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.
The Western is a genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada.
The Thief of Bagdad is a 1924 American silent adventure film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Douglas Fairbanks, and written by Achmed Abdullah and Lotta Woods. Freely adapted from One Thousand and One Nights, it tells the story of a thief who falls in love with the daughter of the Caliph of Baghdad. In 1996, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Yojimbo is a 1961 Japanese samurai film directed by Akira Kurosawa, who also co-wrote the screenplay and was one of the producers. The film stars Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada, Daisuke Katō, Takashi Shimura, Kamatari Fujiwara, and Atsushi Watanabe. In the film, a rōnin arrives in a small town where competing crime lords fight for supremacy. The two bosses each try to hire the newcomer as a bodyguard.
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.
Tarzan and the Leopard Woman is a 1946 American action film based on the Tarzan character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs and portrayed by Johnny Weissmuller. Directed by Kurt Neumann, the film sees Tarzan encounter a tribe of leopard-worshippers. It was shot in the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. Its plot has nothing in common with Burroughs' 1935 novel Tarzan and the Leopard Men.
The Ostern is a film genre created in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc as a variation of the Western films. The word "Ostern" is a portmanteau derived from the German word Ost, meaning "East", and the English word "western". The term now includes two related genres:
Red Sun is a 1971 Franco-Italian international co-production Spaghetti Western film directed by Terence Young and starring Charles Bronson, Toshirō Mifune, Alain Delon, Ursula Andress, and Capucine. It was filmed in Spain by the British director Young, with a screenplay by Denne Bart Petitclerc, William Roberts, and Lawrence Roman from a story by Laird Koenig. The film was released in the United States on 9 June 1972.
The Five Man Army is a 1969 Italian Zapata Western film in which a group of five men are enlisted to rob a train of a gold shipment during the Mexican Revolution. Directed by Don Taylor, it featured a script by a young Dario Argento, later future maestro of the horror and thriller genre, and a score by Ennio Morricone. Argento directed uncredited also some sequences of the film.
Tony Anthony is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director best known for his starring roles in Spaghetti Westerns, most of which were produced with the aid of his friends and associates Allen Klein and Saul Swimmer. These films consist of The Stranger series - A Stranger in Town (1967), The Stranger Returns (1967), The Silent Stranger (1968) and Get Mean (1975) - and the Zatoichi-inspired Blindman (1971). Anthony also wrote, produced and starred in Comin' at Ya! (1981) and Treasure of the Four Crowns (1983), the first film being largely credited with beginning the 1980s revival of 3D films in Hollywood.
Dan van Husen was a German actor. He started his career in the 1960s, playing in a number of Spaghetti Westerns, and also performed in Italian and German films by renowned directors including Frederico Fellini and Werner Herzog and in German TV series. Starting in the 2000s he performed in Hollywood films, and in 2008 had a role in a Dutch World War 2 movie, Winter in Wartime.
Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale is a 2007 American/Canadian direct-to-video animated Christmas fantasy comedy film. The film was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and Turner Entertainment Co., and is the first Tom and Jerry film directed by Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone. It serves as the fifth direct-to-video Tom and Jerry film and is a semi-adaptation of 1816 short story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" by E. T. A. Hoffmann, with Jerry in the role of the Nutcracker and Tom in the role of one of the Mouse King's henchmen.
Anthony Caruso was an American character actor in more than one hundred American films, usually playing villains and gangsters, including the first season of Walt Disney's Zorro as Captain Juan Ortega.
Anthony Steffen, born Antonio Luiz de Teffé von Hoonholtz, was an Italian-Brazilian character actor, screenwriter and film producer. Steffen achieved fame as a leading man in Spaghetti Western features. He was also known as Antonio Luigi de Teffe.
Pete, Pearl & the Pole, also known as 1931: Once Upon a Time in New York, is a 1973 Italian-American gangster film directed by Luigi Vanzi and starring Tony Anthony.
Là dove non batte il sole, also known as The Stranger and the Gunfighter and El kárate, el Colt y el impostor, is a 1974 kung fu Spaghetti Western comedy film directed by Antonio Margheriti and starring Lo Lieh and Lee Van Cleef. The film is based upon an original screenplay by Barth Jules Sussman who received sole screenplay credit as can be seen in the film credits. The names of the other writers listed elsewhere in this article were attached after production ended, to take advantage of Italian tax rebates. It was produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio in collaboration with an Italian company, and filmed on location in Hong Kong and Spain. For English-language release, the film was retitled The Stranger and the Gunfighter and Blood Money.
Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! is a 1967 spaghetti Western film directed by Giulio Questi and starring Tomas Milian, Marilù Tolo, Roberto Camardiel, and Ray Lovelock in his film debut.
A Stranger in Town, released in the UK as For a Dollar in the Teeth, is a 1967 Italian-American Spaghetti Western film directed by Luigi Vanzi.
Get Mean, also known as Beat a Dead Horse, Vengeance of the Barbarians and The Stranger Gets Mean, is a 1975 Italian-American Spaghetti Western film directed by Ferdinando Baldi and starring Tony Anthony, Lloyd Battista, Raf Baldassarre, Diana Lorys and Mirta Miller. It is the final sequel to A Stranger in Town, with Anthony reprising the role of "The Stranger."
The Stranger Returns also known as Shoot First... Laugh Last!, is a 1967 Italian-German-American Spaghetti Western film directed by Luigi Vanzi. It is a sequel to A Stranger in Town.
