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The Road to Fort Alamo

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(Redirected from La strada per Forte Alamo)
The Road to Fort Alamo
Italian film poster
Directed byMario Bava
Screenplay by
Story byEnzo Gicca Palli[2]
Produced byAchille Piazzi[1]
Starring
CinematographyUbaldo Terzano[1]
Edited byMario Serandrei[1]
Music byPiero Umiliani[1]
Color processEastmancolor
Production
companies
  • Piazzi Produzione Cinematografica
  • Protor Film
  • Comptoir Francis du Film Production[1]
Distributed byBelotti Film[1]
Release dates
  • 24 October 1964 (1964-10-24) (Italy)
  • 24 March 1965 (1965-03-24) (France)
Countries
  • Italy
  • France[3]
Box office£373.865 million (Italy)[4]

The Road to Fort Alamo (Italian: La strada per Fort Alamo) is a 1964 Spaghetti Western film directed by Mario Bava.

Cast

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  • Ken Clark as Bill Mannerly/"Lieutenant John Smith" (Bud Massidy in the English version)
  • Jany Clair as Janet
  • Michel Lemoine as Kid Carson
  • Andreina Paul as Mrs. Collins
  • Alberto Cevenini (as Kirk Bert) as Slim Kincaid/"Private Jim Kincaid"
  • Gustavo De Nardo (as Dean Ardow) as Sergeant Warwick (Sergeant Carter)
  • Antonio Gradoli (as Anthony Gradwell) as Captain Hull (Captain Hollis)
  • Gérard Herter (uncredited) as Mr. Silver

Background and production

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The Road to Fort Alamo was produced before the conventions of the Spaghetti Western were established with A Fistful of Dollars.[5] European Westerns had become popular when Germany's Rialto Film bought the rights to Karl May's Western novels, and made several films with director Harald Reinl with his Winnetou series.[1] Some of the films in that series were international co-productions involving Italian funding.[1] As they became more successful in Italy, Italian investors began producing their own Westerns with four produced in 1964: Mario Costa's Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West, Sergio Corbucci's Minnesota Clay, Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and The Road to Fort Alamo.[1]

Mario Bava biographer Tim Lucas described The Road to Fort Alamo as resembling the Winnetou films, as opposed to the style Leone developed with A Fistful of Dollars.[6] The Road to Fort Alamo was filmed at Elios Film Studios in Rome and on location between February and March 1964.[1] Michel Lemoine, who had a supporting role in the film, spoke about his work on it with Bava, stating that Bava "was an extraordinary director and he needed all of his talent to get through [The Road to Fort Alamo], because it was really difficult. The producers had money problems with that picture, and Bava had to fight constantly".[7][8]

Franco Prosperi, who served as one of the film's script writers and Bava's assistant director, expressed distaste towards it, stating that "Mario was useless at making Westerns; he had no talent for it. I disown [The Road to Fort Alamo] completely; it was kind of a disaster."[9]

Release

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The Road to Fort Alamo was distributed by Comptoir Français du Film in France on March 24, 1965.[1][3] In that country, it was retitled Arizona Bill in the tradition of the twenty Arizona Bill films made in France between 1907 and 1913, starring Joe Hamman.[1] In the United States, it was released by World Entertainment Corporation on July 10, 1966.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lucas 2013, p. 582.
  2. ^ "La strada per Fort Alamo (1964)". Archivio del Cinema Italiano On-Line. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
  3. ^ a b "The Road to Fort Alamo". Unifrance.org. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
  4. ^ "Spaghetti Western Box-Office Stats". Austin Fisher. 9 April 2020. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  5. ^ Lucas 2013, p. 581.
  6. ^ Lucas 2013, p. 583.
  7. ^ Lucas 2013, p. 585.
  8. ^ Lucas 2013, p. 586.
  9. ^ Lucas 2013, p. 591.

Sources

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