Shoot-outs, sun and smoking guns ­ movie buff David Cawley forms a one-man posse, mounts his hire car, and hunts down the cool movie connection in a quiet corner of Andalucia

The man in black is chewing a toothpick. The moustachioed deputy with a scar across his face spits some chewed-up tobacco on the dusty ground. They are staring at each other. The sound of a gunshot echoes through the air. It takes just a second. You don’t even see them draw. The deputy is down, blood pouring from his chest. The man in black adjusts his Stetson, crushes the toothpick on the fl oor and strolls leisurely through the swinging saloon doors across the street to a round of applause.

It’s a scene from a fi lm. Or better, a live re-enactment of a shootout on the set where a real fi lm scene was once shot. This is Texas Hollywood and it’s the site of movie-making history, a cowboy theme park not in Disney World or Los Angeles, but in the arid desert of Andalucia, Spain. Texas Hollywood has a slightly neglected air, with the Mexican and American towns constructed next to each other faded, peeling and generally looking the worse for wear ­ which is actually somehow gratifying. You can enter the façades of homes, banks, shops and barbers’, but they’re empty and play host only to desert critters.

Yet once in this sunny land between Almeria, Murcia and Granada, they were home to some of the greatest actors in movie history. Since the 1950s, the province of Almeria has echoed to the shouts of "action, cut, print" during the making of more than 150 fi lms. More recently, it was used for Blueberry (2004), starring Vincent Cassel, Juliette Lewis and Michael Madson.

However, it was during the 1960s and 1970s that location Almeria had its heyday. At its peak you couldn’t move two yards without falling over a member of Hollywood’s A-list. Local doctor to the stars Antonio Moreno wrote: "I saw Anthony Quinn and Stewart Granger at a kiosk bar in the street, Faye Dunaway and a friend walking down the Paseo in Almeria City, and Ursula Andress at a pool in Aguadulce. No one ever went up to them then. Actors liked fi lming here because they felt very comfortable." Which of course was a particular bonus for Moreno’s drinking buddy Peter O’Toole, whose off-screen, downtime exploits were legendary.

It was the famous Spaghetti Westerns that were fi rst to make cinematic magic in the light and heat on the wind-blown sand, stone, scrub and dry riverbeds of the Tabernas Desert. Director Sergio Leone revolutionised the Western, turning it into a kind of ironic fairytale that blended grungy close-ups and over-the-top spectacle with a grunting, growling understated dialogue. The interplay of images and music was another great feature, with Leone’s long-term collaborator Ennio Morricone’s unique arrangements and whistling soundtracks used to iconic effect. "Woooeeoooeeooo wawawah!"

Leone’s "Dollars Trilogy": A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) introduced the world to a young Clint Eastwood, becoming box offi ce hits in Europe and the US. And it’s Leone’s sets still standing today, designed by Carlo Simi, that make up Texas Hollywood and the other Wild West tourist towns.

Towards the stockade, next to the exhausted collection of occasionally bellowing bison, donkeys and horses, are the remnants of props such as coffi ns and furniture piled high and collecting dust beneath a tin roof. There are few visitors compared with the number you’d fi nd at Wild West recreation towns in the US, possibly because Texas Hollywood is not as well known as you’d think. But this just adds to the authentic atmosphere, along with the bleating of local herds of goats. Standing here you can imagine a tumbleweed rolling down the main street or, better still, the likes of all who fi lmed here, from Yul Brynner and Henry Fonda to Klaus Kinski, Lee Van Cleef and Charles Bronson.

A short journey along the N-340 highway and past a remote and smaller collection of Western town façades, is Texas Hollywood’s little brother, Oasys ­ formerly known as Mini Hollywood.

A more modern and complete destination for families ­ who may not necessarily share the enthusiasm for movie heritage ­ it also offers a zoo as a distraction to "pardners" bored with guns, cowboy hats and the Wild West in general.

The man in black and moustachioed deputy are just some of the actors and stuntmen who still work full-time as paid entertainers in Texas Hollywood and Oasys. Each day they recreate a shoot-out, a bank robbery, throw themselves off balconies and get dragged along by horses, all with much enthusiasm and good humour.

But, like any good actor, this region was able to adapt to many other parts. Almeria hosted war, biblical and adventure productions and was transformed into Arabia, Russia, Mexico and North Africa. David Lean turned the seaside town of Carboneras into the Jordanian port of Aqaba for the charging and battle scenes in Lawrence of Arabia; the classic love story Dr Zhivago, set during the Russian revolution, was partly fi lmed at Guadix; Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton shot some of Cleopatra in the area; and Steven Spielberg picked the beautiful coastal park of Cabo de Gata-Nijar for parts of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Located at Playa de Carboneras is Hotel El Dorado (www.eldorado-carboneras.com), the ideal place to stay for a night among the stars. Chock-full of movie memorobilia, it’s perfect but for the fact that on entering the bar the piano doesn’t suddenly stop, and the conversation hush ­ the only sound coming from a coattail brushing behind holstered pistol grips. Wait, actually, that’s rather a relief.

The trail from Almeria City

The fun-fi lled way to drive through Almeria’s cinematic past is to take the old, winding B-road through Nijar past deep canyons and prairies that just occasionally give way to sprinkles of remote, dusty villages. Emerging onto the N-340, turn left for Tabernas until the movie sets begin to reveal themselves. You can rent a car from Hertz at Almeria airport. Visit www.ryanair. com for details.

TEXAS HOLLYWOOD

It’s a relatively short 25km drive heading north from Almeria City on the N-340 to get to Texas Hollywood. The set is still active, and visitors can walk around the different settings. There’s a Mexican Village, an Indian Village and a Wild West town with all the typical features — saloon, jail, shops, and stables complete with horses and stagecoaches. The park is open 10am-8pm.

Tel: +34 950 165 458, www.texashollywood.com

OASYS

Drawing families to its variety of attractions, the theme park — formerly known as Mini Hollywood — hosts twice-daily acts, such as a Wild West gunfi ght, when baddies on horseback ride into town and hold up the bank. It also has a carriage museum, a fi lm museum, a cactus garden and a zoo for the kids. The park is open 10am-9pm from June to September, and 10am-7pm during the rest of the year.

Tel: +34 950 365 236

 

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