Editing Spaghetti Western (section)

===Early European Westerns===
European Westerns are as old as filmmaking itself. The [[Auguste and Louis Lumière|Lumière brothers]] had their first public screening of films in 1895, and already, in 1896, Gabriel Veyre shot ''Repas d'Indien'' (''Indian Banquet'') for them. Joe Hamman starred as Arizona Bill in films made in the French horse country of [[Camargue]] (1911–1912).<ref>Charles Ford: ''Histoire du Western'' (Paris: Ed. Albin Michel, 1976) p. 263ff; George N. Fenin and William K. Everson (New York : Orion Press, 1962), p. 322ff.</ref>

In Italy, the American West as a dramatic setting for spectacles goes back at least as far as [[Giacomo Puccini]]'s 1910 opera ''[[La fanciulla del West]]'' (''The Girl of the West''), which is sometimes considered to be the first spaghetti Western.<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = https://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/03/22/131943499/happy-birthday-fanciulla----puccini-s-spaghetti-western-turns-100
 |title       = Happy Birthday 'Fanciulla' — Puccini's Spaghetti Western Turns 100
 |last        = Huizenga
 |first       = Tom
 |publisher=NPR
 |date = 10 December 2010
 |access-date = 14 July 2011
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 |archive-date = 19 May 2011
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/27/arts/music-the-first-spaghetti-western.html
|title=MUSIC; The First Spaghetti Western
|last=Tommasini
|first=Anthony
|work=The New York Times
|access-date=14 July 2011
|date=27 June 2004
|archive-date=25 May 2013
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130525000415/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/27/arts/music-the-first-spaghetti-western.html
|url-status=live
}}</ref>

The first Western movie made in Italy was ''La voce del sangue'', produced by the Turin film studio [[Itala Film]].<ref>Magrin Haas (2022), p. 167ff.</ref> In 1913, ''La vampira Indiana'' was released; a combination of Western and vampire film. It was directed by [[Vincenzo Leone]], father of [[Sergio Leone]], and starred his mother, [[Bice Valerian]], in the title role as the Indian princess Fatale.<ref>Frayling (2000), p. 29ff.</ref> The Italians also made [[Wild Bill Hickok]] films, while the Germans released backwoods Westerns featuring [[Bela Lugosi]] as [[Uncas]].

Of the Western-related European films before 1964, the one that attracted the most attention is arguably Luis Trenker's ''[[Der Kaiser von Kalifornien]]'' about [[John Sutter]].<ref>Frayling (2006), p. 1ff.</ref> Another Italian Western is ''[[Girl of the Golden West (1942 film)|Girl of the Golden West]]''. The film's title alludes to the opera ''[[La fanciulla del West|The Girl of the Golden West]]'', by [[Giacomo Puccini]], but is not an adaptation of it. It was one of a handful of Westerns to be made during the [[silent film]] and [[Fascist era|Fascist Italy]] eras.<ref name=":0">{{citation |last1=Bondanella |first1=Peter |title=A history of Italian cinema |page=395 |year=2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=9781501307645 |id={{OCLC|1240187787|984512006}} |last2=Pacchioni |first2=Federico |author-link=Peter Bondanella}}.</ref> Forerunners of the genre were also [[Giorgio Ferroni]]'s ''[[Il fanciullo del West]]'' (''The Boy in the West'') and [[Fernando Cerchio]]'s ''[[Il bandolero stanco]]'', starring [[Erminio Macario]] and [[Renato Rascel]], respectively.<ref name="CinemaWarII">{{cite book|first1=Mary Ellen|last1=Higgins|first2=Rita|last2=Keresztesi|first3=Dayna|last3=Oscherwitz|title=The Western in the Global South|date=24 April 2015|publisher=Routledge, 2015|isbn=9781317551065}}</ref><ref name="DicItCin">{{cite book|first1=Gino|last1=Moliterno|title=Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema|date=29 September 2008|publisher=Scarecrow Press, 2008, p. 339|isbn=9780810862548}}</ref>

After World War II, there were scattered European uses of Western settings, mostly for comedy, musical or otherwise. A cycle of Western comedies was initiated in 1959 with ''[[La sceriffa]]'' and ''Il terrore dell'Oklahoma'', followed by other films starring comedy specialists, such as [[Walter Chiari]], [[Ugo Tognazzi]], [[Raimondo Vianello]], and [[Fernandel]]. An Italian critic has compared these comedies to American [[Bob Hope]] vehicles.<ref>Mario Molinari, ''Prima che arrivassero gli 'spaghetti''', Segnocinema 22 (March 1986), Vicenza.</ref>