I guess it wouldn’t be a website dedicated to lost and forgotten movies of the past if I didn’t have an entry for this one. I believe it’s the only western we know was filmed and released to a paying public that genuinely appears to be lost. (please correct me if I’m wrong)

Before going any further, I would strongly recommend reading through this page over on the (English) Spaghetti-Western forums (LINK) and this dedicated page over on the (Italian) Gentedirispetto forums (LINK)

I can only clarify a few points that are brought up in those discussions. I’ve met film historian Graziano Maffara who was living with Sergio Pastore’s daughter at the time. I remember this immediately came up when I realised who she was – but, alas, I can confirm that they were at just as much of a loose end as the rest of us. They also had been actively looking and had no idea if the film still exists. Given that they live in Rome, this does confirm that the film isn’t in the Rome (Cineteca Nazionale) film archives. I’m guessing both the Friuli and Bologna film archives were also searched years ago?

There’s mention of a private screening for ‘scholars of the genre’ – which is complete (and utter) nonsense. Likewise, the purple faded screenshots (in both forum discussions) are 100% confirmed taken from Sergio Pastore’s Il Diario Proibito di Fanny and not Crisantemi… as originally claimed. There’s mention of a Facebook post claiming to have a copy which was also debunked quite early on – possibly connected to the screenshots from Fanny’s Forbidden Diary. Claims the Nocturno crew saw or own a copy – debunked by one of them when asked directly – they didn’t and don’t. The only positive thing to surface after all these years is quite a number of promotional material confirming the film certainly played in cinemas at the time – just probably not very many of them. There’s also mention of legal documentation in some government archive – again, confirmation it did get a release, even though there is no official censor report (which is highly uncommon, but not impossible)

Based on the news articles below from the Italian newspaper La Stampa – we do know (with some degree of certainty) that filming took place in August of 1967 at the Elios studios in Rome, and that the film had been and gone in cinemas by February 1968.

La Stampa (Feb 1968)

La Stampa (August 1967)