Maybe Paella Westerns would be better

Like many moviegoers, I tend to amuse myself by reading the quizzes that run at AMC between the pre-showtime advertisements. I love to take a shot at questions such as “What is a Best Boy ?” or “What is a Blue Screen ?” And so I was amused the other day to see the answer to this question: What is a Spaghetti Western? The answer provided: A movie shot in Italy.

Uh, no. The Spaghetti Western is a film genre created by the late Sergio Leone . Born in Rome, Leone gave his neo-Westerns their specific look by shooting not in Italy – but in Spain. His most famous films were those starring a young Clint Eastwood as the Man With No Name (although he was referred to in the scripts as “Joe” or “Monco” and Eli Wallach’s character called him “Blondie”).

Most of the post-production work on all three of the film was done at Rome’s famous Cinecitta studio. Otherwise, “Fistful of Dollars” was filmed in a couple of locations in Andalucia and in Madrid. “For a Few Dollars More” was shot exclusively in Spain, again at locations in both Andalucia and Madrid. For “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” thanks to the Internet Movie Database, we can be more specific: the town scenes were shot in Almeria, Andalucia; the Civil War battle scene was shot in Burgos, Castilla y Leon ; and the long desert walk scene was shot in Cabo de Gata , Almeria.

So the next time you read one of those quizzes, don’t accept the easy answer. Look it up on your own. It’s not that hard to do.