Woody living with the Italians.

From: GOAL DUST

by Woody Strode and Sam Young

I went right from BOOT HILL to CIAK MULL, L'UOMO DELLA VENDETTA; THE UNHOLY FOUR, directed by Pasquale Squitieri. He was a young director, or as they said in those days, a small oater. I got cash and 25 percent of world sales for that one.

Then Dino De Laurentiis offered me a part in THE DESERTERS with Richard Crenna, Ricardo Montalban, and Slim Pickens. Every once in a while you can catch that one on the tube. De Laurentiis gave me another $75,000.

I've often commented on that stage of my life because I didn't know I could just completely live with white people. I was like a zebra with a bunch of lions, and I went right to the trough with them. I learned from the experience that I could live anywhere in the world. I was as comfortable in Italy as I would have been with my own people. I found the Italians to be as simple as the Polynesians. They're the only white group I know that act like natives.

[Of course the film is called THE DESERTER.]