La morte non conta i dollari

Last updated
La morte non conta i dollari
La morte non conta i dollari.jpg
Directed by Riccardo Freda
Story by
  • Giuseppe Masini
  • Riccardo Freda [1]
Produced byEnrico Cogliati Dezza [2]
Starring
Cinematography Gábor Pogány [1] [2]
Edited byAnna Amedei [2]
Music by
Production
company
Cinecidi [2]
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date
  • 21 July 1967 (1967-07-21)(Italy)
Running time
92 minutes [1]
CountryItaly [1]
LanguageItalian
Box office ₤151 million

La morte non conta i dollari (lit. Death Does Not Count the Dollars) [3] 1967 Italian spaghetti Western film directed by Riccardo Freda. The film is about Lawrence White who returns to his hometown of Owell Rock with his sister to avenge the father's death at the hands of a gang. The leader of the gang, Doc Lester has recently appointed himself the gunslinger Boyd as the new sheriff.

Contents

La morte non conta i dollari was Freda's only Western he directed. Co-written with Giuseppe Masini, it was shot in Rome with actors Mark Damon and Luciano Pigozzi. Second unit director Yves Boisset suggested that Freda had shot the film without caring for the production and that a stuntman had even died on set. Actor Stephen Forsyth had denied any death occurring while filming.

Plot

Lawrence White returns to his hometown and reopens the investigation about the murder of his father. At the same time arrives Boyd, who frequently gets into fights. Doc Lester, who is the one behind the murder, hires Boyd and makes him the sheriff to stop White. However, it turns out that "Boyd" is the real Lawrence White, while ”White” is a friend of his. Rustlers kill Major White, and a witness who reports to the sheriff is later shot and has his tongue cut out. Many years later the son of major White returns in a stagecoach. It is stopped by some military, but another passenger, Boyd, discloses them as false, and they ride off. When White arrives people say that this will mean trouble for major Lester. White now tries to reopen the murder case of his father and gets into a fight with Lester's men. White's sister, on the other hand, advocates vengeance.

Boyd gets into several fights and is recruited by Lester, who has him appointed the new sheriff when the old one is killed. Elisabeth, a girl he has acquainted, now rejects him and asks him to find the murderer of her father, who has been killed by men of Lester, because he intended to help White. When he visits the widow of the former land officer, White is caught in a trap by Lester's men. She explains that they would have tortured her otherwise. Lester sends Boyd to make White confess to murder, but instead he unties White. Some Lester men now appear saying that Lester did right to check him. They start beating Boyd when the widow appears with a rifle. She is shot but Boyd gets a gun and kills them. We now learn that Boyd is the real son of major White, while "White" is his friend, a federal lawyer from Washington. White follows a lead and finds judge Warren's daughter as a prostitute in Mexico. He now can convince the judge top reopen the case. Lester's gang ambush White, but the stage is manned with dolls and explodes, and the rest of the gang is killed in the ensuing gunfight. Lester is arrested. White stays on as sheriff united with Elisabeth, while his friend leaves with White's sister.

Cast

Themes

In his investigation of narrative structures in Spaghetti Western films, Fridlund ranges White with his false identity and double play in La morte non conta i dollari among the stories of infiltrators with hidden agendas that took their inspiration from A Fistful of Dollars . [4]

Production

After returning to the Italian film industry, Freda collaborated with scriptwriter Giuseppe Masini. [5] Freda stated that for the script, he took inspiration from Prosper Mérimée's Carmen . [5] Second unit director Yves Boisset stated that he tried to get Klaus Kinski for the leading role in the film, but the producer did not take his suggestion. [6] Mark Damon got the lead role in the film, having previously starred in other Italian Western's including Johnny Oro (1966) and Johnny Yuma (1966). [6]

The film was predominantly shot in the hills around Rome. [6] Actor Stephen Forsyth stated that Freda took care of the whole shooting noting that "in general it would be unusual for any scenes with dialogue and principal actors to be done without the director present." [6] Boisset described Freda's attitude towards the film while directing as indifferent, stating that "during shooting everybody ceased to care. Freda was not the only one responsible for that; there was also the climate of vulgarity on the part of the producers, but he accommodated. I think Riccardo got enguled in a ghetto by himself, working with third-rate producers and actors." [6] In his autobiography, Boisset recalls directions of scenes such as the filming of a saloon brawl which are not in the film and claims that the film was shot at the same time as another production with the same cast and crew. [7] Forsyth stated that "two films being shot together is news to me" [7] Boisset also recalled a fatality on set involving a stuntman, which Forsyth also denied happening. [7] [3] Italian film historian Roberto Curti stated that no other sources outside Boisset reported the death. [3]

Release

La morte non conta i dollari credits have Freda using the alias George Lincoln. [8] Freda has stated that his edit of the film was "destroyed" by censors and that "I had little resources, and they cut the most violent scenes....But I insist, I wrote the scenario, it was a cruel film." [8] [3] Despite Freda's accusations, the board of censors only cut six seconds from the film on its release. [3]

The film was distributed theatrically in Italy by Warner Bros. on July 21, 1967. [2] The film grossed 151 million Italian lire domestically in Italy. [2] Curti described the film's reception as "almost unnoticed" in Italy. [3] Freda also disliked the title of the film, feeling that it "doesn't mean anything., neither in French, nor in English, and not even in Italian!" [3] On the film's release in Denmark, it was released as Johnny Yma vender tilbage, a sequel to Romolo Guerrieri's Johnny Yuma which also starred Damon. [6] The film has been released in the United States under various titles, including Death at Owell Rock, No Killing Without Dollars and Death Does Not Count the Dollars. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spaghetti Western</span> Film genre

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 film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most of these Westerns were produced and directed by Italians.

<i>A Fistful of Dollars</i> 1964 film directed by Sergio Leone

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riccardo Freda</span> Italian film director

Riccardo Freda was an Italian film director. He worked in a variety of genres, including sword-and-sandal, horror, giallo and spy films.

<i>Sartana</i>

Sartana is a series of Spaghetti Western films which follows the adventures of the title character, a gunfighter and gambler who uses mechanical gadgets and seemingly supernatural powers to trick his rivals. The series features five official entries: If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death (1968), I am Sartana, Your Angel of Death (1969), Sartana's Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin, Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay and Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming. The first film was directed by Gianfranco Parolini, with the remaining four directed by Giuliano Carnimeo. Sartana is portrayed by Gianni Garko in all films in the series except for Sartana's Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin, in which he was portrayed by George Hilton.

<i>Day of Anger</i> 1967 film by Tonino Valerii

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.

<i>If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death</i> 1968 film

If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death is a 1968 Spaghetti Western film directed by Gianfranco Parolini. The film stars Gianni Garko, William Berger, Fernando Sancho and Klaus Kinski, and features a musical score by Piero Piccioni.

<i>Blood at Sundown</i> 1966 film by Alberto Cardone

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.

<i>His Name Was King</i> 1971 film

His Name Was King is a 1971 Italian Western film directed by Giancarlo Romitelli and starring Richard Harrison and Klaus Kinski.

<i>The Price of Death</i> 1971 film

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 feature the title Der Galgen wartet schon, Amigo!.

<i>Mannaja</i> 1977 film

Mannaja is an Italian 1977 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Martino. The main role, Blade, is played by Maurizio Merli. Other central roles are played by John Steiner, Sonja Jeannine, Donald O'Brien, Philippe Leroy and Martine Brochard.

<i>Stranger in Sacramento</i> 1965 film

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.

<i>Per 100.000 dollari ti ammazzo</i> 1967 film

Per 100.000 dollari ti ammazzo is a 1967 Italian Spaghetti Western film. It represents the directorial debut film of Giovanni Fago. On the set of this film Gianni Garko got to know Susanna Martinkova, a Czechoslovakian actress at her debut in an Italian production, who little later married the actor and had a daughter with him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ignazio Spalla</span> Italian film actor

Ignazio Spalla, best known as Pedro Sanchez, was an Italian film actor.

<i>A Few Dollars for Django</i> 1966 film

A Few Dollars for Django is a 1966 Italian/Spanish co-production Spaghetti Western film directed by León Klimovsky and Enzo G. Castellari and starring Anthony Steffen. Although credited only to León Klimovsky, A Few Dollars for Django was predominantly directed by an uncredited Enzo G. Castellari.

<i>Per il gusto di uccidere</i> 1966 film

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.

<i>Murder Obsession</i> 1981 film

Murder Obsession, a.k.a. Fear, is a 1981 Italian giallo-horror film directed by Riccardo Freda, and starring Laura Gemser and Anita Strindberg.

<i>Trap for the Assassin</i> 1966 film

Trap for the Assassin is a 1966 French crime film directed by Riccardo Freda and starring Georges Géret, Irene Papas and Jean-Pierre Marielle. It is an adaptation of the 1886 novel Roger la Honte by Jules Mary.

Luciana Gilli is a former Italian film actress. During the 1960s she starred in a number of Italian films or European co-productions, particularly adventure stories and westerns.

<i>Byleth: The Demon of Incest</i> 1972 film

Byleth: The Demon of Incest is a 1972 Italian gothic horror film directed and written by Leopoldo Savona. Set in 19th-century Italy, the film features Mark Damon as Lionello Shandell who welcomes his sister Barbara and her new husband Giordano back to their castle after their trip to England. The two siblings are strongly affectionate for each other and the new marriage has caused Lionello into a mad jealousy which Giordano tries to cure as murders begin mysteriously happening around the castle.

References

Footnotes

Sources

  • Curti, Roberto (2017). Riccardo Freda: The Life and Works of a Born Filmmaker. McFarland. ISBN   978-1476628387.
  • Fridlund, Bert (2006). The Spaghetti Western. A Thematic Analysis. McFarland.
  • Giusti, Marco (2007). Dizionario del western all'italiana (in Italian). Mondadori. ISBN   978-88-04-57277-0.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.