I had the pleasure of an email this morning from Dr. Peter Hanley to inform me that his long anticipated 'bible' on Sergio Leone’s epic film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is now available.
This project has been a massive
undertaking by Peter, a dedicated journey which has been nothing short of
miraculous. Sergio Leone’s monumental
film will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. The aim of
this book project is essentially to document this classic film in the greatest
detail. Highlights will include over 20 interviews with cast and crew, more
than 200 rare behind-the-scenes stills, as well as detailed analysis of the
historical background (including numerous historical comparison photos, maps
etc), documentation of all shooting locations, lobby cards, posters, and more.
An extensive volume of
information has been gained by the generous input of cast and crew, with the
following being interviewed on one or more occasions:
Eli Wallach (“the Ugly”), Ennio
Morricone (music), Bruno Battisti D’Amario (guitar), Carla Leone (wife of
Sergio Leone), Luciano Vincenzoni (script writer), Alan Van Cleef (son of Lee
Van Cleef), Eugenio Alabiso (editor), Chelo Alonso (actress; Steven’s wife), Aldo
Sanbrell (actor; member of Angel Eyes’ gang), Frank Braña (actor in opening
scene), Elisabetta Simi (wife of Carlo Simi, art director), Fabrizio Gianni
(assistant director), Giancarlo Santi (assistant director), Tonino Delli Colli
(director of photography), Franco Di Giacomo (camera operator), Sergio Salvati (assistant
camera operator), Alberto Lardani (son of Iginio Lardani, titles designer), Vittorio
De Sisti (sound engineer), Domingo Contreras (extra), Eros Bacciucchi (special
effects), Giovanni Corridori (special effects), Silvana Bacci (actress in
deleted scene), Ricardo Palacios (actor in deleted scene) – The list is
endless.
The book is lavished with
numerous stills, including over 200 behind-the-scenes stills, most of which
have been scanned from original negatives and not previously published. The
format of the hardback covered book is 26.5 x 30 cm, which allows much space
for large format photos (on high-quality, coated 135 g/m2 paper). Each still is
accompanied by a detailed legend. An
extensive collection of country-of-origin (Italian) lobby cards and posters are
dispersed throughout the book.
In collaboration with expert
Ulrich Angersbach, a detailed description of deleted scenes is provided in the
book. The legendary cut “Socorro” scene is reconstructed with the help of
stills and interviews with actors involved in this sequence. In addition, a
synopsis of the original Italian script for the complete film will be provided,
and differences between the script and film will be elucidated. One of the
characteristics of a Sergio Leone film, especially The Good, the Bad and the
Ugly, is attention to detail. Historical details of the Civil War period were
closely studied and reproduced on the wide screen, albeit with embellishments.
Numerous examples of this attention to detail will be presented throughout the
book. In particular, many examples of the “appearances” of details gleaned from
historical Civil War photos are presented throughout the book.
As Peter pointed out ‘The
GBU-book is available at "Amazon.de" (link below) and is
shipped/distributed worldwide. We will endeavour to list the book at other
Amazon marketplaces, such as Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.es etc, but, in
all cases, the book will be shipped from an Amazon distribution centre in
Leipzig, Germany.’
I will be reviewing Peter’s 420
page book for The Clint Eastwood Archive, and very proud to be associated with
such an incredible project.
To order this beautiful publication click here or click directly on book cover at the top of the Archive's sidebar
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