Friday, February 4, 2011

FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE

Per qualche dollaro in piu - Italian title
Due stranieri magnifici - Italian title
La muerte tenia un precio - Spanish title
Por unos cuantos dólares más - Spanish title
Por unos pocos dólares más - Spanish title
La muerte tenía un precio - Spanish title
Mõne dollari pärast veel - Estonian title
Vain muutaman dollarin tähden - Finnish title
Für ein paar Dollar mehr - German title
Duell der Kopfgeldjager - German title
Monomahia sto El Paso - Greek title
Por unos pocos dólares más - Argentinian title
Por uns dólares a mais - Brazilian title
Hævn for Dollars - Danish title
Et pour quelques dollars de plus - French title
A Few Dollars More - Filipino title
Pár dollárral többért - Hungarian title
Yuuhi no ganman - Japanese title
Por unos dólares más - Mexican title
For noen få dollar mer - Norwegian title
Za kilka dolarów wiecej - Polish title
Por mais alguns dólares - Portuguese title
Pentru Cativa Dolari in Plus - Romanian title
För några få dollar mer - Swedish title
Birkaç dolar için - Turkish title
Za dolar vise - Yugoslavian title
For a Few Dollars More - English title

A 1965 Italian, Spanish, West German production [PEA (Rome), Arturo González Producciones Cinematográficas (Madrid), Constantin Film Produktion GmbH (Munich)]
Producers: Alberto Grimaldi, Arturo González
Director: Sergio Leone
Story: Sergio Leone, Fulvio Morsella
Screenplay: Sergio Leone, Luciano Vincenzoni, Segio Donati
Cinematography: Massimo Dllamano [Technicolor, Techniscope]
Music: Ennio Morricone
Running time: 130 minutes

Cast:
Man with No Name/Monco - Clint Eastwood (Clinton Eastwood, Jr.)
Colonel Douglas Mortimer - Lee Van Cleef (Clarence Van Cleef, Jr.)
El Indio - Gian Maria Volonte
Wild - Klaus Kinski (Nikolaus Nakaszynski)
Groggy - Luigi Pistilli
Luke - Benito Stefanelli
Nino - Mario Brega
Cuchillo - Aldo Sambrell (Alfredo Brell)
Tomaso - Lorenzo Robledo
Tomaso’s wife - Diana Faenza
Tomaso’s son - Francesca Leone
Blackie - Frank Braña (Francisco Pérez)
Chico - José Canalejas
Slim - Werner Abrolat
Manuel - Luis Rodríguez (Luis Palillo)
Fernando - Antoñito Ruiz (Antonio Sambrano)
Frisco - Antonio Molino Rojo
Paco - Alvaro de Luna
Sancho Pérez - Panos Papadopulos
Indio henchmen - Massimo Carocci, Eduardo Garcia, Enrique Santiago
‘The Prophet’ - Josef Egger
Mary - Mara Krup
Red ‘Baby’ Cavanagh - José Marco
Guy Callaway - Juan Terron (Juan Penaranda)
Hotel manager - Kurt Zips
Tucumcari bank manager - Sergio Mendizábal (Hermengildo Mendizabel)
El Paso bank manager - Carlo Simi (Giancarlo Simi)
El Paso bartender - Joseph Bradley
Colonel Mortimer’s sister - Rosemary Dexter
Colonel Mortimer’s brother-in-law - Peter Lee Lawrence (Karl Hirenbach)
Tucumcari station clerk - Robert Camardiel (Roberto Escudero)
Sheriff of White Rocks - Guillermo Méndez
Carpenter - Dante Maggio
Girl in bathtub - Diana Rubio
Peddler on train - Jesús Guzmán (Jesús Areta)
Train conductor - Mario Meniconi
Sheriff of Tucumcari - Tomás Blanco (Tomás Garcia)
Tucumcari bartender - Ricardo Palacios (Ricardo Diez)
Half-shaven gunman - Román Ariznavarreta
Patron in White Rocks saloon - Jose Galera Balazote
with: José Félix Montoya, Aldo Ricci, Nosher Powell (George Powell), Enrique Navarro, Rafael López


The film begins with Colonel Mortimer illegally stopping a train in Tucumcari and soon

after collecting a bounty of $1,000 for outlaw Guy Calloway. Mortimer's gunslinging skill is displayed as he easily kills him from long distance. After collecting the bounty he inquires about Red "Baby" Cavanagh, who has a $2,000 bounty, and was last seen in White Rocks.

Mortimer is told that Cavanagh has already been targeted by Eastwood's character, who is referred to as "Manco". We see Manco ride into town and track down Cavanagh at a saloon playing poker. Manco kills him and his men, and takes the bounty. Eventually, the two bounty hunters, after learning about each other from different sources, meet in El Paso and, after butting heads, decide to team up to take down Indio and his gang.

Indio's primary goal is to rob the Bank of El Paso and its disguised safe containing "almost a million dollars". Mortimer persuades a reluctant Manco to join Indio's gang during the robbery in order to "get him between two fires." Manco is offered membership in the gang after rescuing one of Indio's friends, Sancho Pérez, from prison.

When Indio robs the bank, he brings the gang and the money to the small border town of Agua Caliente, where Mortimer reunites with Manco. The hunchback Wild recognizes the Colonel from a previous encounter in which the Colonel had deliberately insulted him and forces a showdown in which he is killed by the Colonel. The Colonel then proves his worth to Indio by cracking open the safe without using explosives, but Indio states his intention to wait a month if necessary to allow the furor over the bank robbery to die down and locks the money away. Manco and the Colonel plan to steal the bank money from Indio, but the bandits catch them in the act and severely beat them. Indio's right-hand man Nino, on orders from Indio, kills their guard and releases the bounty hunters. Indio informs his gang that they "got away," and sends them after the escaped bounty hunters. He intends to kill off his gang with the bounty killers while he and Nino take all the loot for themselves. However, the smarter Groggy figures out what Indio is up to, and kills Nino. Before he can kill Indio, he finds that the Colonel has already removed the stolen money from where Indio had hidden it. Indio convinces Groggy to join forces with him to trap the bounty-killers.

The next morning, Manco and Mortimer shoot down the gang, one by one, in the streets of the town. Standing alone, Mortimer shoots Groggy when the outlaw tries to run for it, but then has his gun shot out of his hand by Indio, who then takes out his pocketwatch and begins playing it. As the chimes nears the end, Manco suddenly appears with an identical pocketwatch, playing the same tune as Indio's, which Mortimer realizes had been taken from him earlier. As this happens, Manco holds a rifle on Indio and gives his gunbelt and pistol to Mortimer, evening the odds. "Now we start," Manco announces and sits while Mortimer and Indio face off. During the standoff, Manco looks down at the pocketwatch and sees the same picture of the woman Indio had raped. The music finishes, and Mortimer outdraws and guns down Indio.

At this juncture, Mortimer takes Indio's pocketwatch. Manco gives him back the other watch and remarks on a family resemblance; the Colonel replies, "Naturally, between brother and sister," indicating that the young woman's portrait was that of Mortimer's sister. His revenge complete, he decides to take no part of the bounty. As Manco tosses the last of the bodies into a wagon and counts them by the reward for each one, he realizes he is short of the $27,000 total, and spins around to gun down Groggy who had survived and waited in ambush. As he leaves, he recovers the money stolen from the bank of El Paso, though it is not clear whether he intends to return it. He then rides off into the distance with his horse towing the wagon full of the lifeless bodies of the entire gang.



YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk7XHtvDZ_E

1 comment:

  1. For me, this is the ultimate Spaghetti Western.
    This is where it all really started, in my opinion. There were other Spaghetti Westerns before FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, of course; but, none of them were anywhere near as original in their execution or narrative structure. FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE presents all of the stylistic and thematic elements that would grace every single Leone film that came after it. And many of its "touches" show up in films by other directors, as well. That is why I believe it to be the quintessential Italian Western.

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