Al oeste de Río Grande

Al oeste de rio grande a.k.a. West of rio grande is a most interesting movie made by the late Jose Maria Zabalza.I watched the film four times as part of a spaghetti western study of those made in Spain and Italy.Al oeste de rio grande tells the real story of the wild west and in fact is a mix between the classic American style and that of the Spaghetti.Explaned in a simple way,so that even children understand part of that history.The editing may not be a real masterpiece and,can be quite confusing at times,one has to understand the Zabalza philosophy.Hightlights: You must love those scenes between Sydney Ling and Aldo Sambrell,they are really fighting here,rough,tough and the hardway.The actions scenes here are quite unique.Its amazing to see the energetic Sydney Ling taking on a great quantity of gringos and indians.The headhunters couple played by John Holland and Julie La Rousse is also quite amusing.The most amazing scene of this film,is at the end when actors,Aldo Sambrell,John Holland and Julie La Rousse are hanging Sydney Ling onto a funeralcoach which is pulled by four horses and are pulling Sydney Ling over some very rough roads.All this is real,without any stand-inn and without any real tricking(this has never been done before,its really artisanal)So,yes its an interesting piece of work from Zabalza.

It is set in the Far West with plenty of gunfighters who take law on their own hands , which cause diverse problems . At the beginning there are brief historical remarks dealing with the actual story of the wild west , such as the Way goes West , as the purchase of farms that occupy land through which the new railroad is going to cause confrontations, as well as disputes among cattlemen, settlers , and sheepmen and appearance of the expeditive hanging's judges . There lives a marriage of farmers , Juan Sanchez (Aldo Sanbrell) and Maria Sanchez (Cándida López , Aldo's real wife) and their child . During a stormy day , Juán falls on the sea , strongly injured is hooked in a table while the tide is up and little by little drowning himself , then his wife asking for help a cutthroat (Michael Rivers) , a pistolero (Ling) and a drunk , but all of them reject her requests . Along the way a known outlaw , the most wanted man (Sidney Ling) rewarded for a large sum of money , is wanted alive or dead by ruthless bounty hunters . This gunslinger shoots contenders , gringos , Indians (Joaquin Gómez) and he assaults Maria Sanchez .

¨Al Oeste de Rio Grande¨ is just a pretty bad Paella Western due to low budget and its director is a sort of Spanish Ed Wood , similarly to Demofilo Fidani , deemed to be the Spaghetti Western Ed Wood . It is a Spanish made western that came to the big screen when the top time of the genre was falling down . In fact , 'seventies' and 'eighties' are not the best time to find out good spaghetti/Chorizo westerns . That's why it is an inferior Tortilla Western, blending the ordinary American wake and Chorizo style , being filled with noisy action , go riding , fights and duels . It's a Spanish realization , this is not the usual Spanish/Italian co-production of the 60s and 70s in which were clearly dominated by the Italian contingent and the traditional leanings of the Spanish producers of the time have their stamp on the entire proceedings . But this one is badly made with some brief exciting moments , it drags a lot , balancing in ups and downs ; turning out to be a below average . There is also some violent scenes as a tough judge hanging a condemned gunfighter onto a hearse which is pulled by horses and are pulling him across rough ground . This is one out of five Westerns Zabalza made along with ¨20.00 dollars Por Un Cadáver¨ also titled ¨Twenty Thousand Dollars for Every Corpse¨ , ¨Las Malditas Pistolas De Dallas¨, ¨Los Rebeldes De Arizona¨ , ¨Plomo Sobre Dallas¨ , most of them starred by similar actors , such as : Miguel De La Riva or Michael Rivers, Aldo Sambrell , Dyanik Zurakowska , Carlos Quiney , Claudia Gravy , Luis Induni , Guillermo Méndez , José Marco and José Truchado . The movie contains typical particularities Spaghetti/Tortilla , as it is full of zooms , fury , sadism , bloodbaths , and close-ups of grime-encrusted faces . It does not follow utterly the typical paths of the European western wave around seventies , it lacks both the sarcasm and the Eastwood type of antihero . Here appear customary main and secondary actors from Spaghetti/Tortilla or Paella Western that give lousy interpretations such as Aldo Sambrell , Joaquín Gómez and Michael Rivers as Trenchcoated Outlaw . Worn-out and faded cinematography accompanied by inappropriate buildings and homes from Castillian villages . Shot on location in Aldea Del Fresno , Seseña , Villamanta and Colmenar Viejo , Madrid . Anti-climatic , inappropriate musical score by Ana Satrove , Zabalza's ordinary .

The motion picture was ridiculously directed by José Maria Zabalza , this director born in city of Irun sometimes signs his films under the alternate pseudonym ¨Joseph Trader¨ or ¨Harry Freeman¨ with some movies never shown to any audience . He dedicated his life to the cinema but whose filmography is almost unedited and unseen . José María Zabalza , director who is remembered for his foray into the series "Waldemar Daninsky" with "Paul Naschy's La Furia Del Hombre Lobo" 1972 . As "La furia del Hombre Lobo" was directed by Zabalza in a hurry . Original director Enrique Eguilez was fired and replaced by José María Zabalza, a drunk who was infamously intoxicated throughout the production. Naschy wrote his self-biography and stated Zabalza was often unable to work (though he did find time to instruct his 14 year old nephew to make some alterations to the script) and Naschy ended up writing and directing much of the film uncredited . Zabalza did rally enough to clip some action scenes from one of Naschy's previous movies, "Mark of the Wolfman". The scenes were fortunately good enough to use twice even if the costumes were different, and helped pad out the runtime after Zabalza refused to get out of bed to finish the movie. Post production was a nightmare. Nobody knew who was doing the editing, the money ran out, the master print disappeared for a while, and then at a pre-release screening for a film distributor the executive arrived to find Zabalza urinating into the gutter in front of the theater. He was too drunk to find the restroom but at least he made it to the curb. However , Zabalza made a good film titled "Entierro De Un Funcionario en Primavera," starring Tony Leblanc , here Zabalza proved to be a talented director , making a comedy full of black humor that Luis García Berlanga described as the precursor film of Spanish black comedy , and considered to be an ironic satire about the funerals . He directed all kinds of genres as Mobster movie : ¨El Regreso De Al Capone¨ , ¨Homicidios En Chicago¨ ; Bullfighting : ¨Un Torero Para La Historia¨ ; Drama : ¨Camerino Sin Biombo¨ and Comedies : ¨Un Divorcio Al La Andaluza¨, ¨De La Troya Al Palmar¨. After personal problems to get worse , increasing shortfalls , as he neglected the technical aspects and , in fact , he attempted to film in just 24 hours his last picture ,¨El Retorno De Los vampiros¨ , until his early death at 57.