IN :spiral_calendar: MAY 2022:

:film_strip: New around the SWDb:
The first half of the year will be over faster than a colt’s shadow. In and around the SWDb these have been some busy months, with tons of improvements made to the database itself, many new folks joining our forums and plenty of home video releases come out or announced. As always, get in touch if you want to help out, anything from fixing a spelling mistake, to donating a few Euros to becoming a more active part of our gang of editors. The SWDb is the sum of its parts!

And as always: join the SWDb, help out, it will make it better :slight_smile:

:dvd: New and upcoming discs:
There are already some super interesting titles lined up for June and much later. But let’s look back first. The new relases in May were

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Highlights were the Koch Films release of Hellbenders, a French HD release of Red Sun and certainly the new 4K UltraHD releases by Kino Lorber Studio Classics of the two Dollars movies, which are an absolute must-have! We also liked an overlooked Marchent film getting the Explosive Media treatment.
And in June we can look forward to
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These include an overdue Castellari adventure getting a UK release as part of a new classics series by Studio Canal, a release of a Bronson classic by Koch Films, the UK release of the award winning Ennio and the first French HD release of Tepepa.
:calendar: Visit the SWDb home video release calendar
:arrow_double_up: Special tip: Complete your 4K UltraHD Dollars trilogy! Make sure you own all of Arrow’s releases, and have you dove into the Koch Films catalog old and new?

:church: Boot Hill Cemetery.
Our head of obits, @Tom_B had to update the boot hill cemetery with 5 new obituaries over the course of the last eight weeks. Rest in peace. :arrow_right: Check out “Cemetery with crosses”

:balance_scale: Reviews.
We reviewed a few titles last month. Please get in touch if you can or want to review movies, BluRays, soundtracks or books, in any language. As you can see, all reviews this month are in German, we could use more reviews in Italian, Spanish, French and other languages, too!
:arrow_right: :de: Abrechnung in Veracruz
:arrow_right: :de: An den Galgen, Bastardo
:arrow_right: :de: Starblack
:arrow_right: :de: Pistoleros

:books: Books.
New Franco Nero biography (Italian).

:headphones: Music.
No new additions these past weeks, we can use some extra help improving the quality and quantity of soundtrack info on the database, please get in touch!

:desert: Locations
We continue posting and sharing location visits and comparison on our Facebook page.

Those of you who feel inclined to donate a dollar or euro or two, head here. Also, whenever you shop at Amazon, click on one of the SWDb’s Amazon links first, it doesn’t matter which one. Special thanks for those who donated last month!

Many thanks to all and everyone who contributed this month, in the SWDb proper, here in the forums, everyone who has emailed us, shared our posts on social media or donated a few bucks our way. See you next month with a roundup of updates. We wish you the happiest new year and hope you check in regularly, discuss, spread the word and contribute (click here to read about the many ways how to do that).

…and follow us if you’re on Twitter:
https://www.twitter.com/SWdatabase

…or on Facebook, where we crossed the 25K threshold:

By the way

Quentin Tarantino’s CINEMA SPECULATION will hit bookshelves in October and it will certainly be a blast. This will be an ultimate dive into the cinema of the 70s from one of the most prolific directors working today and … it may even contain some thoughts about spaghetti westerns… we’ll see :slight_smile:

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ITALIAN WESTERNS IN BRITISH CINEMA

No matter how big our TV screens are, I think most of us agree that Italian Westerns are best seen at the cinema, the majority in a wide screen presentation. It is the format they were originally made for. However, that isn’t possible now unless you are lucky enough to attend a special screening event, and even home cinema projection doesn’t match the original cinema experience with an appreciative audience.
From November 1967 to December 1976, I saw a total of 45 Italian Westerns on the big screen. These were seen in and around London, some in almost empty “flea-pits”, others in larger cinemas healthy in attendance. See list below.
Most of the Westerns were a second feature “B” movie relegation, and it’s interesting that the main features that they accompanied have faded into virtual obscurity (BUONA SERA, MRS. CAMPBELL anyone?) while the Spaghettis I saw are enjoying a thriving popularity.
The downside of watching these first runs in the UK cinemas was that too many key genre titles were heavily mutilated. The last three Sergio Leone Westerns were, along with THE BIG GUNDOWN, DJANGO KILL, DAY OF ANGER, ACE HIGH and FACE TO FACE. Relatively free from vandalism were DEATH RIDES A HORSE, TODAY IT’S ME TOMORROW YOU, KILL THEM ALL AND COME BACK ALONE, BANDITOS and MY NAME IS NOBODY.
There were certain titles released in Britain that I couldn’t track down using the London film mag, Time Out. They were A PISTOL FOR RINGO (although I saw the sequel), THE HELLBENDERS and A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL. This last one would have been a must - see, yet it was savagely cut from over two hours to a meagre 77 minutes, the main feature being a poor sex comedy, ALL NEAT IN BLACK STOCKINGS starring Susan George. She did better later with Corbucci…
Apart from Leone, the only Spaghetti Western double bill I ever saw was FIVE GIANTS FROM TEXAS with A DOLLAR IN THE TEETH. The ABC cinema in the Old Kent Road was showing DJANGO KILL in July, 1970, and the cinema was almost empty on a Saturday afternoon, although an old man sat in front of me hungry for conversation between films. He was obviously there for the sexy A feature, DIRTY ANGELS (which at least had a Morricone score), but in DJANGO KILL, he let out a loud expletive when Paco Sanz got covered in molten gold!
One of my favourite memories was seeing FACE TO FACE for the first time in a Brixton cinema (albeit cut and full of kids), and I thought so highly of it that I returned later in the week to see it again and record it secretly on audio cassette.
A few years later video came along (1979 for me) and that was the opportunity to collect the films mainly uncut and to see the ones not released originally in the UK. Now technology has restored titles digitally, but I still retain happy memories of watching Italian Westerns on the Big Screen in London that didn’t always appear locally. Sometimes I would take my SLR camera loaded with high speed black and white film to take photos of key scenes, then develop them later and print them myself… Not to sell!

1967
FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE
1968
A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY.
1969
THE BIG GUNDOWN. DEATH RIDES A HORSE. TODAY IT’S ME TOMORROW YOU. ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. ACE HIGH (Revenge in El Paso).
1970
A PROFESSIONAL GUN. THE FIVE MAN ARMY. NAVAJO JOE. DAY OF ANGER. DJANGO KILL. BANDIDOS. A MAN CALLED SLEDGE. 10,000 DOLLARS BLOOD MONEY.
1971
SABATA. FIVE GIANTS FROM TEXAS. FOR A DOLLAR IN THE TEETH
1972
BEYOND THE LAW. A FEW DOLLARS FOR DJANGO. THE UNHOLY FOUR. COMPANEROS. KILL THEM ALL AND COME BACK ALONE. GARRINGO. TRINITY IS STILL MY NAME (Italian cinema). GOD FORGIVES I DON’T (Italian cinema uncut). BURY THEM DEEP. DUCK YOU SUCKER… A Fistful of Dynamite.
1973
THEY CALL ME TRINITY. DEAD OR ALIVE. ADIOS SABATA (The Bounty Hunters). THE BIG AND THE BAD. FACE TO FACE. DEAF SMITH AND JOHNNY EARS. THE PRICE OF POWER. THE RETURN OF RINGO. MAN OF THE EAST. ARIZONA COLT.
1974
A MAN A HORSE A GUN. DEATH RIDES ALONG. WANTED.
1975
A REASON TO LIVE A REASON TO DIE
1976
THE MAGNIFICENT BANDITOS (O Cangaceiro). MY NAME IS NOBODY.
Best wishes
Bruce Goodman

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