A Town Called Bastard (1971)

Interesting facts

A Town Called Bastard is a 1971 international co-production spaghetti Western. It was shot in Madrid with Robert Shaw, Telly Savalas, Stella Stevens and Martin Landau.

Production

The film was financed by Benmar, a wholly owned filmmaking subsidiary of Scotia Investments, the leisure activities group. Benmar was headed by Benjamin Fisz in association with Boris Marmor. They had just invested in Royal Hunt of the Sun. Scotia purchased Benmar and a number of other companies from Marmor in June 1969.

Benmar teamed with writer-producer Philip Yordan who had made several films in Spain. Fisz, Marmour and Yordan built a Western street in Spain that was to be used for the film. Fisz hired Robert Adrey to write the script and, according to Bernard Gordon, who often worked for Yordan, "Yordan was supposed to rewrite and cure its problems." (Gordon described the script as "a bloody, violent, and confusing exercise that, presumably, catered to the bo…

Filming began in Spain in July 1970. Howard Brandy was Fisz's assistant. Production partly took place at a Mexican fortress set built at Madrid 70 Studios near Daganzo created by Yordan. This street would be later used by Captain Apache, Bad Man's River, Pancho Villa, and Horror Express.

Bernard Gordon says when he saw the first cut of the film "We all agreed it didn't make sense and that production would have to be reopened. Again, I realized this was a commonplace with Yordan. Finish a film inadequately, then worry about making changes when it was, in effect, too late.

The film was not a box office success. In October 1970 Benmar announced they would follow Bastard with ten projects (Captain Apache, They All Came to Kill, Hideout, How to Become a Vampire, Journey Man, Big Blonde, The Tribe that Lost Its Head, Her Private's We, Blood Hunt Mafiosa and Trafalfa), but only Captain Apache was made.

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