INTO THE WEST FILM LEGEND WHISTLED AS HE WORKED.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

GRIFFITH PARK - Alessandro Alessandroni puckers his lips, cradles his guitar and whistles as he strums a jazz ballad before a ``spaghetti Western'' poster of a young Clint Eastwood.

No mistaking that whistle. Or that Fender Stratocaster. Or that canary- among-the-gunfighters melody made famous in such Sergio Leone films as ``The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.''

``I'm happy,'' proclaimed the 80-year-old Italian musician who will perform today at the opening of a groundbreaking exhibit on Leone at the Museum of the American West.

``I'm honored to be here, to be (so) honored. Los Angeles, to me, it's the top of my career.''

The treasure of Sergio Leone, known as ``The Whistler,'' will add a sonorous high note to the largest exhibition ever devoted to a single film director.

Five years in the making, ``Once Upon a Time in Italy ... the Westerns of Sergio Leone'' will run through Jan. 22, honoring the late Italian director who had a lifelong love of Hollywood.

His ``A Fistful of Dollars,'' ``For a Few Dollars More'' and other Italian-made films paid homage to the Hollywood Western and fashioned a new kind of shoot-'em-up revered by such filmmakers as Quentin Tarantino.

Bold close-ups, biting dialogue and a hail of bullets backed by that whistle and guitar twang - arranged by Alessandroni's childhood classmate Ennio Morricone - made Eastwood and the spaghetti Western as American as ``The Sopranos.''

``It's the most recognized whistle in the world,'' said Estella Chung, co-curator of the Leone exhibit, along with Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling, author of ``Spaghetti Western,'' a term the filmmaker hated.

``When Alessandro whistles, 90 percent is sound and 10 percent wind,'' Frayling added. ``It's an incredibly pure whistle. It sounds like a special effect, but he was born with it.''

Chung glides through her exhibit as if walking into a Leone set of Mexican cantinas and bowlegged pistoleros.

Past the cobra-handled revolver wielded by Eastwood, the Western garb worn by Henry Fonda and the Victorian dress in which Claudia Cardinale of ``Once Upon a Time in the West'' was exquisitely matched.

Past film sets, movie posters and mini-documentaries that show how an Italian director aspired to create early postmodern films.

For who could ever match The Whistler's signature ``lah-dee-lah-dee- dah'' of ``The Good, the Bad and the Ugly''? Or ever repeat such Eastwood lines, squeezed through a cigar stub, as: ``I don't think it's nice you're laughin'. See, my mule don't like people laughin'.''

``Leone had a great sense of style, a love for and an understanding of Hollywood Westerns and a unique vision of the Wild West,'' said Frayling, of the Royal College of Art in London.

For Alessandroni, working with Leone was part of a life's work.

A native of Soriano nel Cimino, a village north of Rome, Alessandroni got his chops in his family's barbershop, a mecca for musical talent where he learned to play everything from the mandolin to the tuba.

But it was Nino Rota who discovered the mellifluous tweeter while recording a Fellini film score. He was later recruited by Morricone, famous for his harmonies and soaring trumpets.

Over the years, Alessandroni would contribute his whistle, his electric guitar and his 16-member ``Modern Singers'' chorus.

``Without your whistle, the Western would have taken another direction,'' Morricone recently told Alessandroni.

``That, to me, was the biggest compliment,'' said Alessandroni, an energetic man with a long face and blue eyes.

Today, the musician and composer prefers to play jazz with his quintet at his country villa north of Rome. He tends his figs and tomatoes while whistling melodies for the 60 instruments he plays, including the sitar.

``He's not allowed to whistle at the house,'' jokes his wife, Margaret, an author and photojournalist.

But he's no mere whistler.

``It's frustrazione,'' he said. ``I'm more than a whistler, I'm a composer, with hundreds of soundtracks.

``I was very lucky to meet Sergio Leone ... He said, You write five minutes of music and I'll film over it.''

Dana Bartholomew, [phone]

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

IF YOU GO

Alessandro Alessandroni, known as ``The Whistler'' in Sergio Leone's Westerns, will perform at 2 p.m. today prior to a screening of ``A Fistful of Dollars'' at the Autry National Center's Wells Fargo Auditorium, 4700 Western Heritage Way. The cost is $10, or $5 for ANC members. For reservations, contact www.ticketweb.com.

For information about the Autry Museum of the American West, contact www.autrynationalcenter.org.

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

(color) Alessandro Alessandroni whistles and strums his guitar at the newly opened Sergio Leone exhibit.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

Box:

IF YOU GO (see text)