R.I.P. Giorgio Capitani

Giorgio Capitani dies at the good age of 89

And yet another one has left us: Giorgio Capitani, director of Ognuno Per Sé passed away in his home town Viterbo at the ripe old age of 89.

In his home country Giorgio Capitani was best known among large audiences for directing a long-running crime televison series, Il Maresciallo Rocca, situated in his beloved hometown Viterbo. But Capitani was also a very prolific film maker who directed more than fifty movies. At a very young age he already made a couple of home movies (they served as an introduction in the real movie business). He made his debut in the 1950s and worked within various genres such as romantic drama (Delirio, 1954), peplum (Ercole, Sansone, Maciste e Ursus gli invincibili, 1964), and especially comedy (L'arcangelo, 1969; Pane, burro e marmellata, 1977).

# Ognuno Per Sé (1968)

Capitani made only one spaghetti western, but it was a good one and it was also one of his own favorite movies: Ognuno per Sé, internationally best known as The Ruthless Four. It was a rather prestigious production, made on a decent budget (for a genre movie) with a stellar cast, American actor Van Heflin appearing alongside genre regulars like Klaus Kinski, George Hilton and Gilbert Roland. He was not the first choice as director: During the preperations of the movie, the original director, Lucio Fulci fell out with the producers, Luciano Ercoli and Alberto Pugliese. Screenwriter Ferdinando Di Leo then proposed to direct the movie, but the producers opted for Giorgio Capitani, even though he had no previous experiences with the genre.

The working title was ‘'Ognuno per sé (e Dio per nessuno)'' meaning: Every man for himself (and God for nobody at all), but the part between brackets was dropped.

English title: The Ruthless Four

German title: Das Gold von Sam Cooper

French title: Chacun Pour Soi

There are various good DVD releases of this fine movie. It was released in Germany by Koch Media, in France by Artus Films. Both releases use the same transfer (the on-screen title of the German release is in French)