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Spanish filmmaker Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent directed one of the first European Westerns, El Coyote, in 1954. Set on the U.S.-Mexican border and patterned after classic Hollywood Westerns (the story was taken from a popular pulp novel by José Mallorquí), Marchent's film is said to have greatly influenced Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy of spaghetti Westerns and its many imitators. Marchent is the son of writer Joaquín Romero Marchent, and his brothers, Carlos Romero Marchent and Rafael Romero Marchent, are both actors (the latter directs as well). Joaquín Luis directed his first film, Juzgado Permanente/Court of Justice (1953), after gaining experience as an assistant director. He filmed El Coyote and its sequel, La Justicia del Coyote/El Coyote's Justice, simultaneously. After directing numerous Westerns during the '60s, Marchent's film output became sporadic.