The spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's filmmaking style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most of these Westerns were produced and directed by Italians.
A Fistful of Dollars is a 1964 spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood in his first leading role, alongside Gian Maria Volonté, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, José Calvo, Antonio Prieto and Joseph Egger. The film, an international co-production between Italy, West Germany and Spain, was filmed on a low budget, and Eastwood was paid $15,000 for his role.
Stephen Lester Reeves was an American professional bodybuilder and actor. He was famous in the mid-1950s as a movie star in Italian-made sword-and-sandal films, playing the protagonist as muscular characters such as Hercules, Goliath, and Sandokan. At the peak of his career, he was the highest-paid actor in Europe. Though best known for his portrayal of Hercules, he played the character only twice: in Hercules (1958), and in its 1959 sequel Hercules Unchained. By 1960, Reeves was ranked as the number-one box-office draw in 25 countries.
Richard Harrison is an American actor, writer, director and producer known for his work in European B-movies during the 1960s and 1970s, and exploitation films of the early 1970s.
The Grand Duel, also known as Storm Rider and The Big Showdown, is a 1972 Italian-language spaghetti Western film directed by Giancarlo Santi, who had previously worked as Sergio Leone's assistant director on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West. The film stars Lee Van Cleef as a sheriff who seeks justice for a man accused of murder.
The Pirates of Malaysia is a 1964 swashbuckler directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Steve Reeves as Sandokan the pirate. This film was a sequel to Reeve's 1963 film Sandokan the Great, also directed by Lenzi. Malaysian rebel, Sandokan, with his group of renegades, tries to thwart a British general from forcing the good Sultan Hassim to resign in favour of the Imperial crown.
Day of Anger is a 1967 Spaghetti Western film directed and co-written by Tonino Valerii and starring Lee Van Cleef and Giuliano Gemma, and features a musical score by Riz Ortolani. The film credits the novel Der Tod ritt dienstags by Ron Barker as its basis, although Valerii and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi have attested that this credit was primarily included to appease the West German co-producers, and that although some scenes are partially borrowed from it, the film is not an adaptation of Becker's novel.
Blood at Sundown is a Spaghetti Western film directed by Alberto Cardone. The film is notable as the primary inspiration for the Sartana film series, starring Gianni Garko as a antiheroic incarnation of the villainous character he previously portrayed in Blood at Sundown.
Chino is a 1973 Western film starring Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Marcel Bozzuffi, and Vincent Van Patten. The original English language title shown at the beginning of the film was The Valdez Horses, the same title that the 1967 novel by Lee Hoffman on which the movie is based. Hoffman was awarded the 1967 Western Writers of America Spur Award.
The Price of Death is a 1971 Italian Western film directed by Lorenzo Gicca Palli and starring Klaus Kinski and Gianni Garko. Some DVD releases use the title Der Galgen wartet schon, Amigo!.
Silver Saddle is a 1978 spaghetti Western. It is the third and final western directed by Lucio Fulci and one of the last spaghetti Westerns to be produced by a European studio. The film was based on an original story written by screenwriter Adriano Bolzoni and directed by Fulci for the Italian studio Rizzoli Film Productions.
Stranger in Sacramento or Uno straniero a Sacramento is a 1965 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Bergonzelli. It was based on the novel I Will Kill You Tomorrow by Jim Murphy.
Long Live Your Death is a 1971 Italian/Spanish/German international co-production Spaghetti Western / action comedy film directed by Duccio Tessari. The film is mostly a send up of "political" Spaghetti Westerns, like A Professional Gun and Compañeros.
The Specialists is a 1969 Spaghetti Western co-written and directed by Sergio Corbucci. It was an international co-production between Italy, France and West Germany. Retrospective critics and scholars of Corbucci's Westerns have deemed The Specialists to be the final film in the director's "Mud and Blood" trilogy, which also includes Django (1966) and The Great Silence (1968).
Johnny Hamlet (Italian: Quella sporca storia nel West, lit. 'That Dirty Story in the West' is a 1968 Italian film directed by Enzo G. Castellari. The film is a Spaghetti Western version of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet.
Domenico "Mimmo" Palmara was an Italian actor.
Panhandle 38 is a 1972 Italian comedy-western film. The film represents the debut and the only film directed by Toni Secchi, that had previously been the cinematographer of a number of successful spaghetti westerns. It was also the only leading role for Scott Holden, the son of William Holden and Brenda Marshall, who had a brief film career in early 70s.
Per il gusto di uccidere is the 1966 Italian Spaghetti Western film debut directed by Tonino Valerii. It is also the first film to use the camera system known as 2P. It was filmed in Almería. It is produced by Francesco Genesi, Vincenzo Genesi, Daniele Senatore, Stefano Melpignano and Jose Lopez Moreno, scored by Nico Massi and edited by Rosa G. Salgado.
Il bello, il brutto, il cretino, internationally known as The Handsome, the Ugly, and the Stupid is a 1967 Italian film directed by Giovanni Grimaldi starring the comic duo Franco and Ciccio. It is a Spaghetti Western parody of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Bullets Don't Argue is a 1964 Italian Spaghetti Western directed by Mario Caiano. The film was produced by Jolly Film, back to back with Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, but with a more extensive budget and anticipating greater success than Leone's film, especially since at the time leading actor Rod Cameron was better known than Clint Eastwood.
