Savage Guns (1961 Film)

Savage Guns (1961 Film)

The Savage Guns (Spanish: Tierra brutal) is a 1961 Eurowestern film, an international co-production by British and Spanish producers. Based on a specially commissioned screenplay, The San Siado Killings, written by Peter R. Newman and directed by Michael Carreras, the film is credited as the first traditional Spaghetti Western.

The film was noticeably set apart from previous "classic" American westerns starring an American leading cast (Richard Basehart, Don Taylor and Alex Nicol) and Spanish actors in supporting roles (José Manuel Martín, Paquita Rico, María Granada, Fernando Rey and José Nieto) as well as its unique use of the deserts, palm trees, agaves and whitewashed villages of southern Spain. It was also the first western to be shot on location in Almeria, Spain, an area which would be often used in later Spaghetti Westerns during the next two decades.

Twenty-five westerns would be produced in the area during the next two years, primarily by German, Spanish and Italian film studios, although the majority of these films were considered low quality until the release of Sergio Leone's Fistful of Dollars in 1964, its popularity leading to the Dollars trilogy and ultimately of the Spaghetti Western-genre.