“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966) directed by Sergio Leone; starring Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach & Lee Van Cleef / Z-View

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Director:  Sergio Leone

Screenplay: Age & Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone; story by Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone.

Stars: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef.

Tagline:  The Man with No Name Returns!

The Plot…

1862.  The Civil War continues to tear the country apart.  $200,000 in gold is buried in a secret grave in an unknown cemetery by a Confederate soldier named Bill Carson.

“Angel Eyes”, a sadistic mercenary has heard the rumor of buried gold.  He knows the name of the soldier who buried the loot, but not gold’s hiding place.

Tuco, a Mexican bandit, knows the name of the cemetery, but not the grave.

“Blondie”, a bounty hunter, knows the name on the grave, but not the name of the cemetery.

Blondie and Tuco form an uneasy alliance to get the buried gold.  They believe their biggest problem is neither trusts the other.  They will come to realize their gravest threat is Angel Eyes.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Most think that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was made as part of The Man with No Name Trilogy.  The truth is that Eastwood originally played different characters in each film.  It was Clint Eastwood’s idea to release the three films (A Fistful of Dollars; For A Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) in the US during the same year as a trilogy.  Changes to dialogue were made to never tell Eastwood’s character’s real name.

Sergio Leone originally wanted Charles Bronson to play Angel Eyes.  Bronson was committed to The Dirty Dozen, so Lee Van Cleef got the role.

Clint Eastwood came up with the name Angel Eyes for Van Cleef’s character.

Due to a miscommunication, the big scene where the bridge is blown up first happened when no cameras were rolling.  The bridge had to be rebuilt so it could be blown up on camera.

Eli Wallach improvised the line, “When you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk!”

Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack album peaked at #4, but stayed on Billboards Album chart for over a year.

Although The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was released after A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More, it is actually a prequel to the two films.

Eastwood’s character, labeled the Good actually kills more people than the Bad and the Ugly combined.  Angel Eyes, the bad, kills the fewest people in the film.

Angel Eyes is shown to be missing the tip of one of his fingers.  This is not a special effect.  Lee Van Cleef lost the tip of a finger in a carpentry accident.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly made Clint Eastwood a movie star.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) rates 5 of 5 stars