Tuesday, 10 May 2016

Peter Hanley’s book on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly AVAILABLE NOW

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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