Did You Know?

Body count: 29

After completing the Dollars trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), Sergio Leone didn't want to do another western and began working on Once Upon a Time in America. However, after the huge success of the Dollars Trilogy in the States in 1967 Leone wanted to produce films in the United States and he began selling the idea for Once Upon a Time in America, but studios wouldn't let him do it until he made another Western for them. After thinking about it, Leone concluded that he should do another trilogy which begins with Once Upon a Time in the West, develops into Duck, You Sucker, and ends with Once Upon a Time in America (1984). "Three historical periods which toughened America."

The main selling point to producers for the use of the Techniscope process was the savings in camera negative. But, another advantage was being able derive the 2.35:1 aspect ratio while shooting with spherical lenses which avoided the distortion created by anamorphics during certain camera moves and extreme close-ups (such as those used by Sergio Leone). This film, together with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly(also directed by Leone and shot by Tonino Delli Colli) are now considered masterpieces in the use of the Techniscope system.

Leone originally intended to reunite the three stars of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach) in cameo roles as the three gunmen waiting for Harmonica at the start of the film, but when Eastwood was unavailable the idea was scrapped.

For this film Claudia Cardinale and Paolo Stoppa take the longest buggy ride in movie history. It begins in Spain and goes through Monument Valley.

The McBain house was built of solid logs that remained following production of the Orson Welles' movie Chimes at Midnight

French actor Robert Hossein, who was a good friend of Leone's, was originally to play Morton, but due to scheduling he was unable to take the part, and Gabriele Ferzetti was cast instead.

The first draft of the script was 436 pages long.

When Henry Fonda was trying to decide whether to be in this film, he asked his friend Eli Wallach, who had just made _Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (1966) with Sergio Leone, if he should take the part of Frank. Wallach said that he had to do it and told Fonda, "You will have the time of your life." (Similarly, it was Fonda, saying he considered Leone one of the greatest directors he ever worked with, who persuaded 'James Coburn' to take the part of Mallory in the second "Once Upon a Time..." film, Duck, You Sucker.)

Ennio Morricone composed the musical score to the original screenplay by Sergio Leone and Bernardo Bertolucci. The plot was subsequently changed, and in many places, Leone directed the film to the existing musical score.

For the opening sequence where the three dusters waited for the train, filmmakers lightly coated the face of Jack Elam with jam and began filming close-ups while letting a fly out of a jar filled with flies, attempting to get Elam's reaction as one would light on his cheek.

The final duel between Frank and Harmonica is shot almost exactly like the one in Robert Aldrich's The Last Sunset between Rock Hudson and Kirk Douglas, a film that Bernardo Bertolucci was a huge fan of.

This marked the first of the last three films to be fully directed by Sergio Leone. All three of his last films would be edited for U.S. distribution resulting in box office failure in the U.S. although the uncut international versions would be successful in other countries.

Jason Robards showed up at the set completely drunk on the first day of filming, and Leone threatened to fire him if he ever did that again. Robards was generally well-behaved thereafter, though in June 1968, after receiving word of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, Robards broke down and refused to perform until the day was over, and Leone decided to stop filming for the day.

Robert Ryan was offered the role of the Sheriff played by Keenan Wynn. Ryan initially accepted but backed out after being given a larger role in Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch.

"The producers are grateful to the Navajo Tribal Council for their hospitality in their territories in Arizona and Utah."

The original script called for Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach (in their roles from The Man With No Name trilogy) to be the trio gunned down at the train station. Eastwood, whose star was rising in Hollywood, did not want to be seen as a villain and objected. When he did, Wallach backed out as well. Leone had to pull Jack Elam and Strode from later in the script. Though they got paid handsomely, they lost almost 30 minutes of screen time. In the original script, they would have killed Harmonica to fulfill Jason Robards' prediction that those who live by the sword die by it as well. With Elam and Strode changed, Harmonica was allowed to survive.

Sergio Leone:  [theme]  Jill, Harmonica, Frank, and Cheyenne.