EUROPEAN WESTERNS

   As early as 1909—with the Great Northern Film Company’s production of a very early Danish Western, Texas Tex (Fenin and Everson 1962, 56) —Westerns were a part of European films being made, often, to imitate American films. We know that by the later silent era, Westerns were well-liked in Europe. Joe Hamman was an early German cowboy star. As Westerns became increasingly popular in Europe during the early sound era, production companies were in a quandary about how to market Englishlanguage films in those countries. An early solution was to shoot a film two ways at the same time— one for American audiences and one for European audiences. Both productions would use the same scripts, sets, action scenes, and stunts but have different casts. Raoul Walsh’s The Big Trail (1930) was one such film. John Wayne made his credited film debut in the film, but an alternate version with a completely different cast was made at the same time. The dual production system did not last long as Hollywood eventually figured out how to overdub speech and market subtitled films.

   Very early French Westerns betrayed a lack of understanding of what the West was like. In Jean Durand’s Hanging at Jefferson City (1910), the set only slightly suggests the American frontier West. Much of the film takes place in a minimally saloon-like barroom. Characters wear French farm clothes with large cowboy hats. Two lawmen actually wear uniforms, rather than the usual Western wear, and they have enormous badges pinned to their chests. The middle of the 20th century saw an enormous growth in production of cinema Westerns, particularly in Italy with Cinecitta and other studios’spaghetti Westerns.

   See also LEONE, Sergio.