A violent Pasta/Tortilla Western that follows the wake of "Fistful of dollars" considered to be the epitome of the Spaghetti . A so-so Ravioli, Chorizo Western with breathtaking confrontation between the tough starring Philippe Leroy and his enemies : Adolfo Celi and his hoodlums . It stars a Man without name , only nicknamed The Yankee : Philippe Leroy who arrives in a little and desolated town located in frontier New Mexico , being dominated by a nasty gunfighter called Grand Cougar : Adolfo Celi and his henchmen : The Mexican Tomas Torres , the philosopher Jacques Herlin , the good looking young : Franco de Rosa , and other cohorts .
El Yankee packs thrills , shootouts , fights , violence , double-crosses and high body-count .The picture contains typical Spaghetti particularities , as it is filled with sadism , fury , bloodbaths , portentous close-ups of encrusted faces and attractive musical score in Ennio Morricone style .This is a Spanish/Italian co-production , a two country production clearly dominated by the Italian contingent and the traditional leanings of the Spaniard producers of the time that provided their particular stamp on the entire proceedings , especially by producer/writer Alfonso Balcazar who produced and directed lots of Paella/Spaghetti Westernsc. What is most provoking about the Euro-Westerns made in Spain and Italy in the 60s and 70s are the groundbreaking and idiosyncratic ways that the filmmakers came up with limited recourses and short budgets . They delivered a great deal of freedom and gave enough successes for a wide export audience .Unfortunately , most of the 400 to 500 movies made during this cycle were poorly realized. The movie is finely played by two great Italian actors , both of them regular in serious cinema or comedies , though here miscast as Western antiheroes . Furthermore , there appears ordinary secondary players of Spaghetti/Paella western ; as Spaniard actors , such as : Francisco Sanz playing as a barber/undertaker , Victor Israel as a deputy , Cesar Ojinaga as a sheriff ; as well as Italian support cast such as : Pasquale Basile , Franco de Rosa and Jacques Herlin . It displays an atmospheric cinematography and adequate production design by Juan Alberto Soler , shot in Fraga , Huesca , and Balcazar studios , Splugues de Llobregat , Barcelona , Spain , though including an inadequate Romanesque church .
The motion picture was decently directed by Tinto Brass and when he was brought on as filmmaker , he rewrote the script to make it at his peculiar style . However , it was heavily cut by the producers . As Tinto sued the studio and won the right to delete his directorial credit from the film. Brass film debut was In capo al mondo 1963 , afterwards , he went on making such avant garde films as Nersubianco 1969 and L'urlo 1966 . Subsequently , he made a notorious Naziexploitation , Salon Kitty 1976 , his success lead to direct the known adaptation Gore Vidal's Caligula , that Tinto disowned when he watched the botching edition carried out by Bob Guccione , inserting erotic and porno takes . It became an international hit and then Brass was hired to shoot the Euro-spy : Snack Bar Budapest 1988 and following a string of pictures focus on erotic , such as : The secret key , Monella , Cosi fan tute , Paprika , Fallo , The voyeur and many others . And launching careers of erotic girls , as he often cast women with large buttocks , such as Stefania Sandrelli, Serena Grandi , Claudia Koll and Deborah Caproglio. The Yankee was his only Western , though heavily edited results to be a decent Spaghetti .
