Photo Opportunity #53

Photo Opportunity #53

For our September Photo Opportunity, I’ve delved again into my personal collection of 35mm transparencies (more commonly known as slides). This particular shot is from a collection of extremely rare photos which I still believe remain unpublished – I certainly haven’t seen them in any publication. A few photos from this session have appeared, usually with Clint wearing a yellow polo style shirt, often with a cigar and in the grounds of a hotel or villa. It’s believed that these were taken around the summer of 1967 when Clint was in Europe on a promotional trip for A Fistful of Dollars. 

The card slide mounts carry the stamp of photographer Herbert Fried (born 21/06/1926 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf) (died 1980). There is not much known about the man, except for his legacy of taking star photos from the 50’s and 60’s and often with his trusted Rolleiflex. Of late, his work has started to stir a great deal of interest. 

Among the collection I obtained (probably some 30 years ago), are photos from this session that saw Clint outside on a Patio area surrounded by exotic looking plants and some less formal shots of him relaxed inside the hotel or villa in a setting that could be either Italy of Spain? The couple of photos I have previously seen published appear to have no details whatsoever – making it extremely hard to confirm the facts. Some of these photos can be seen on the A Fistful of Dollars page. For this Photo Opportunity I’ve chosen a photo that captures Clint in very relaxed mood in the bathroom area – probably preparing for the photo session. Please excuse the watermark, this is simply to protect the photo’s integrity. 

Film Icons: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach & More - 1997 interview

Film Icons: Clint Eastwood / Eli Wallach & More - 1997 Radio interview

Our U.S. correspondent Kevin Walsh contacted me this morning, pointing me towards this archival interview from 1997. Fresh Air is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It’s host Terry Gross had the opportunity to sit with Clint, Eli Wallach and our own Christopher Frayling to chat about the Dollar films and Sergio Leone. 

The 1964 spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars turned Clint Eastwood into a star. He had a famous squint in his closeups, but he told Terry Gross in 1997, it wasn't necessarily character driven. "They bombed me with a bunch of lights, and you're outside and it's 90 degrees, and it's hard not to squint."

We'll also hear from Eastwood's co-star in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Eli Wallach, who went on to play a bandit in several Westerns. Cultural historian Christopher Frayling tells us how the Italian director Sergio Leone broke the conventions of the Hollywood Western, and stuntman Hal Needham describes his most daring feats.

It makes for an interesting 50 mins – and well worth checking out HERE

My kind thanks to Kevin.  

Psst, got any spare tickets?

Psst, got any spare tickets?

Ever get the feeling collecting is getting, well, a bit stupid? Just when you think you’ve seen it all, something seems to pop up that makes you question people’s sanity.

Now I’ve seen Japanese cinema tickets come up for sale before. They are usually nicely designed and usually carry a nice couloir image or poster art – but it’s a ticket stub, right? Because of their novelty value, it’s not unusual to see them sell for around $20 - $30 max. So, I was a bit shocked when our friend Davy Triumph spotted this little one up for grabs – an original Japanese ticket for Dirty Harry. Nice little object, fair enough… Then I saw the price tag attached to it… US $798.00 (£606.54) and the seller even has the Cojones to add a postage rate! 

Honestly, check yourself into hospital…  

A Fistful of Dollars: Rare European Ad Blocks

A Fistful of Dollars: Rare European Ad Blocks

Some time back I discovered these rare ad blocks for A Fistful of Dollars. Although some of these designs use some of the relevant artwork which was used on finished poster designs, it’s nice to see them in the context of these ads. However, there was one that was completely new to me – a Spanish ad which crudely illustrates a pair of hands reaching out to a stack of dollar coins (get it?). A curious design, which I don’t believe ever made it to a poster – perhaps this was used in the Spanish press as an early teaser design? The Teatro Principe ad is another Spanish block which featured previously used poster artwork.

The second 2 advertisements (Per un pugno di dollari) appear to be Italian. The Metropolitan utilises previous poster art, while the Colosseo Eliseo La Perla ad appears to use a photographic source for its design. The tagline translates as ‘Take a good look at this man's face: he is the architect who brought spectators from all over Italy to applause and who caused all attendance and box office records to fall’

Great vintage pieces that are worthy of a place here. 

Making our day – 40 years on

Making our day – 40 years on

It’s hard to imagine it’s been over 40 years now since the huge publicity boom surrounding Clint’s return as Dirty Harry. The film of course was Sudden Impact, the first Dirty Harry film since The Enforcer in 1976. 

The promotion and publicity campaign for Sudden Impact was enormous. It seemed that you couldn’t open a magazine or a newspaper without some story or a tie-in feature. But one of the most unusual things to emerge from this campaign was the "Make My Day" novelty record recorded by American country music artist T. G. Sheppard and featuring Clint. It was released in February 1984 as the second single from Sheppard's 1983 album Slow Burn, although it was not included on the album until a 1984 re-release. The song reached #12 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts and was written by Dewayne Blackwell. The song describes the activities of Eastwood's film character Harry Callahan, with a variation of Callahan's trademark line "Go ahead, punk. Make my day" as the chorus. 

It was a bit of fun and the release had the desired effect, but the trademark quote would come to haunt Clint. The seemingly endless requests to repeat the line by any or every chat show hosts  began to grow tiresome and was noticeably beginning to grind on Clint. 

T.G. Sheppard later told The Hot Seat about the day movie icon Clint Eastwood called him on the phone then flew him to California to record the duet "Make My Day" together.

"I'm waiting in the lobby very nervous because I'm a huge Clint Eastwood fan like everyone. And I kept expecting this big entourage to roll up and him get out with security and I look out the front window and I see this old Chevrolet pick-up truck the one that was used in the movie 'Bridges of Madison County' roll up and I see somebody get out from behind the wheel and it was Clint, by himself and walked right in the door and said, 'I'm Clint Eastwood' and I said (laughing) 'I know' and he said, 'Ready to do a little singing?' and that was the start of a great friendship."  

It's noticeable from the photo taken with Sheppard in the studio that Clint turned up that day wearing a T-shirt with an early logo design for Tightrope (1984) a film which was in production at the time and released in August of 1984. 

The 7” single (Warner Bros. Records – 7-29343, Curb Records – 7-29343) can today be picked up fairly easily and inexpensively, usually through most auction outlets such as Ebay. 

Below: The original sheet music

             

Below: A rare advertisement for the single release

NEW LEONE BOOK from Sir Christopher Frayling

NEW LEONE BOOK from Sir Christopher Frayling

Time to reinforce those book shelves again! Yes, fans will be very pleased to learn that another weighty book on our favourite director Sergio Leone is on its way. It’s always a good reason to celebrate when Sir Chris decides to put pen to paper, especially when the subject is Leone.

Sergio Leone: By Himself is available in Hardback from 26th Nov. 2024. 

Between the worldwide box-office success of his Dollars films - A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For A Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966) – and his untimely death in 1989 at the age of 60, Sergio Leone gave interviews to selected film journalists. He also wrote a series of thoughtful essays about his cinematic influences – and loves – such as Charlie Chaplin, Federico Fellini, Henry Fonda, Robert Aldrich and, of course, John Ford. To accompany his final film Once Upon a Time in America (1984) – 15 years in gestation – he published several articles about his obsessive quest to make the film, and how it eventually happened.

Most of these interviews/writings have never before appeared in the English language, and as a collection they have never before appeared anywhere. SERGIO LEONE by Himself, compiled by Leone’s acclaimed biographer Christopher Frayling, gathers together all his significant interviews, essays and articles, to create a director’s eye view of a body of work which over the past half century has had a decisive influence on world cinema, especially action cinema. The book is profusely illustrated with previously unseen photographs from the Leone family collection and the Angelo Novi archive, both now housed in the Cineteca in Bologna. It also includes previously unpublished commentary from Leone’s long-suffering producers.

Much has been written by commentators about the films of Sergio Leone – some of it good, some bad and some ugly. Here at last it is the turn of the man himself – larger-than-life, short-fused, astonishingly cine-literate, and a born storyteller.

SERGIO LEONE by Himself will be published in autumn 2024, coinciding with the sixtieth anniversary of the Italian release of A Fistful of Dollars.

First time ever that Leone’s many interviews/writings have been compiled in one collection in English language

From Leone’s renowned biographer, Christopher Frayling

Profusely illustrated coffee table volume

Published to coincide with 60th anniversary of Italian release of A Fistful of Dollars

CHRISTOPHER FRAYLING is a world-renowned authority on the films of Sergio Leone. He has written Leone’s biography, curated a major world-touring exhibition on his work, published the classic study of the spaghetti western phenomenon and provided commentaries to Leone dvds and television documentaries. Christopher is an award-winning broadcaster and writer on film, design and popular culture. He was Rector of London’s Royal College of Art from 1996 to 2009, and was also Chairman of the Arts Council of England and a Governor of the British Film Institute. He was Professor of Cultural History at the RCA for over 30 years and is now Professor Emeritus. Christopher was knighted in the year 2000 for “services to art and design education”. As Sergio Leone once said to him, “it took an Englishman to take my films seriously...”

Published by Reel Art Press (26 Nov. 2024), Language: English, Hardcover: 256 pages, 

The book is available for pre-order at Amazon HERE - My kind thanks to James Elliott  

Lalo Schifrin’s Dirty Harry / Magnum Force 7” Vinyl Single Release

Lalo Schifrin’s Dirty Harry / Magnum Force 7” Vinyl Single Release

I suppose I discovered this rare limited release a bit late in the day. To the best of my knowledge, I’m pretty confident in saying that Lalo Schifrin’s film versions of both Dirty Harry and Magnum Force had never been released before on 7” as a single. Back in the day there was a Jazzy version of Dirty Harry released in France as a B side, and possibly a cover version which may had appeared on an obscure Japanese single, but never a true film version of both titles. 

So, as an Eastwood related vinyl collector, I became a little excited to discover this cut of both titles appear on a 7” single. Trying to uncover the story behind this record has been rather more challenging. 

The single was apparently first released on December 20th 2023 on a very small label called Test Pressing, Cat No LALO 002. There seems to be very little information available, only that this was their 2nd vinyl release, and there seems to be nothing released since. It’s also unclear from what country the label originates – and as a result, it appears to be very hard to obtain. 

The theme from Dirty Harry appears as the A side with the cracking Magnum Force theme pressed on the B side. There are certainly no frills attached to this pressing, it’s issued in a generic plain white paper sleeve within a protective polythene outer sleeve. There is also a Barcode sticker on the polythene sleeve. In fairness, its simple, no frills packaging is probably close to how an authentic ‘test pressing, demo’ would actually appear. 

Of course, personally, I don’t think I’ll be able to resist the temptation to make up some sort of custom insert, it’s practically begging for something. But of course, securing a copy first was always the main priority. As well as featuring here, I will also be adding this release to our Guide to collecting Eastwood related 7” Vinyl Singles which can be found HERE