R.I.P. Ennio Morricone, composer

The words “Spaghetti Western” bring the music of Ennio Morricone to mind.

(At least they do to me. If they don't for you, click here for the track to “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.”)

The prolific Italian composer passed away July 6 at age 91.

Early in his career, Morricone created the scores for Sergio Leone’s four famous Westerns, as well others in that genre made by Italians, shot in Spain, and starring American actors.

But Morricone did more than westerns – much more – hundreds more.

He did so many, I went to the IMDb site for comparisons with other famous film composers, starting with the big names from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Max Steiner, who did the music for “Gone with the Wind” and many Warner Bros. films, including “Casablanca,” has 241 composer credits listed on the site;

Alfred Newman, who had a long career at 20^th Century-Fox, has 230 credits;

Victor Young (“The Quiet Man”), 216;

Henry Mancini (“The Pink Panther”), 207;                                               

Dimitri Tiomkin (“Red River” and “D.O.A.”), 127;

Miklos Rozsa (“Double Indemnity”), 95;

Bernard Herrmann (“Psycho” and “Citizen Kane”), 86;

John Williams (“Star Wars”), has 160;

Maurice Jarre (“Lawrence of Arabia,” “Dr. Zhivago”), 174;

Italian films from the late 1940s to the 1970s seemed to be dominated by names like Carlo Rustichelli (274 credits), and Nino Rota, who often worked with Federico Fellini, (180 credits).

But Morricone beats them all with an amazing 519 credits, including “The Hateful Eight” in 2015.

Tuesday's Film: Sergio Leone’s Duck You Sucker

“Duck, You Sucker” from 1971 is the last, and arguably the best, of the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns.

In this movie, which is also known as “A Fistful of Dynamite,” Rod Steiger plays a poor Mexican bandit who, with his six sons ranging in age from little children to older teens, robs and humiliates the rich and finds himself an unwilling participant in a revolution occurring around 1914.

Steiger teams up with an Irish national and explosives expert, played by James Coburn, who has dreams and nightmares of his own country divided by revolution.

Leone’s history may be deliberately inaccurate to make a political statement and to create some interesting dramatic tension between the two men. Throughout the movie, Steiger is intense and opposed to the revolt which, he tells Coburn, brings only death to the poor. Coburn is cool and detached, having survived a revolt in his own country, but he has a change of heart.

Together, Steiger and Coburn plot to rob a bank. They blast their way in and, in a plot twist, Steiger is hailed as a hero of the people for his actions, an honor he rejects, but a situation he cannot escape. From there the film moves on to bloody reprisals, violent ambushes, and full battle scenes.

While there is a good deal of action, and a lot of humor, this is a far more serious film than Leone’s earlier Clint Eastwood movies.

In true Sergio Leone style, the 2½-hour film unfolds at a deliberate pace. It is both grand and personal. There are scenes involving hundreds of extras, horses, trains, and there are scenes between the two stars played in Leone's well known lower-lip to eye-brow close-ups.

“Duck, You Sucker” was beautifully photographed by Giuseppe Ruzzolini, with music by Ennio Morricone.

(This one is for Randy Johnson, who posted many reviews of spaghetti westerns on his blog, and who passed away last weekend.)