''Grand Canyon Massacre'' ( Italian: ''Massacro al Grande Canyon'', lit. "Massacre at Grand Canyon") is a 1964 Italian

Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

filmed in Croatia starring James Mitchum,

Milla Sannoner Milla Sannoner (1938–2003) was an Italian film and television actress.Pitts p.352 Selected filmography * '' The Changing of the Guard'' (1962) * ''Grand Canyon Massacre'' (1964) * '' Three Graves for a Winchester'' (1966) * '' A Man for Emmanu ...

, and

George Ardisson Giorgio Ardisson, best known as George Ardisson (31 December 1931 – 11 December 2014), was an Italian actor. Life and career Born in Turin, Ardisson debuted in a minor role in Mauro Bolognini's 1959 film ''Arrangiatevi!''. After several s ...

. It was directed by

Sergio Corbucci Sergio Corbucci (; 6 December 1926 – 1 December 1990) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. He directed both very violent Spaghetti Westerns and bloodless Bud Spencer and Terence Hill action comedies. He is the older bro ...

and

produced Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

by Albert Band. The film's

theme song Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

was performed by

Rod Dana Rod Dana (born Roger Francke; 8 August 1934) is an American former actor, writer and model, mainly active in Italian cinema. Life and career Born in Vernal, Utah, Dana started his career as a runway and photographic model in the late 1950s.Enr ...

. The film has nothing to do with the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...

Plot

Wes Evans has completed his quest in finding and killing the Slade brothers, who have murdered his father, the sheriff of Arriba Mesa. Returning home, Wes is stopped by a large amount of gunmen in Butte Canyon, whose presence is a mystery. Wes escapes and returns home to Arriba Mesa. The judge offers him the job as sheriff and Cooley, the holder of the office and a friend of Wes, is anxious to step down. Wes however only wants to settle down, but when he learns that his love Nancy (who believed Wes to be dead) has married Tully Dancer, he decides to leave again. However he is drawn into the ongoing range war between the Dancer family and Harley Whitmore. When learning that the Dancers have called in an outlaw gang led by the notorious Flake Manson and his brothers, the gang that Wes escaped from, Whitmore acts quickly and rides with a large body of men against the Dancer ranch. They are ambushed by Tully Dancer’s men at a pass and the groups entrench against each other. Wes, who worries for Nancy, negotiates a truce: Whitmore will refrain from pushing through and the Dancers will send off the Manson gang. Tully and his father decide to secretly offer Flake Manson more money to get him to act, even if this endangers the life of Tully’s brother Clay, who is sent to Whitmore as a hostage for the truce. Wes and Cooley arrest the other Manson brothers that are in town, one of them when he tries to rape Nancy. However, Tully finds Flake and they besiege the prison and leave men to hold Wes pinned while they attack Whitmore’s force. Wes and Cooley (with the help of Nancy) manage to trick the men into revealing themselves and kill them, but Cooley dies too. Wes convinces the townspeople to take sides and ride to the pass. Tully and Flake, who had Whitmore between two fires, now suffer the same fate. Wes kills Flake and Tully escapes with Wes in hot pursuit. Tully tries to set fire to the disputed grassland, but he is killed by Fred, a farmer who earlier had lost a leg in the range war. Wes arrives with the corpse of Tully just in time to stop Whitmore from hanging Clay. Wes will stay on as sheriff, with Nancy by his side.

Cast

* James Mitchum as Wes Evans *

Gabriella Pallotta Gabriella Pallotta (born 6 October 1938) is an Italian film actress. She appeared in 22 films between 1956 and 1974. For the film ''The Pigeon That Took Rome ''The Pigeon That Took Rome'' is a 1962 American comedy war film directed and written ...

as Nancy *

as Tully Dancer * Giacomo Rossi-Stuart as Sheriff Burt Cooley *

Burt Nelson Burt is a given name and also a shortened form of other names, such as Burton and Herbert, or a place name. Burt may refer to: People *Burt Alvord (1866–after 1910), American Old West lawman and outlaw * Burt Bacharach (born 1928), American co ...

as Bear Mason *

as Flake's Girlfriend * Eduardo Ciannelli as Eric Dancer *

Andrea Giordana Andrea Giordana (born 27 March 1946) is an Italian actor. He has appeared in more than 14 films, 29 television and 35 theater shows since the mostly late 1950s. Early life He was born in Rome, Italy to film director Claudio Gora and actress Ma ...

as Clay Dancer * Ferdinando Poggi as Ace Mason * Benito Stefanelli as Gunman * Renato Terra as Cureley Mason *

Vladimir Medar Vladimir Medar (1923–1978) was a Croatian film actor, film and television actor. He played the title role in the 1962 Italian adventure film Taras Bulba, the Cossack''.Kinnard & Crnkovich p.168 Selected filmography * ''Barba Zvane'' (1949) - S ...

as Harley Whitmore *

Vlastimir Gavrik Vlastimir ( sr-cyrl, Властимир, ; c. 805 – 851) was the Serbian prince from c. 830 until c. 851. Little is known of his reign. He held Serbia during the growing threat posed by the neighbouring, hitherto peaceful, First Bulgarian Empi ...

as Bear Mason *

Attilio Severini Saint Attilio, one of the legendary martyrs of the Theban Legion, is venerated as a saint in the area of Trino Vercellese, in Piedmont, north-west Italy and commemorated on 28 June. However his cult is no longer officially recognized by the Roma ...

as Flake Mason

Release

''Grand Canyon Massacre'' was released in May 1964.

Reception

In his investigation of narrative structures in

films, Fridlund argues that the story of ''Grand Canyon Massacre'' basically conforms to the "Classical plot", as described by Will Wright referring to US westerns like

Shane Shane may refer to: People * Shane (actress) (born 1969), American pornographic actress * Shane (New Zealand singer) (born 1946) * iamnotshane (born 1995), formerly known as Shane, American singer * Shane (name), a masculine given name and a sur ...

but adds that there are a couple of scenes reminding of the visual style that would later be developed in the westerns by

Sergio Leone Sergio Leone (; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter credited as the pioneer of the Spaghetti Western genre and widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cin ...

.Fridlund, Bert: ''The Spaghetti Western. A Thematic Analysis''. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company Inc., 2006 pp. 74-75.

References

External links

* {{Sergio Corbucci 1964 films 1960s Italian-language films Italian Western (genre) films Spaghetti Western films 1964 Western (genre) films 1960s Italian films