Do the names Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, Frank Kramer,
Sartana, Sabata, Tuco or Trinity mean anything to you, amigo? If they do, it’s
probably because you’ve seen a few too many Spaghetti Westerns. "Spaghetti
Western," for those tenderfoots that might not know, is the name given to
a host of western films made in Italy and Spain during the sixties and
seventies featuring an international cast usually headed by an American actor
who had seen better days. Cowboy actors like Rod Cameron, Edd Byrne, and Guy
Madison went to Europe after their TV and film careers petered out to battle
outlaws, rustlers and ruthless killers who looked more like they just stepped
out of a pizzeria in Palermo than a saloon in South Texas. These movies are
wild, violent, and weird, but there was a certain something about them that
kept you watching.
Although patterned after the Hollywood western, they are different in
style, form, and content. The stories were full of double crosses and more
twists than a rusty corkscrew, and sometimes it was hard to tell the good from
the bad. Morality depended on how fast a man could draw a gun, but usually the
man who rode into town seeking revenge for past wrongs came out the winner. Of
course the most famous American TV Cowboy to strike it rich overseas was Clint
Eastwood through his association with Sergio Leone. As the Man with No Name he
and Leone made “A Fistful of Dollars,†“A Few Dollars More,†and “The Good the
Bad and the Ugly†and created not just a career but perhaps even a legend.
In Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, “Once Upon a Time . . . in
Hollywood,†Leonardo DiCaprio plays Rick Dalton, a washed up seventies TV
cowboy who makes the trip to Rome to restart his career by starring in "Uccidimi
Subito Ringo, Disse el Gringo," ("Kill Me Now Ringo, Said
the Gringo"). That slightly looney title inspired Fred Blosser, author and
movie reviewer for this site, to put together a book every Italian Western fan
should track down. Blosser, better known as a Robert E. Howard scholar, (see, "Western Weirdness, and Voodoo
Vengeance: An Informal Guide to Robert E. Howard's American Horrors"), has
seen more Spaghetti Westerns than anyone I know. He probably wouldn't admit it,
but I'd say he's an expert on the subject. “Sons of Ringo: The Great Spaghetti
Western Heroes,†is what he calls an informal readers guide to the pistoleros,
bounty hunters, mercenaries, and desperadoes of the Italian Western.
"Like Tarantino’s fictitious film," Blosser says,
"dozens of actual Italian Westerns were released with names like Ringo,
Django, Sartana, Sabata, and Trinity in the title. These films still remain an
indelible part of pop culture more than a half-century after they first
appeared on big screens in Europe and the U.S."
The book examines a representative section of these movies, beginning
with a brief overview of the genre. Selections from Leone and Corbucci
are highlighted, followed by the movies of the Sabata series, four non-series
Westerns starring the legendary Lee Van Cleef, two films by “the Fourth Sergioâ€
(Martino), two classics in the socially conscious “Zapata Western†sub-genre,
an array of lesser-known Sons of Ringo, and as a postscript, five
representative examples of the German Western school that paralleled the opening
phase of the Italian Western.
This book is full of information on films ranging from the well-known,
to the really obscure. If you're a fan and are looking for a book that provides
historical context for these movies, and perhaps tells you something you never
knew about them, this is it. Even a tinhorn four- flusher like me can find it
useful. There’s enough info on many of the titles that you'll be able to fake
it at your next cocktail party and convince your friends you've actually seen
them. Don't wait. Mosey on over to Amazon and tell them Tuco sent you. And
remember: "When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."