The Road to Fort Alamo

• Ken Clark as Bill Mannerly/"Lieutenant John Smith" (Bud Massidy in the English version)
• Jany Clair as Janet
• Michel Lemoine as Kid Carson
• Andreina Paul as Mrs. Collins
• Alberto Cevenini (as Kirk Bert) as Slim Kincaid/"Private Jim Kincaid"
• Gustavo De Nardo (as Dean Ardow) as Sergeant Warwick (Sergeant Carter)
• Antonio Gradoli (as Anthony Gradwell) as Captain Hull (Captain Hollis)
• Gérard Herter (uncredited) as Mr. Silver

The Road to Fort Alamo was produced before the conventions of the Spaghetti Western were established with A Fistful of Dollars.[5] European Westerns had become popular when Germany's Rialto Film bought the rights to Karl May's Western novels, and made several films with director Harald Reinl with his Winnetou series.[1] Some of the films in that series were international co-productions involving Italian funding.[1] As they became more successful in Italy, Italian investors began producing their own Westerns with four produced in 1964: Mario Costa's Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West, Sergio Corbucci's Minnesota Clay, Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and The Road to Fort Alamo.[1]

Mario Bava biographer Tim Lucas described The Road to Fort Alamo as resembling the Winnetou films, as opposed to the style Leone developed with A Fistful of Dollars.[6] The Road to Fort Alamo was filmed at Elios Film Studios in Rome and on location between February and March 1964.[1] Michel Lemoine, who had a supporting role in the film, spoke about his work on it with Bava, stating that Bava "was an extraordinary director and he needed all of his talent to get through [The Road to Fort Alamo], because it was really difficult. The producers had money problems with that picture, and Bava had to fight constantly".[7][8]

Franco Prosperi, who served as one of the film's script writers and Bava's assistant director, expressed distaste towards it, stating that "Mario was useless at making Westerns; he had no talent for it. I disown [The Road to Fort Alamo] completely; it was kind of a disaster."[9]

The Road to Fort Alamo was distributed by Comptoir Français du Film in France on March 24, 1965.[1][3] In that country, it was retitled Arizona Bill in the tradition of the twenty Arizona Bill films made in France between 1907 and 1913, starring Joe Hamman.[1] In the United States, it was released by World Entertainment Corporation on July 10, 1966.[1]

• The Road to Fort Alamo at IMDb