Per Un Pugno di Dollari / A Fistful of Dollars (1964 Sergio Leone)

The first of Leone's spaghetti westerns already bears his trademark stamps - gallows humour, deep focus widescreen, dynamic cutting, drawn out scenes to Morricone, the deguello ('cut throat') theme*, slaughter. According to Mark Cousins, it was the innovation of the Techniscope process in Italy that allowed for the deep focus not so easily achievable in other widescreen formats - there's less of it in the Cinecitta interiors. And Leone's work as assistant director in  big budget Hollywood films had given him a sure sense of mise en scene, e.g. tracking shot of Eastwood under the boardwalk whilst the Rojos search for him and end up right on top of his position.

Eastwood is marvellously confident already (particularly working with a European crew with little English), Gian Maria Volonte is a charismatic baddie. The one aspect I didn't remember is that the Man with No Name ('Joe') helps the mother and her child 'Because I once knew someone like you' - not the totally amoral figure you remember. (It had been a LONG time.)

Joseph Egger is the coffin-maker (he is NOT the elusive actor I was trying to place from My Name is Nobody) and Jose Calvo the innkeeper. Plus Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, Margarita Lozano, Mario Brega.

Clint eventually realised that the film he'd made, then called The Magnificent Stranger, was the hit Italian success A Fistful of Dollars - no one had bothered to tell him. A massive hit across all of Europe, eventually finding its way to the US in 1967. One young critic who was impressed by it was Dario Argento. It was written by Leone, and, uncredited, Duccio Tessari, Victor Catena and G. Schok, with dialogue by Mark Lowell. The credits are amusingly Americanized, thus DP Massimo Dallamano is 'Jack Dalmas', production designer Carlo Simi is 'Charles Simons' and editor Roberto Cinquini is 'Bob Quintle'!

One of the terms of Eastwood's was that he could change the dialogue. In the end, he fought for reducing his lines substantially - Leone's script, he argued, was over-expository. He's not an infallible anti-hero - he's twice saved by other people. But the ending - his armour plate, and the final quick draw - is a doozy.

*Which - it turns out - was inspired by Dmitri Tiomkin's theme from Rio Bravo. Thanks to Christopher Frayling, covered in his novella-like chapter on the film in his 'Something To Do With Death'.

Spanish poster, based on the original Italian design - there's no Eastwood representation because no one knew who he was. Note director credit - 'Bob Robertson'! Note also top billing of Marianne Koch despite her two lines of dialogue!