Cowboy Story (1953)

Cowboy Story (Italy, 1953 / Director: Giuseppe Sacchi)

This is a Eurowestern

Runtime: 41 min.
Release Date: 1953

Also known as

Cowboy Story (English unofficial title).

Cast and Crew

Cast: Giuseppe Sacchi (the ranger), Margherita Hary [as Marghy Hary] (the ranger‘s girl), Armando Cartiglia (the villain), Italo Monti (the handsome man), Pinin Rigola, Giacomo Miglietti [as Jack Miglietti], Giorgio Pisca (the killed old man), Takys Cavuras, Cyryl Smith, Riccardo Pozzo, Lalla Sacchi.

Story: Giorgio Boschetti, Giuseppe Sacchi
Screenplay: Giorgio Boschetti, Giuseppe Sacchi
Dialogues: Ernesto Gastaldi
Cinematography: Giorgio Boschetti (Black and white – 16mm film)
Music: Far West songs by musical group „The Rocky Mountains Stompers“
Editor: Giorgio Pisca
Sound: Giorgio Pisca
Producers: Giorgio Boschetti, Giuseppe Sacchi

Review

This film is considered to be the first Italian amateur western in the history of Italian cinema. It was shot in black and white on a hand-held camera with 16mm film in the northern Italian town of Biella in the Piedmont region, the capital of the province of the same name, located at the foot of the western Alps and seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of the Archdiocese of Vercelli. The Italian screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi told me that he participated in the filming only as a friend of the director Giuseppe Sacchi. He collaborated on the film only as the author of the dialogues that were read during the screening of the film in cinemas. Texts with dialogues have probably been lost. It’s an action and adventure-told story of a ranger who prosecutes criminal for murder and robbery. The film won the award of cup A.G.I.S. in the 4th competition category of the 5th year of the national film festival of amateur movies in Montecatini city in the Tuscan province of Pistoia, northwest of Florence, in 1954. One of the creators of this western, Giorgio Pisca, later restored the film, converted it from the original film strip to a new format, edited and also inserted sound effects and music. The medium-length film was originally made silent with no sound and dialogues that were read during screenings in the cinema hall. The film originated from the enthusiasm and passion of young people and creators for westerns and adventure stories from the American Wild West and represents one of the historical documents of the development of Italian popular culture dedicated to the stories of heroes, gunslingers and bandits known from the hollywoodian westerns distributed in Italy in those years and also from American and Italian comics about super-gunfighters. Thanks very much to Ernesto Gastaldi for the informations and narration of this rare film that was unavailable for many years. By Jan Švábenický