William Berger/Eurowesterns/Jess Franco

As the black clad outlaw in SARTANA IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH (1970)...




William Berger (1928-1993) gave an outstanding performance as the alcoholic writer Dean Baker in one of Jess Franco's best films, JUEGO SUCIO EN CASABLANCA...



William Berger in 1970

The late Austrian born actor William Berger became something of a Spaghetti Western regular starting in the mid-1960s with Mario Maffei's RINGO'S BIG NIGHT (thanks to Squonkmatic for a look at the excellent Franco Cleef reconstruction). One of the last he appeared in before his notorious 1970 drug bust (which landed him in an Italian jail for a year) was Roberto Mauri's SARTANA IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH.

My review of that film is now up on the EUROWESTERNS FORUM at www.cinemadrome.yuku.com. Also of interest are Nzoog's recently added reviews of two ultra-obscure Spanish westerns directed by Jose Maria Zabalza, the man who gave the world the outlandish Z grade Paul Naschy werewolf epic, FURY OF THE WOLFMAN (1970). Since the Zabalza westerns never had any theatrical/video/DVD release in North America or outside of Spain, these should be of special interest to Euro western/rare Euro genre movie collectors.

William Berger, of course, was eventually released from jail after the intervention of his friend, the late director Marco Ferreri. He resumed his career in Spaghetti Cinema and eventually walked into the waiting arms of Jess Franco and would eventually appear in such JF titles as THE CAPTAIN IS 15 YEARS OLD (1972), THE EYES OF DR ORLOFF (1973), GOLDEN TEMPLE AMAZONS (1985) and JUEGO SUCIO EN CASABLACA (1984), among others. We'll be reviewing all of those titles here in the future. Berger was certainly a reliable actor who could play both villains or sympathetic protagonists.