Per un pugno di dollari (1964)

A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge.

Director:

Sergio Leone

Writers:

A. Bonzzoni (story), Víctor Andrés Catena (story),

Stars:

Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volonté, Marianne Koch

Top 250 #220 | 1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Clint Eastwood	...	Joe
Marianne Koch	...	Marisol
Gian Maria Volonté	...	Ramón Rojo (as John Wels)
Wolfgang Lukschy	...	John Baxter (as W. Lukschy)
Sieghardt Rupp	...	Esteban Rojo (as S. Rupp)
Joseph Egger	...	Piripero (as Joe Edger)
Antonio Prieto	...	Don Miguel Benito Rojo
José Calvo	...	Silvanito (as Jose Calvo)
Margarita Lozano	...	Consuelo Baxter (as Margherita Lozano)
Daniel Martín	...	Julián (as Daniel Martin)
Benito Stefanelli	...	Rubio (as Benny Reeves)
Mario Brega	...	Chico (as Richard Stuyvesant)
Bruno Carotenuto	...	Antonio Baxter (as Carol Brown)
Aldo Sambrell	...	Rojo gang member (as Aldo Sambreli)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Harry Dean Stanton	...	Prison Warden .version 1977

Storyline

An anonymous, but deadly man rides into a town torn by war between two factions, the Baxters and the Rojo's. Instead of fleeing or dying, as most other would do, the man schemes to play the two sides off each other, getting rich in the bargain.

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Plot Keywords:

Mexican | Drifter | Cowboy Shirt | Honor | Shootout | 

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Taglines:

In his own way he is perhaps, the most dangerous man who ever lived!

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Genres:

Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence

Details

Country:

Italy Spain West Germany

Language:

Italian Spanish

Release Date:

18 January 1967 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Fistful of Dollars

Filming Locations:

Almería, Andalucía, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

$200,000 (estimated)

Gross:

ESP 134,156,214 (Spain)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Constantin Film Produktion, Jolly Film, Ocean Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor) (as Technicolor®)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Clint Eastwood helped in creating his character's distinctive visual style. He bought the black jeans from a sport shop on Hollywood Boulevard, the hat came from a Santa Monica wardrobe firm and the trademark black cigars came from a Beverly Hills store. Eastwood himself cut the cigars into three pieces to make them shorter. Eastwood himself is a non-smoker.

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Goofs

When the large barrel rolls down the ramp, it rolls on two large rails. Right afterwards "Joe" crawls down the ramp, and no rails are visible. The large rails re-appear when his captors come into the room right after he exits.

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Quotes

Joe: You see, I understand you men were just playin' around, but the mule, he just doesn't get it. Course, if you were to all apologize...
[Men Laugh]
Joe: I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. You see, my mule don't like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughin' at him. Now if you apologize, like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it.

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Connections

Referenced in The Cinema Snob: Video Violence (2009)
Poster is shown.

User Reviews

"Yojimbo" Revisited - The Beginning of the Spaghetti Westerns

A drifter gunman (Clint Eastwood) arrives in the Mexican village of San Miguel in the border of United States of America, and befriends the owner of the local bar Silvanito (Jose Calvo). The stranger discovers that the town is dominated by two gangster lords: John Baxter (W. Lukschy) and the cruel Ramón Rojo (Gian Maria Volontè – a.k.a. John Wells). When the stranger kills four men of the Baxter's gang, he is hired by Ramón's brother Esteban Rojo (S. Rupp) to join their gang. However, the stranger plots a scheme working for both sides and playing one side against the other.

"Per un Pugno di Dollari" is a milestone in the history of the cinema, since the genre of "Spaghetti Westerns" didn't really exist previous to this movie. Sergio Leone used the storyline of Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo", replacing the samurai without a master ("ronin") Sanjuro Kuwabatake performed by Toshirô Mifune and the scenario of the rural Japanese town in Nineteenth Century by the stranger without a name (Clint Eastwood) and a small Mexican town in the border of the Wild and Far West. The result is a magnificent and remarkable movie, and beginning of the trilogy of Clint Eastwood's character Joe, who proves that "a man with a rifle beats a man with .45", completed by "Per Qualche Dollaro in Più" and "Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo", . My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Por um Punhado de Dólares" ("For a Fistful of Dollars")