THey, I made up their name handful of dollarsIt was the first in a series of spaghetti westerns that became classics of 20th century cinema. But Italian director Sergio Leone was so bad at English that between takes he would repeatedly say, “I'm watching you,'' before trying to imitate what star Clint Eastwood and the other actors wanted. ” was relied on.
Now, unreleased photos show him acting out certain scenes and doing just that.
Renowned cultural historian Sir Christopher Frayling was given access to hundreds of images held by Leone and his stage photographer Angelo Novi. Frayling said at the time: handful of dollars was made in 1964, the word “watching” was “at the limit of Leone's English,” adding, “He imitated what he wanted to do before he started filming.”
handful of dollars It was a huge hit at the box office, and two sequels were produced. More for a few dollars and good things, with bad things uglyComposer Ennio Morricone recreated the wilds of Leone's imagination with a haunting soundscape of whistles and whips.
Eastwood was a minor TV actor when he was cast as “The Man with No Name,” a cool, laconic gunman who wore a poncho. This role catapulted him to international stardom.
Leone, whose father produced silent films in Italy, compensated for his lack of English and became a master pantomime. He once said: “My films are basically silent films…the dialogue just adds weight.”
Select photos of impersonation scenes good things, with bad things uglyFreyling said, “There's a scene where there's one of Clint Eastwood's between two people being carried in front of a wagon and they arrive at the mission hospital, and one of Leone's is imitating that. It's the same.
“There's also a scene where Eastwood is in a desert that no one has ever seen before, and he's obviously a little confused about what's going on around him, and he's scratching his head, and he's really frustrated because they can't understand each other. I love it.”
Photos from handful of dollars Leone, wearing a poncho, stands behind Eastwood, who is wearing a poncho, as they have just enacted a high street confrontation scene.
Some of the photos will be included in a forthcoming book. Sergio Leone by yourself, Scheduled to be published this month.
This work is a compilation of interviews Leone conducted with carefully selected film journalists in the years leading up to his death at the age of 60 in 1989, as well as essays by Leone who influenced the film industry from Charlie Chaplin to John Ford. It is something that Most have never appeared in English before.
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There are also images of the set a handful of dynamitestarring Rod Steiger as a Mexican outlaw.
Ms Fraling said the two had a dislike for each other. “There are several precious photos of the two of them glaring at each other. Steiger's acting style, which saw everything as a “motive'' and internalized acting, was the complete opposite of Leone's.
“Through an interpreter, Steiger would always ask, 'What is my motivation?' At one point he asked Leone, 'Do you know if I loved my mother?' Leone said, “It's a bloody story, Rod.''
Other unseen images include Robert De Niro's makeup test for Gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America. Frayling said, “The setting is from the early 1930s to the 1960s. For this character, De Niro has to age quite a bit. They chop between different time periods. So the make-up… It took a very long time to do and made me look incredibly old.
“One of the unseen photos is of De Niro standing with his father, looking at each other. Leone wonders what De Niro will look like when he gets older. I brought in De Niro's biological father to teach him how to do it.”
Sergio Leone alone Published by Reel Art Press, RRP £39.95. For more information and a complete list of retailers, please visit here. reelartpress.com
