The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (1966)

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  • THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
    aka Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il


    DIRECETD BY SERGIO LEONE
    PRODUCED BY ALBERTO GRIMALDI
    Arturo González Producciones Cinematográficas, S.A
    UNITED ARTISTS



    Information From IMDb


    Plot Summary
    The Good is Blondie, a wandering gunman with a strong personal sense of honor. The Bad is Angel Eyes, a sadistic hitman who always hits his mark. The Ugly is Tuco, a Mexican bandit who's always only looking out for himself. Against the backdrop of the Civil War, they search for a fortune in gold buried in a graveyard. Each knows only a portion of the gold's exAact location, so for the moment they're dependent on each other. However, none are particularly inclined to share...
    Written by rmlohner


    Cast
    Eli Wallach ... Tuco
    Clint Eastwood ... Blondie
    Lee Van Cleef ... Sentenza / Angel Eyes
    Aldo Giuffrè ... Alcoholic Union Captain
    Luigi Pistilli ... Father Pablo Ramirez
    Rada Rassimov ... Maria
    Enzo Petito ... Storekeeper
    Claudio Scarchilli ... Bounty Hunter in Ghost Town
    John Bartha ... Sheriff (as John Bartho)
    Livio Lorenzon ... Baker
    Antonio Casale ... Jackson / Bill Carson
    Sandro Scarchilli ... Deputy
    Benito Stefanelli ... Member of Angel Eyes' Gang
    Angelo Novi ... Monk
    Antonio Casas ... Stevens
    Aldo Sambrell ... Member of Angel Eyes' Gang
    Al Mulock ... One-armed Bounty Hunter (as Al Mulloch)
    Sergio Mendizábal ... Blonde Bounty Hunter (as Sergio Mendizabal)
    Antonio Molino Rojo ... Capt. Harper (as Molino Rocho)
    Lorenzo Robledo ... Member of Angel Eyes' Gang
    Mario Brega ... Cpl. Wallace
    And many others


    Writing credits
    Luciano Vincenzoni (story) &
    Sergio Leone (story)
    Agenore Incrocci (screenplay) (as Age) &
    Furio Scarpelli (screenplay) (as Scarpelli) &
    Luciano Vincenzoni (screenplay) &
    Sergio Leone (screenplay)


    Original Music
    Ennio Morricone


    Trivia
    * In the theatrical trailer, Angel Eyes is "The Ugly" and Tuco "The Bad," which is the reverse of their designations in the actual film. This is because the Italian title translated into English is actually The Good, the Ugly, the Bad, not The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and the Italian trailer had "The Ugly" and "The Bad" in that order. When the trailer was transferred to English, The Ugly and The Bad were not reversed to coincide with the altered title, causing the incorrect designations.


    * Director Trademark: [Sergio Leone] [theme] The Blonde, Sentenza, and Tuco.


    * After Eli Wallach agreed with Sergio Leone that Tuco would carry his pistol on a lanyard, the director asked him to grasp the gun by shaking his neck, thus making the gun land in his hand. Wallach claimed that he wasn't able to do the intended action, and asked Leone to demonstrate it. When Leone tried, the pistol missed the director's hand and hit his crotch. Leone then told Wallach to hold the gun in the belt.


    * The price of gold in 1862 was US$20.672 an ounce. As of 4 September 2006 it is US$628.10 an ounce. So the $200,000 Tuco, Angel Eyes and Blondie are after would be worth $6,076,867.50 on 4 September 2006.


    * Director Trademark: [Sergio Leone] [close-up]


    * Because Sergio Leone spoke barely any English and Eli Wallach spoke barely any Italian, the two communicated in French.


    * Sergio Leone first had Gian Maria Volontè in mind as "The Ugly".


    * Jack Elam turned down the role of the one-armed gunslinger who attempts to kill Tuco in the bathtub.


    * The three principal actors are the only ones who speak actual English in the film: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, with the exceptions of Al Mulock (the one-armed man) and John Bartha (the sheriff). Everyone else in the film is really speaking their native language, mostly Italian and Spanish, and was later dubbed into English.


    * During the scene right before the final duel where Tuco (Eli Wallach) is running frantically through the cemetery, a dog can be seen running on-screen at the beginning of the scene. In reality, that was improvised on the spot. Sergio Leone, who was afraid that the scene was going to slip into melodrama, released the dog without informing Eli Wallach first - thus, his look of surprise is quite genuine.


    * Ennio Morricone's iconic theme music was designed in places to mimic the sound of crying hyena.


    * The film was shot with a process called Techniscope. This process means that you can shoot without an anamorphic lens, and only use half as much film as you would normally use. The Techniscope process places two widescreen frames on a single 35 mm frame.


    * Clint Eastwood wore the same poncho through all three "Man with No Name" movies without replacement or cleaning.


    * Eli Wallach would have been decapitated during the train scene if he had lifted his head up. In the wide-shot, you can see the step that would have impacted his head.


    * Orson Welles warned Sergio Leone not to make this movie on the grounds that Civil War pictures were box office poison.


    * According to Eli Wallach's autobiography "The Good, the Bad and Me", Sergio Leone picked him for the role of Tuco not because of his role as Calvera in The Magnificent Seven (1960) as most people assumed but rather because of his brief role as a Tuco-like bandit in How the West Was Won (1962).


    * The trim on Confederate soldiers' uniforms identified the type of unit they were assigned to. Blue indicated infantry, gold cavalry and red artillery. Most of the soldiers in the prison camp wore historically accurate uniforms.


    * Eli Wallach claims that Sergio Leone decided that Tuco would carry his pistol on a lanyard and stuck in his belt rather than a holster because Wallach told him he always had trouble putting a pistol in a holster without looking at it.


    * In the gun store, everything Eli Wallach does with the guns is completely unscripted. Eli knew little about the guns, so he was instructed to do whatever he wanted.


    * The following guns are used in this movie. 1.Blondie uses: A Colt 1851 cartridge conversion revolver (with silver snake grips), and a Winchester 1866 "yellow boy" with ladder elevated sights. 2. Tuco uses: A Colt 1851 Navy percussion revolver with a lanyard. 3. Angel Eyes uses: A Remington 1858 Army percussion revolver. 4. Soldiers used: Gatling guns with drum magazines, and Howitzer cannons.


    * Sad Hill Cemetery was a very-convincing set piece constructed by the pyrotechnic crew and not a real cemetery. Today the site is marked as a local point of interest. Though the central stone 'proscenium' and parapet are gone, the circles of grave-mounds are still quite prominent.


    * Al Mulock, the one-armed gunslinger trying to kill Tuco when he is taking a bath, could never remember his lines correctly. Finally, Sergio Leone told him to count from one to ten in Italian while attempting a fierce look. The proper dialog was added to the footage by dubbing it during the editing process later on.


    * The bridge that Tuco and Blondie blow was an actual bridge built by Spanish army engineers. The Spanish agreed to blow the bridge only if the their captain could be the one to do it. When it came to blowing the bridge the captain didn't notify Sergio Leone and just blew the bridge up without any cameras rolling. The army was so sorry with what they did that they rebuilt the bridge only to blow it up again.


    * Four scenes were cut from the original English-language release and were never dubbed into English from Italian. When American Movie Classics showed the "Extended English Version", the scenes were restored. Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach dubbed their voices for the movie, but another actor had to be found to dub Angel Eyes' lines, as Lee Van Cleef had died in 1989.


    * There is no dialog for the first 10-1/2 minutes of the film.


    * Charles Bronson was offered both the roles of Tuco and Angel Eyes (the latter because Sergio Leone feared that audiences would not take kindly to Lee Van Cleef going from the fatherly, likable Col. Mortimer to a sneering villain. He declined both.


    * The film was budgeted at an expensive (for the time) $1.6 million.


    * Shot in the deserts of Spain with 1,500 Spanish soldiers as extras.


    * The prison camp "Betterville" was inspired by the actual Confederate prison camp of Andersonville, where thousands of Union prisoners died, and based on steel engravings of Andersonville from August 1864.


    * Eli Wallach was almost poisoned on the set after drinking acid used to burn the bags filled with gold coin to make them rip open easier when struck with the spade. The acid had been poured into a lemon soda bottle and Wallach didn't know it. He drank a lot of milk and filmed the scene with a mouth full of sores.


    * The grips on Clint Eastwood's pistol have an inlaid silver rattlesnake. His pistol in Per qualche dollaro in più (1965) had the same grips. In the TV series "Rawhide" (1959), Rowdy Yates (Eastwood) kills a gunfighter carrying a pistol with the same grips and takes it for his own. Eastwood's character would carry the pistol with the rattlesnake grips for the remainder of the series' run.


    * According to Eli Wallach, when it came time to blow up the bridge, Sergio Leone asked the Spanish army captain in charge to trigger the fuse, as a sign of gratitude for the army's collaboration. They agreed to blow up the bridge when Leone gave the signal "Vai!" (Go!) over the walkie-talkie. Unfortunately, another crew member spoke on the same channel, saying the words "vai, vai!", meaning "it's OK, proceed" to a second crew member. The captain heard this signal, thought it was for him and blew the bridge; unfortunately, no cameras were running at the time. Leone was so upset that he fired the crewman, who promptly fled from the set in his car. The captain was so sorry for what happened that he proposed to Leone that the army would rebuild the bridge to blow it up again, with one condition: that the fired crewman be re-hired. Leone agreed, the crewman was forgiven, the bridge was rebuilt and the scene was successfully shot.


    Goofs
    * Anachronisms: One of the gravestones near the "unknown" grave in the cemetery has the deceased dying in 1867, two years after the Civil War.


    * Anachronisms: Tuco examines a Belgian 10.4mm Galand revolver in the gun shop. The gun however was not invented until two years after the Civil War.


    * Continuity: Angel Eyes' grip on his spoon changes from overhand to underhand back to overhand while he chats with the rat.


    * Revealing mistakes: When the carriage is seen first in the desert you can see someone steering it.


    * Anachronisms: While Tuco and Blondie are under the bridge, in the background where the poles form a 'V', a car passes through the trees. (widescreen edition)


    * Revealing mistakes: When Tuco and Blondie seek Angel-eyes in the deserted town, they discover a note that says "see you later idiots" but if you look closely at the paper, it is actually a page of the film script.


    * Continuity: Before the final gunfight, as Tuco is standing in the circle, he lowers his hand to the level of his pistol. His hand was already there in a previous shot.


    * Continuity: When Blondie and Tuco are carrying the explosives on the stretcher, at first the stretcher is missing several wooden slats, but as they approach the bridge, it changes into a completely different stretcher with no missing slats.


    * Continuity: Tuco has Blondie put his head through a noose and the way the rope is looped around the roof beam changes after the cannonball strike.


    * Anachronisms: In one scene, Tuco praises Lee and damns Grant out loud to the troops coming out of the desert. However, the movie takes place during Confederate invasion of New Mexico Territory in February- March of 1862, when both Lee and Grant were unknowns at this time. Lee didn't assume command of the Army of Northern Virginia until June 1862. Grant was a relative unknown when he won his first victory at Fort Donelson in February, 1862, hardly enough time for Tuco and Blondy to know who he was. That being said, in another scene, Angel Eyes mentions Confederate abuses in Andersonville Prison, which only became a prison in November 1863.


    * Factual errors: When the two armies battle at the bridge, the Confederates are using the flag with the blue criss-cross on the red field. This is not the Confederate national flag, rather it is the banner of Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. It would have been in battles in the east, not in the west.


    * Revealing mistakes: When Blondie says, "Your spurs," and shoots the last of the three ambushers in the hotel, the man falls backwards, knocking the wall and making it wobble.


    * Continuity: When Tuco and Blondie are carrying the crate with the explosives on the stretcher, it has turned about 90 degrees between the two shots when the music starts playing.


    * Crew or equipment visible: When the rhythmic music stops and Tuco is choking after screaming "Blondie", a person walking to the left can be seen on the left side of Tuco's face. You can also see a sun reflection on something carried by the person.


    * Continuity: Blondie and Tuco walk down the street of the desert town to confront the Angel Eyes' gang. At the beginning, their shadows are projected to behind them. Next shot, the shadows are projected in front of them.


    * Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Blondie's rifle is a Winchester, which was not available when the movie is meant to take place, but the production took the pains to remove the wood fore stock to disguise it as a Henry which were available.


    * Anachronisms: When Blondie and Tuco plant the explosives to raze the bridge, they set numerous bundles of TNT. The bundles are daisy-chained together with a single fuse. However, when the bridge explodes, it is a single large explosion, not a series of smaller, in-line explosions that would indicate the fuse burning through one bundle after another.


    * Incorrectly regarded as goofs: During the bridge scene with the explosives, the fuse is often seen in the water. Would this mean it could not burn? No, because fuses were coated in wax, lots of mine & tunnel work back then occurred in damp & wet conditions.


    * Continuity: When Blondie is comforting the dying Rebel soldier near the end of the film, he gives him two puffs of his cheroot cigar - it changes length by almost an inch from shot to shot, first longer, then shorter, then longer again


    * Anachronisms: When Tuco and and Blondie ride their coach up to the mission to recuperate from the desert several power poles are visible in the background to the left. (May only be visible in the wide-screen version).


    * Revealing mistakes: The scene is the one in which Tuco (Ugly) runs up to the carriage filled with dead bodies. When he opens the gate to the carriage and checks in, it can clearly be seen that the guy lying to the left is clearly blinking, even though everybody in the carriage except Bill Carson is supposed to be dead.


    * Continuity: When Blondie kicks the lid off of Arch Stanton's grave, the lid slides sideways along the ground. But, in the next shot, the lid almost hits Tuco in the face, like it was kicked upward.


    * Continuity: During the scene when Tuco confronts Blondie in the Saloon to hang him, he cocks the pistol twice.


    * Revealing mistakes: During the preparation of the charges on the bridge supports, they are connected in series, and Blondie lights only one (too short) fuse. When the bridge blows, all four charges detonate simultaneously, since they were detonated electrically.


    * Factual errors: In the US trailer (distributed on the DVD version of the film) the characters are misidentified. The character of Tuco is introduced as "The Bad", though in the movie he is introduced as "The Ugly." Likewise, the character of Angel Eyes is introduced as "The Ugly" (instead of "The Bad" as in the movie).


    * Anachronisms: When Angels Eyes first enters Stevens' house, an electrical tower can be seen in the background over his left shoulder.


    * Anachronisms: In the opening, when Eli Wallach is shown in close-up, he has an obvious cap or crown on a tooth.


    * Continuity: When Tuco enters the gun shop, he hangs the "CLOSED" sign at a downward-right angle on a nail on the back of the front door. As he exits the shop, the "CLOSED" sign is angled slightly down to the left.


    * Incorrectly regarded as goofs: During the Union attack on the bridge, there are some soldiers visible with gray uniforms which may look like Confederate ones. But it was very common for Union soldiers to be wearing the Confederate grays, because the Union army couldn't supply them their blue uniforms. This caused several friendly casualties during the Civil War.


    * Factual errors: If each gold coin had approximately 1 troy ounce of gold in it worth $20, $200,000 implies there were approximately 10,000 coins in the eight bags that Blondie and Tuco recovered. The weight of those 10,000 coins would be (10,000 coins * 1 ozt/coin * 31.1 g/ozt * 1 kg/1,000 g * 2.2 lbs/kg) = 684.2 lbs. Each bag would then weigh approximately 85.5 lbs. Blondie is seen loading up his horse with the gold two bags at a time (170 lbs). It doesn't seem likely that a person could lift that much gold without much more difficulty. Also, could a horse carry 340 lbs of gold, approximately 200 lbs of rider, and maybe another 50 lbs of provisions (roughly 600 lbs total load)?


    * Anachronisms: In the prison camp scene where the musicians are playing while Tuco is being beaten by Angle Eyes, the fiddle has fine tuning adjusters on the tail-piece. These fine tune adjusters were designed for metal strings used many decades later.


    * Anachronisms: A majority of the characters load metal cartridges into converted Civil War model revolvers. While this conversion did become commonplace in the late 1860's, back in 1862 metal cartridges hadn't been fully developed for those kinds of revolvers yet and paper cartridges were still the norm.

    Filming Locations
    Almería, Andalucía, Spain (town scenes)
    Andalucía, Spain
    Arlanza River, Burgos, Castilla y León, Spain (civil war battle)
    Burgos, Burgos, Castilla y León, Spain
    Burgos, Castilla y León, Spain (civil war battle)
    Cabo de Gata, Almería, Andalucía, Spain (monastery/long desert walk scene)
    Carazo, Burgos, Castilla y León, Spain (cemetery finale)
    Cortijo de los Frailes, Cabo de Gata, Almería, Andalucía, Spain (monastery)
    Covarrubias, Burgos, Castilla y León, Spain (civil war battle)
    La Calahorra, Granada, Andalucía, Spain
    Monasterio de San Pedro de Arlanza, Covarrubias, Burgos, Castilla y León, Spain (military hospital)
    Rome, Lazio, Italy
    Tabernas, Almería, Andalucía, Spain

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 3 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Italian: Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, lit.
    "The good, the ugly, the bad") is a 1966 Italian epic Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in the title roles respectively.
    The screenplay was written by Age & Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni, and Leone
    (with additional screenplay material and dialogue provided by an uncredited Sergio Donati),
    based on a story by Vincenzoni and Leone.
    Director of photography Tonino Delli Colli was responsible for the film's sweeping widescreen cinematography and Ennio Morricone composed the film's score, including its main theme.
    It was a co-production between companies in Italy, Spain, West Germany, and the United States.


    The film is known for Leone's use of long shots and close-up cinematography,
    as well as his distinctive use of violence, tension, and stylistic gunfights.
    The plot revolves around three gunslingers competing to find fortune
    in a buried cache of Confederate gold amid the violent chaos of the American Civil War
    (specifically the New Mexico Campaign in 1862), while participating in many battles
    and duels along the way.
    The film was the third collaboration between Leone and Clint Eastwood,
    and the second with Lee Van Cleef.


    The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was marketed as the third and final installment in the Dollars Trilogy, following A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More. The film was a financial success, grossing over $25 million at the box office. Due to general disapproval of the Spaghetti Western genre at the time, critical reception of the film following its release was mixed, but it gained critical acclaim in later years. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is now seen as a highly influential example of the Western film genre and one of the greatest films of all time.




    The movie that made Clint a star.
    The third spaghetti down the line,
    and it was this film, that shone above the rest.
    By this sequel, Clint, had made the part of
    'The man with no name', his very own.
    He had now mastered his technique, and it showed.
    The movie was a tremendous hit, and now a classic.
    Coupled with able support by favourite Elii Wallach,
    and Lee Van Cleef.
    The chemistry between the three, created, a dramatic,
    fascinating and enjoyable western.
    I still love watching this movie.


    The score by Ennio Morricone,
    is now one the most remembered and significent,
    haunting pieces of music in movie history




    User Review

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 7 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • Here is some previous discussion:-



    Quote

    Old December 20th, 2004
    SXViper



    Hi Robbie. I have to agree with you. I was not a huge fan of the Leone westerns when I was younger but, since I have grown up and re-watch them, I love them. Especially The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and Once Upon A Time In The West.


    I have the SE of GBU(Good, Bad, Ugly). And they have added 18 minutes of added footage. The way I understand it is, AMC helped in the restoration of the added footage as well as in cleaning up the "1st" version that was out on DVD. As far as the places where they have been added, I would have to watch it again and make notes of it. There is also some deleted scenes and 3-4 documentaries. The SE package is 2 discs and I would highly recommend it to anyone that enjoyed the original release.



    Quote

    Old January 3rd, 2005
    Jay J. Foraker



    Since making my last post on this subject, I have picked up a DVD of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly." Now I just have to block out some time to view it. I can remember when I first saw this at the theater in the late 60s as a sneak preview and at that time as an impressionable young man (ha!), it just blew me away.


    Regards - Jay :D


    Quote


    Old January 4th, 2005
    SXViper



    Hi Jay, did you pick up the SE version in the white box? If so you will love it.
    __________________



    Quote

    Old March 1st, 2005
    Jay J. Foraker

    I forgot all about this topic??!! I did finally watch my DVD a few weeks ago and found it to be all I expected and hoped for. The extra scenes were interesting, but I can see why they were cut - they slowed down the progress of the story, although there were some interesting character insights to gain from them.


    Cheers - Jay :D

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

  • The timeframe of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" evidently takes place earlier than the previous films of the Man with No Name - in other words, a prelude. I say this because Clint Eastwood's iconic character retrieves the sarape from the dead soldier which was so identified with him in the earlier films (but later in timeline).
    Did that make sense?

    Cheers - Jay:beer:
    "Not hardly!!!"

  • I never tire of watcing this movie. It was on AMC the other night when I got home. I love the scene where Eli is tied up in front of the Sheriff's office and Eastwood drops that match on him. I always get a good laugh out of that one.

    Stay thirsty my friends.

  • This is one of a very few "Pasta Westerns" that I can stand and actually fairly like. I think that is mainly due to that I like the three leading actors well enough.

    Es Ist Verboten Mit Gefangenen In Einzelhaft Zu Sprechen..