Original subtitles

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breaking through a door has always been

one of the most difficult oh well never

mind commercial successes in themselves

Italian westerns have also brought

prosperity to Al Maria on the Costa Del

sa of southern Spain once a sleepy

provincial town alaria has bloomed under

the influx of Italian film Capital into

a Spanish

Hollywood luxury hotels fashionable

restaurants and shops have sprung up to

cater to the International Film

set the reason for Al Maria's Success is

Not only because there are more sunny

days here than anywhere else in Europe

but also because of its real Western

Countryside within 20 mi of the city

there are Barren deserts Mexican

villages and deep Canyons

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w

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fore

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Al Maria also has its Western towns

today it's hickland gateway to the

Mexican border tomorrow it could be

Dodge City Tombstone or abene but always

populated by local gypsies pressed into

Service as Mexican trick riders and

stuntmen

Al Maria's five Western Villages and

Rome's 10 are the world's liveliest

ghost towns

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well dozen of small producers are

following each other in and out of the

western

towns the man who started it all Sergio

Leon has completed his fourth and

biggest

Western he says it will be his

last the unknown director who couldn't

interest anyone in his first Western is

now the alltime Italian box office

Champion for his film about about the

construction of the railroad across the

American West Ser Jo Leon built his own

track in the remote Spanish

Countryside he even blasted a mountain

out of the way and then hauled an

ancient Spanish locomotive rescued from

a Barcelona scrap Heap to run on his

iron

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Road and who be riding the

train well there's Henry Fonda clodia

cardali Jason robarts and Charles

Bronson among

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others yes American actors are coming to

work in the European version of the old

west the most recent arrival is

television star Chuck Connors

hi Chuck how's your Italian coming

along Chuck according to your experience

starring an American TV and feature

westerns how does the Italian Western

differ from those made in the

USA well there are many things basically

the same about doing a western here in

Italy as well as America the sets look

the the same we have the horses and the

extras and the Cavalry and the Cowboys

and what have you I would say the

underlying difference to me is the

emphasis that's placed on the elements

of the Western that make it a western H

by that I mean for instance in a western

you usually have one or two or maybe

three fights fist fights among the uh

contesting parties well in American

Western there might be five or six or

maybe seven punches thrown here you'll

you'll see a fight go on for 5 minutes

they may throw 25 30 or 40 punches

another element of the western is the

shooting of a gun uh when we make one at

home we fire the gun two or three times

here that gun May Fire 40 or 50 times

I'm sure that when we get to riding

horses the same thing will be true what

they do is that they set it up in a

larger frame the Western element of the

western motion picture and I think

they've come a long way and I I expect

that they'll get better as time

progresses uh basically however I uh

I've enjoyed it very much and we

continue to the one element which might

be in contradiction to that is that from

what I've seen of course my viewing is

limited I've seen about seven or eight

Italian westerns and of course I know

this script that uh the early American

Western the hero was always a pure hero

it was a question of black and white and

uh I noticed in most Italian pictures

I've seen that the hero is really an

anti-hero there's a lot of bad in him as

a matter of fact I myself for the first

time in a long time am playing someone

somebody who's not a pure hero and

truthfully I kind of like it all right

we'll give that stuntman just one more

chance I just don't believe it

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