The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) - Leone ends his poncho trilogy with certified classic

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Kept in mostly earthy tones, this hand-painted poster for Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a masterwork

Three gunslingers in the West fight each other in a fierce search for a fortune in buried Confederate gold around the time of the American Civil War.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is written by Agenore Incrocci (Spaghetti House (1982)), Furio Scarpelli (Celluloid/Celluloide (1996)), Luciano Vincenzoni (Count Tacchia/Il Conte Tacchia (1982)) and co-writer/director, Italian master filmmaker Sergio Leone (The Colossus of Rhodes/Il Colosso di Rodi (1961)). It is the final film in Leone's Dollars trilogy, which also contains A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965).
An impressively grand work, this spaghetti western is a complete joy: An epic with big sets, twists, great storytelling and Ennio Morricone's (The Repenter/Il Pentito (1985)) classic legendary score and theme, which returns probably around 20 times through the film without ever getting tiring.
Clint Eastwood (The Bridges of Madison County (1995)) is the clench-jawed Clint we know and love from these films; whereas Eli Wallach (The Toe Tactic (2008)) as Tuco ('the ugly') is especially good in the film, filling out his mischievous and unpleasant yet charming character with bravado.
The desert scenes and the cemetery finale are incredibly handsome pieces of cinema, (cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli (Lovers & Liars/Viaggio con Anita (1979))). The story of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is very uncomplicated, and at its length Leone operates in a space somewhere between grandeur and at the cusp of delusions of grandeur. However that space is wonderful to be in with him here.

Related posts:

Sergio Leone: A Fistful of Dynamite/Giù la Testa, Coglione!/Duck, You Sucker (1971) - Sergio Leone's cinematic cornucopia 
For a Few Dollars More/Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (1965) or, Return of the Poncho Killer A Fistful of Dollars/Per un Pugno di Dollari (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho
 

Watch a clip from the movie here with Van Cleef

Cost: Estimated 1.2 mil. $
Box office: 25.1 mil. $ (North America only)
= Mega-hit (returned more than 20.91 times its cost)
[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly premiered 23 December (Italy) and runs 177 minutes. United Artists reportedly put up 0.5 mil. $ of the budget, following the success of the two previous Dollars movies in Europe especially, (all three were not released in North America until 1967.) Eastwood reportedly negotiated his salary up to 250k $, a Ferrari and 10 % of the US profits. Shooting took place in Spain, including Madrid, and in Italy, including Rome, around July 1966. The cemetery set was built by Spanish soldiers in 2 days. The film is said to have grossed 6.3 mil. $ in its initial North-American release. It was released slowly to more countries into the 1970s and has had many re-releases. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this review. IMDb's users have voted the film in at #9 on the site's Top 250, sitting between Pulp Fiction (1994) and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Leone returned with Once Upon a Time in the West/C'era una Volta il West (1968). Eastwood returned in The Witches/Le Streghe (1967); Lee Van Cleef (Shotgun Slade (1961, TV-series)) in Death Rides a Horse/Da Uomo a Uomo (1967); and Wallach in Batman (1967, TV-series) and theatrically in The Tiger Makes Out (1967). The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is certified fresh at 97 % with an 8.76/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?

For a Few Dollars More/Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (1965) or, Return of the Poncho Killer

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A familiar figure in a poncho returns on this striking painted poster for Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More

Manco is a hard-nosed bounty hunter in the wild West, but in his hunt for the evil bank robber Niño, he runs into the vengeful colonel Mortimer, and the two partner up in what becomes an extremely dangerous duplicity.

For a Few Dollars More is written by Italian master co-writer-director Sergio Leone (The Colossus of Rhodes/Il Colosso di Rodi (1961)), Luciano Vincenzoni (Beyond Justice (1992)), Sergio Donati (Almost Blue (2000)), Enzo Dell'Aquila (The Brute and the Beast/Le Colt Cantarono la Morte e Fu... Tempo di Massacro (1966)), Fernando Di Leo (Loaded Guns/Colpo in Canna (1975)) and Fulvio Morsella (My Name Is Nobody/Il Mio Nome è Nessuno (1973)). It is the middle film in Leone's Dollars Trilogy, which starts with Fistful of Dollars/Per un Pugno di Dollari (1964) and ends with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly/Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo (1966). There seems to be a trend among online film critics to praise this film over the others now, because it is the least commonly hailed among the three, but I still feel that For a Few Dollars More is the weakest among Leone's western films, which include two subsequent films: The masterpiece Once Upon a Time in the West/C'era una Volta il West (1968) and the great political epic Duck, You Sucker/A Fistful of Dynamite/Giù la Testa (1971).
This in no way makes For a Few Dollars More a poor film, however; it is extremely entertaining, but also feels a little like a playground for the champion filmmaker to develop and reuse effects, devices and techniques, which not until his following two films would place him as an incontestable western maestro.
The film is well acted: Clint Eastwood (Honkytonk Man (1982)) is great as the dogged gunslinger Manco; Lee Van Cleef (How the West Was Won (1962)) is good as the colonel, and Klaus Kinski (Paganini (1989)) is fun in a wild supporting role. But it is Ennio Morricone's (Sabato, Domenica e Lunedì (2012), TV movie) original and innovative music that to me is the greatest part of For a Few Dollars More.

Related posts:

Sergio Leone: A Fistful of Dynamite/Giù la Testa, Coglione!/Duck, You Sucker (1971) - Sergio Leone's cinematic cornucopia 
A Fistful of Dollars/Per un Pugno di Dollari (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho

Listen to Morricone's unequaled theme for the film here

Cost: 0.6 mil. $
Box office: 15 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[For a Few Dollars More premiered 18 December (Italy) and runs 132 minutes. As Fistful of Dollars was released to immediate success in Italy, a sequel came up fast. But locking Eastwood for it was challenged, as the film was not yet released in the US. The producers rushed an Italian print to him, and screening it along with some friends, Eastwood was impressed by the film and signed up for the sequel upon realizing Leone's talent. The first script was reportedly written by Vincenzoni in 9 days. Charles Bronson was approached for a role but passed, as he had done with the previous film as well. Eastwood was paid 50k $ and Van Cleef 17k $. Shooting took place in Spain and in the Cinecittà studios in Rome, Italy. The film became an even greater success than Fistful of Dollars in Italy, where it by 1967 had become the highest-grossing film in the country ever. It did not get a North-American release until May '67, 4 months after Fistful of Dollars, and was a big hit, grossing 5 mil. $ (33.33 % of the total listed gross) there. The film was also successful in France; there it was the 7th highest-grossing film of 1966. It has since been re-released countless times. Leone returned with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), which was also Eastwood's next movie. For a Few Dollars More is fresh at 94 % with a 7.8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of For a Few Dollars More?

A Fistful of Dollars/Per un Pugno di Dollari (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho

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This stylish, cool and simple poster for Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars seems to presage the explosion of the spaghetti western that the film initiated

The Man With No Name stops in a small, Mexican town, which is plagued by death due to its two rivaling gangs, the Rojos and the Baxters. In the course of a few days, the good stranger manages to play them out against each other in expert fashion, before he is eventually forced to face the mighty bad Ramón. 

Italian master co-writer/director Sergio Leone's (Once Upon a Time in the West/C'era una Volta il West (1968)) second film, spaghetti western classic A Fistful of Dollars skyrocketed Clint Eastwood's (Unforgiven (1992)) career, getting released around the last year of the stale Rawhide TV-series (1959-1965) that he starred on. With Eastwood's similarly rough, cigar-chomping performances in the subsequent two films in Leone's Dollars trilogy, For a Few Dollars More/Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly/Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo (1966), he became an established star, readied for his Dirty Harry franchise, countless other films and later evolution as a filmmaker in his own right.
Leone tried to get 9 other actors for the part, before Richard Harrison (Perseus Against the Monsters/Perseo l'Invincibile (1963)) recommended Eastwood to him, and Leone recognized the Californian's potential as a personality star here. The image Eastwood carved out already here in his first major break is the one which he continued to hone and keep alive in countless performances all the way up to his great Gran Torino (2008), SPOILER which finally seem to put the iconic star persona to rest. At the time of A Fistful of Dollars, Leone made his famous comment about Eastwood and his character's function: "More than an actor, I needed a mask, and Eastwood, at that time, only had two expressions: With hat and no hat."
Besides being a fun, raw and still wholly vibrant movie to watch, - especially an excellent choice for any dull afternoon, - A Fistful of Dollars features music from legendary composer, Ennio Morricone (Who Killed Pasolini?/Pasolini, un Delitto Italiano (1995)).
A Fistful of Dollars is written by Leone, Víctor Andrés Catena (The Rash One/El Espontáneo (1964)) and Jaime Comas Gil (Panic/Bakterion (1982)), with Adriano Bolzoni (Silver Saddle/Sella d'Argento (1978)) contributing story elements, Mark Lowell (His and Hers (1961)) supplying dialog and Fernando Di Leo (Blood and Diamonds/Diamanti Sporchi di Sangue (1977)), Duccio Tessari (Marco Polo (1962)) and Tonino Valerii (My Dear Killer/Mio Caro Assassino (1972)) doing uncredited screenplay work.

Related post:

Sergio Leone: A Fistful of Dynamite/Giù la Testa, Coglione!/Duck, You Sucker (1971) - Sergio Leone's cinematic cornucopia

Listen to Morricone's main title theme for the film here

Cost: Reportedly 0.2 - 0.225 mil. $
Box office: 14.5 mil. $ (North America only)
= Mega-hit
[A Fistful of Dollars premiered 12 September (Florence, Italy) and runs 100 minutes. Leone thought that American westerns had grown stagnant in the 1950s and approached the genre with an operatic visual style and brutal violence. Eastwood was paid 15k $ for his performance. Shooting took place near Madrid and in Andalucía, Spain, and in Rome's Cinecittà Studios. As was custom in Italian filmmaking, sound was not recorded during shooting but dubbed in later. Leone was sued for plagiarizing Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's samurai film Yojimbo (1961) by an angered Kurosawa. The dispute was settled out of court with Kurosawa receiving 15 % of the worldwide receipts, - more than 100k $. The film was a major hit in Italy with a reported 14.4 mil. admissions in its initial release. Many millions more saw it all over Europe; in North America it did not see a release until 22 December 1966 in Canada, and the finest critics trashed it, but it also became a popular phenomenon there, and the film became the highest-grossing Italian film ever made for a while. Several re-releases followed. Leone returned with For a Few Dollars More/Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (1965), which was also Eastwood's next film, with some Rawhide in between. A Fistful of Dollars is certified fresh at 98 % with a 8.19/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of A Fistful of Dollars?

Duck, You Sucker!/Giù la Testa/A Fistful of Dynamite/Once Upon a Time… the Revolution (1971) - Leone's cinematic cornucopia

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A highly explosive, elaborate and amazing poster for Sergio Leone's Duck, You Sucker!

Duck, You Sucker!, written by Luciano Vincenzoni (Orca (1977)), Sergio Donati (Mr. Hercules Against Karate/Ming, Ragazzi! (1973)) and Italian master co-writer/director Sergio Leone (Once Upon a Time in the West/C'era Una Volta il West (1968)), is a very different Leone film compared to his earlier westerns. It is his 6th film and last work in the genre, and it's a wild mix of genres and styles, immensely entertaining and majestic in scope, - a real treat for all cinephiles.

An IRA-dynamite expert and a Mexican outlaw join forces during the Mexican revolution and form a friendship.

Duck, You Sucker! manages to blend potent political issues (though Leone has proclaimed that he did not aim for any political messages) with fun and thoughtfulness and romance. At turns, it is a political revolutionary tragedy, a melodrama and an action-packed buddy film. - It is nothing if not an unlikely combination, but Leone and Co. somehow manage to pull it off and create one of the master's best films.
Rod Steiger (On the Waterfront (1954)) is a lot of fun with his Mexican accent, and James Coburn (Hudson Hawk (1991)) is equally likeable with his sunburned, horsey face as the Irishman, and many of the scenes, - often very grandiose and picturesque, - are staged brilliantly.
Ennio Morricone's (Footloose (1979)) score is another weighty reason for the transcendental force of the film, although there are times, - as in the Irish flashbacks, - when his experimental avant-gardism goes a little too far for my taste.
No matter, - Duck, You Sucker!, A Fistfull of Dynamite, - whichever title you prefer, - is a film I certainly can't but love.

Related post:

Sergio Leone: A Fistful of Dollars (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho

Listen to the main theme of the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 2 bil. Italian Lira (Italy only)
= Uncertain
[Duck, You Sucker! premiered 29 October (Italy) and runs 157 minutes. Conceived during the time of student protests and a surge in the left wing across the Western world, Leone wanted the film to deconstruct the romanticized nature of revolution and show that "revolution means confusion." He did not intend to direct it himself, and Peter Bogdanovich, Sam Peckinpah and Giancarlo Santi were in talks to direct before Leone was pressured into assuming the job himself by Steiger, who otherwise refused to star. For the Irish part, Clint Eastwood, Malcolm McDowell, George Lazenby and Jason Robards were considered before James Coburn was cast. Eli Wallach sued when he passed on work to star in the film and was replaced by Steiger without compensation. Filming took place in Spain and Ireland on an undisclosed budget. The film was 'moderately successful' in Italy, where it grossed 2 bil. Lira. Almost 5 mil. people paid admission to see it in France. The film was refused classification and effectively banned in Mexico for conceived offensiveness to Mexicans and the Mexican revolution until 1979. It is unclear whether the film was commercially successful, although I suspect that it was, - westerns being all the rage across Europe at the time and this being grand and topical to boot. Duck, You Sucker! was the first, and rather peculiar, American title for the film, as Leone thought that it was a colloquialism in the American language, - as well as very near the Italian title, which translates to, 'duck your head'. A Fistful of Dynamite was later used in most re-releases of the film, as the original American title was found to have been ill-conceived. Leone won the David di Donatello (Italy's Oscar) Best Director award for the film. He only made one more film: Once Upon in America (1984). Steiger returned in Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971), Coburn in The Carey Treatment (1972). Duck, You Sucker! is fresh at 90 % with a 7.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Duck, You Sucker!?