Low budget western films—the fictional film genre that glorified the settlement of the frontier in the western part of the U.S., with the cowboy as the quintessential protagonist—made by Italians and Spanish and filmed on location in the geographic locales of Spain and Italy that resembled the U.S. Southwest. These films often featured U.S. Hollywood film stars, who were either in the twilight or in the dawn of their filmic careers, in key roles.