The Price of Power
| The Price of Power | |
|---|---|
 Italian poster | |
| Directed by | Tonino Valerii |
| Screenplay by |
|
| Produced by | Bianco Manini[1] |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Luis Enríquez Bacalov[1] |
Production companies |
|
| Distributed by | Consorzio Italiano Distributori Indipendenti Film (CIDIF) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 111 minutes[1] |
| Countries |
|
| Box office | ₤1.273 billion |
The Price of Power (
Plot
The president ends up dying from an assassin's bullet, but Willer's further quest for revenge is ultimately more successful. Spanish actress
Cast
- Giuliano Gemma as Bill Willer
- Warren Vanders as Arthur MacDonald
- Benito Stefanelli as Sheriff Benny Jefferson
- Fernando Rey as Pinkerton
- Ray Saunders as Jack Donovan
- Michael Harvey as Jeff Wallace (uncredited)
- Van Johnson as James A. Garfield
- José Suárez as Chester A. Arthur
- Maria Cuadra as Lucretia Garfield
- Antonio Casas as Mr. Willer
- Manuel Zarzo as Nick
- Julio Peña as Governor of Texas
- José Calvo as Dr. Strips
Production
The film's concept was conceived by Massimo Patrizi, Luigi Comencini's brother-in-law, and serves as an adaptation of the story of John F. Kennedy's assassination in the form of a Western.[3] Patrizi also imposed another true story in his script, the murder of James A. Garfield in 1881.[3]
Although the opening titles of the film credit the story and screenplay only to Patrizi, the film was rewritten by Valerii and Ernesto Gastaldi.[4] Valerii commented that he did not remember Patrizi's script word-for-word, but described it as "extremely basic, whereas Gastaldi and I deepened it. We established the essential themes to develop, introduced the character played by Fernando Rey, the banker who is also the assassination's mandator, and so on."[4] Gastaldi stated that "Patrizi's treatment was simply thrown in the bin, but the producer had signed a contract with him which stated that he was to be credited as the sole author of the script. Since I didn't care about my name in the titles, I had no problem writing the script and not signing it."[3][4]
Release
The Price of Power was released theatrically in Italy on December 10, 1969, by Cidif.[1] It grossed a total of 1,273,858,000 lire on its domestic release in Italy.[1] It received a release in Spain on June 9, 1970, as La muerte de un presidente.[1]
References
Bibliography
- Cox, Alex (2009). 10,000 Ways to Die: A Director's Take on the Spaghetti Western. Oldcastle Books. ISBN 978-1-84243-304-1.
- Curti, Robert (2016). Tonino Valerii: The Films. McFarland. ISBN 978-1476664682.
- Hughes, Howard (2010). Spaghetti Westerns. Harpenden: Kamera Books. ISBN 978-1-84243-303-4.
External links
- The Price of Power at IMDb
