The Spaghetti Western thread

[Andrew Monroe Pallid Hands Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew Monroe]

Someone at the SWDB forum posted this, spaghetti westerns screening in Chicago this summer...and free beer! Damn, this is ME. Wish I was in the area.




There will be some Spaghetti Westerns screened in Chicago this summer as a part of a matinee festival at the Music Box Theatre.


Schedule
Saturday, June 29th
• 11:30am: A Fistful of Dollars
Sunday, June 30th
• 11:30am: A Fistful of Dollars
Saturday, July 6th
• 11:30am: The Hellbenders
Sunday, July 7th
• 11:30am: The Hellbenders
Saturday, July 13th
• 11:30am: The Big Gundown
Sunday, July 14th
• 11:30am: The Big Gundown
Saturday, July 20th
• 11:30am: Death Rides a Horse
Sunday, July 21st
• 11:30am: Death Rides a Horse
Saturday, July 27th
• 11:30am: The Grand Duel
Sunday, July 28th
• 11:30am: The Grand Duel
Saturday, August 3rd
• 11:30am: The Mercenary
Sunday, August 4th
• 11:30am: The Mercenary
Saturday, August 10th
• 11:30am: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Sunday, August 11th
• 11:30am: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Saturday, August 17th
• 11:30am: Sabata
Sunday, August 18th
• 11:30am: Sabata
Saturday, August 24th
• 11:30am: A Fistful of Dynamite, a.k.a., Duck, You Sucker!
Sunday, August 25th
• 11:30am: A Fistful of Dynamite, a.k.a., Duck, You Sucker!

http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/

Of note are special screenings of Big Gundown and Sabata which also play on Tuesdays as part of an industry appreciation showing (people in the food,beverage,entertainment industry). These showing will be preceded by free beer tastings!

The Big Gundown July 6 2:00
Sabata July 20 2:00

http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/colle...ustry-tuesdays


Since I can't go, I am planning to rewatch TWO CROSSES AT DANGER PASS this weekend and drink beer...so there.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

How I wish I could go to that festival!
You get to see some of the films twice! It's like the 1970s all over again.

Wild East announced a new double-feature:



Still waiting on the Sartana box and the Klaus Kinski double-feature (July 16).

[Andrew Monroe Pallid Hands Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew Monroe]

I think Wild East has delayed the Sartana set. That's a good double feature but I sure wish they would release some films that haven't been so available. Say TWO FACES OF THE DOLLAR or a widescreen version of TASTE OF DEATH.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

Those of you who can, please vote in my WILD EAST DVD poll:

http://forum.spaghetti-western.net/i...ic,3828.0.html

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

Perhaps the reason I respond favorably to ONE SILVER DOLLAR (1965) is that the story is written like an American western. It is aware of the conflict between the north and south following the Civil War and integrates that into the plot, which is overly contrived, but no more or less than most westerns. The film never forgets the humanity of its characters. Although nihilism pokes its head through from time to time it never takes over. Nicely produced, well-crafted, with low-key acting and sturdy direction. One of the better spaghetti westerns.

The color is slightly faded but the densities seem right in this analog-quality transfer. There is frequent interlacing. On the plus side the transfer is anamorphic at 2.35-1, appears to be uncut at 92 minutes and 22 seconds, and offers an optional English dub that defaults into German occasionally and back again. No subtitle options. There are extras which I didn't check out.

The New / Entertainment World hardbox came in different covers before it went oop. Mine is what you see.

The film merits a hi-def transfer and a blu-ray release.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

I think Wild East has delayed the Sartana set. That's a good double feature but I sure wish they would release some films that haven't been so available. Say TWO FACES OF THE DOLLAR or a widescreen version of TASTE OF DEATH.

I'd buy either one or both of those.

Looks like Wild East keeps an eye out for hi-def transfers initiated by European companies for region 2, and then licenses those for the USA. That's why all their DVD's are region 2 releases first. They don't pay for transfers or restorations. Just the license on a very limited basis, if they can get it. So I wouldn't expect anything special from them in the future.

[Andrew Monroe Pallid Hands Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew Monroe]

Glad to hear you liked ONE SILVER DOLLAR, Richard. It's a particular favorite of mine. I love the Gianni Ferrio score. Gemma, in addition to being one of the most likeable western leads and not overly cynical, brings such a physicality too, doing much of his own stunt work. Quite an underrated actor too.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

I'd be willing to buy an upgrade if one ever happens.

If it had been made three years later it would be a very different film, wouldn't you say.

One of the things I enjoy most is Ida Galli who represses a smoldering inner fire to play Gemma's proper wife. Ida was a classic Italian beauty who resembled Sophia Loren. Love the bone structure of her face and that obscene lower lip. She turns up in a number of Italian genre films of the 1960s including Bava's films. She was soft and elegant in Visconti's THE LEOPARD (1963). She's in SYNDICATE SADISTS (1975), too.

[Andrew Monroe Pallid Hands Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew Monroe]

Oh, now you're speaking my language! I adore Ida Galli/Evelyn Stewart...beautiful but there's also a fragile quality to her looks. She was in quite a few spaghettis, although she didn't have much to do in many except be rescued. Check out GATLING GUN though, where she had a change of pace role - and looked particularly ravishing. She was in a lot of gialli too - THE BLOODSTAINED BUTTERFLY and THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH are two favorites of mine.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

American westerns generally offered women better roles and more things to do than spaghetti westerns. Female lead stories are rare in the spaghetti western, unlike the giallo which was almost entirely a female lead genre. All those healthy Italian beauties get raped, killed and abandoned in little more than a few minutes. There are exceptions. One of the reasons ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968) succeeds so well is that it's essentially a female lead story. True, the western is considered a male dominated genre, but when you give someone like Claudia Cardinale something substantial to do, gentlemen in the audience forget about that other stuff they came in for. Michelle Mercier's tragic black widow in CEMETERY WITHOUT CROSSES (1969) had me wanting to kick a hole through a stained glass window. What are some other spaghetti westerns with substantial female characters? and who plays them?

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

This essay on ONCE UPON IN THE WEST doesn't take long to read and is worthwhile:

http://www.spaghetti-western.net/ind...erpschutter%29

[Andrew Monroe Pallid Hands Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew Monroe]

Okay, I checked out all 8 films on the two new Timeless Media spaghetti western dvds - save for one film they are all letterboxed, non-anamorphic transfers and from a spot check, pretty mediocre prints too. SHOOT, GRINGO...SHOOT is the lone anamorphic print but it is no improvement on the old Koch dvd, may be worse in fact. I watched A BULLET FOR A STRANGER aka THEY CALL HIM CEMETERY in full and the print is the same old overly dark mess with that hideously distorted English audio track. I'm wondering if this is just a copy of the Franco Cleef disc. I'd say pass on these two discs unless you need a cheap copy of several of the films and don't care if they're not anamorphic.

Edit - here's the full list of films on each disc:

Movie 4 You Spaghetti Westerns
A PISTOL FOR RINGO
THE RETURN OF RINGO
RINGO FACE OF REVENGE
SHOOT GRINGO SHOOT

Movie 4 You More Spaghetti Westerns
BLOOD FOR A SILVER DOLLAR
10,000 DOLLARS FOR A MASSACRE
7 DOLLARS ON THE RED
A BULLET FOR A STRANGER

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

From your description it sounds like Timeless Media has recycled the horrid transfers from THE BEST OF SPAGHETTI WESTERNS IN THE TRADITION OF TGATU mega-box into smaller packages. How disappointing. I was hoping for decent NTSC transfers of A PISTOL FOR RINGO and THE RETURN OF RINGO. Guess I'll go ahead and order the German Koch DVD's which I understand are excellent quality in PAL whir-up.

Thanks for the report, Andrew.

[Paul L Scholar of Sleaze Find all posts View Profile Close Paul L]

Anybody know anything about the Spanish blu of THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY? Audio is in 2.0 mono (Spanish and English) with no 5.1 mix - I'm curious whether the English mono track is the same downmix of the 5.1 track on the MGM disc (with the ugly new foley). If it's not, and contains the original foley, I'll gladly buy this film for the umpteenth time.

[Andrew Monroe Pallid Hands Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew Monroe]

I missed it, but last year Cristina Galbo posted a comment at Tom Betts' blog about her life with Peter Lee Lawrence and Tom has just reposted her words at the SWDb forum - scroll down to the bottom of the page. She corrected the misinformation that has gone around that he committed suicide. It's a pretty moving read. Nice to get a peak at the personal side of Lawrence, he's really grown on me as a spaghetti actor.