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The Road to Fort Alamo
Italian film poster
Directed by	Mario Bava
Screenplay by	Enzo Gicca Palli Franco Prosperi Livia Contardi[1]
Story by	Enzo Gicca Palli[2]
Produced by	Achille Piazzi[1]
Starring	Ken Clark Jany Clair Michel Lemoine Andreina Paul Alberto Cevenini Antonio Gradoli
Cinematography	Ubaldo Terzano[1]
Edited by	Mario Serandrei[1]
Music by	Piero Umiliani[1]
Color process	Eastmancolor
Production companies	Piazzi Produzione Cinematografica Protor Film Comptoir Francis du Film Production[1]
Distributed by	Belotti Film[1]
Release dates	24 October 1964 (1964-10-24) (Italy) 24 March 1965 (1965-03-24) (France)
Countries	Italy France[3]
Box office	£373.865 million (Italy)[4]

The Road to Fort Alamo (Italian: La strada per Fort Alamo) is a 1964 Spaghetti Western film directed by Mario Bava.

Cast

• Ken Clark as Bill Mannerly/"Lieutenant John Smith" (Bud Massidy in the English version)
• Jany Clair as Janet
• Michel Lemoine as Kid Carson
• Andreina Paul as Mrs. Collins
• Alberto Cevenini (as Kirk Bert) as Slim Kincaid/"Private Jim Kincaid"
• Gustavo De Nardo (as Dean Ardow) as Sergeant Warwick (Sergeant Carter)
• Antonio Gradoli (as Anthony Gradwell) as Captain Hull (Captain Hollis)
• Gérard Herter (uncredited) as Mr. Silver

Background and production

The Road to Fort Alamo was produced before the conventions of the Spaghetti Western were established with A Fistful of Dollars.^[5] European Westerns had become popular when Germany's Rialto Film bought the rights to Karl May's Western novels, and made several films with director Harald Reinl with his Winnetou series.^[1] Some of the films in that series were international co-productions involving Italian funding.^[1] As they became more successful in Italy, Italian investors began producing their own Westerns with four produced in 1964: Mario Costa's Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West, Sergio Corbucci's Minnesota Clay, Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and The Road to Fort Alamo.^[1]

Mario Bava biographer Tim Lucas described The Road to Fort Alamo as resembling the Winnetou films, as opposed to the style Leone developed with A Fistful of Dollars.^[6] The Road to Fort Alamo was filmed at Elios Film Studios in Rome and on location between February and March 1964.^[1] Michel Lemoine, who had a supporting role in the film, spoke about his work on it with Bava, stating that Bava "was an extraordinary director and he needed all of his talent to get through , because it was really difficult. The producers had money problems with that picture, and Bava had to fight constantly".^[7][8]

Franco Prosperi, who served as one of the film's script writers and Bava's assistant director, expressed distaste towards it, stating that "Mario was useless at making Westerns; he had no talent for it. I disown completely; it was kind of a disaster."^[9]

Release

The Road to Fort Alamo was distributed by Comptoir Français du Film in France on March 24, 1965.^[1][3] In that country, it was retitled Arizona Bill in the tradition of the twenty Arizona Bill films made in France between 1907 and 1913, starring Joe Hamman.^[1] In the United States, it was released by World Entertainment Corporation on July 10, 1966.^[1]

References

Sources

• Lucas, Tim (2013). Mario Bava - All the Colors of the Dark. Video Watchdog. ISBN 978-0-9633756-1-2.

External links

• The Road to Fort Alamo at IMDb