Once Upon a Time in the Italian West: The Filmgoers' Guide to Spaghetti Westerns [Paperback]

Howard Hughes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 2006

Covering the key Italian Spaghetti Westerns - mainly the good but also the bad and the ugly - this is an authoritative, entertaining and comprehensive companion to the mythical Spaghetti West. Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy led the field but many more major Spaghetti Westerns were made by important directors, including Sergio Corbucci's Navajo Joe, Carlo Lizzani's The Hills Run Red, Duccio Tessari's A Pistol for Ringo. Combining analysis, information and lively anecdotes, this popular guide explores all of these films through the biographies and filmographies of key personnel, stories of each production, their locations and sets, sources, musical scores, detailed cast information and many illustrations, including original posters and stills.

Key films featured include The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More, A Fistful of Dollars, The Big Silence, Django, My Name is Nobody, A Bullet for the General, The Big Gundown, Face to Face and They Call Me Trinity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Howard Hughes has written a well-researched, detailed, no-nonsense and above all enthusiastic guide to twenty of the best Italian Westerns from A Fistful of Dollars to My Name is Nobody. He has aimed for the heart, and unlike the bad guy in Fistful, he has hit it."--Christopher Frayling, author of Spaghetti Westerns

 

"Very Digestible."--Empire Magazine, August 2006

 

''Hughes is well versed in many of the contemporaneous Hollywood western into the bargain, and is particularly good at tracing thematic and narrative connections between Italian offerings and their American antecedents …Once Upon a Time in the Italian West is a well-researched, enjoyable book that will reward both aficionados of the spaghetti western and readers who’d like to find out more about this too-often neglected sub-genre.'' --Film International

Book Description

Covering every Italian Spaghetti Western--mainly the good but also the bad and the ugly--this is an authoritative, entertaining and comprehensive companion to the implausible international fusion of producers, directors, actors and composers who created the mythical Spaghetti West under the most improbable circumstances. Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy led the field but many more major Spaghetti Westerns were made by important directors, including Sergio Corbucci's Navajo Joe, Carlo Lizzani's The Hills Run Red, Duccio Tessari's A Pistol for Ringo. Combining analysis, information and lively anecdotes, this popular guide explores all of these films through the biographies and filmographies of key personnel, stories of the films' making, their locations and sets, sources, musical scores, detailed cast information and many illustrations, including original posters and stills.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 266 pages
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris (May 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 185043896X
• ISBN-13: 978-1850438960
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,078,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Howard Hughes is the writer-researcher of a range of books on cinema and historical subjects, including the popular Filmgoers' Guide series - CRIME WAVE: The Great Crime Movies, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE ITALIAN WEST: The Spaghetti Westerns, STAGECOACH TO TOMBSTONE: The Great Westerns and WHEN EAGLES DARED: The Filmgoers' History of World War II.

To follow his Filmgoers' Guide blog, visit http://filmgoersguide.wordpress.com/

In addition to his books, he has written articles for DVD & Blu-ray Review, Gallery, The Good Book Guide and Cinema Retro, on subjects ranging from crime films, westerns and World War II, to profiles of Clint Eastwood and horror actress Barbara Steele. He also appeared in the US TV documentary THE SPAGHETTI WEST (2005)- now available on DVD - and wrote the collector's booklet for the new Eureka! DVD release FACCIA A FACCIA (Face to Face). His current writing projects include OUTER LIMITS: The Filmgoers' Guide to the Great Science Fiction Movies; 'QUOTH THE RAVEN: NEVERMORE!', a study of the films based on Edgar Allan Poe's gothic fiction; and a spaghetti western encyclopedia, DEATH IN THE DESERT.

His latest book, CINEMA ITALIANO, looks at the Golden Age of Italian cinema from the late-1950s to the early 1980s and includes the films of Federico Fellini, Sergio Leone, Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Sergio Corbucci, Gillo Pontecorvo, Lucio Fulci and Michelangelo Antonioni.

For more information visit www.ibtauris.com/howardhughes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite title on the subject, October 24, 2009

By 

Hondo (West Texas and Ohio) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Once Upon a Time in the Italian West: The Filmgoers' Guide to Spaghetti Westerns (Paperback)

I have read Frayling's book, Cox's book and now this contribution and it is my favorite of the bunch. Hughes has taken 20 important films and devoted a chapter to each, though not neglecting to mention many other examples of the genre. With the exception of Frayling's coverage of the Leone films, this book provides more information on the films than the others do, including notes on the actors, shooting locations and music. Remarkably free of politics-- no boring communist (marxist) theory/criticism and no over-the-top political correctness-- it is a fun and entertaining read.

10 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a complete Spaghetti Western filmography, November 23, 2005

By 

Court Thompson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Once Upon a Time in the Italian West: A Filmgoer's Guide to Spaghetti Westerns (Hardcover)

I haven't read the book... But I checked out it's Index, and browsed for several of my favorite (moderately obscure) Spaghetti Westerns and directors. It didn't have any of them listed. So take that as a warning I guess... the discription seems to make this book seem more comprehensive than my brief overview of the Index. I would recommend you too check out the Table of Contents and Index page to make sure this is the book you're expecting.

8 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lots of minutae, not much theory, August 10, 2005

By 

M. Zawacki "scarymike" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Once Upon a Time in the Italian West: A Filmgoer's Guide to Spaghetti Westerns (Hardcover)

Very comprehensive in terms of actor and crew bios and production trivia, but very thin on theory and discussions about the social/thematic/character underpinnings of the genre and the films that made it so great. I was hoping for more of the author's thoughts on those sorts of things than lists of little known facts about cast and crew and so on.