For a Few Dollars More (Italian: Per qualche dollaro in più) is a 1965 Italian-Spanish spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Gian Maria Volonté. German actor Klaus Kinski also plays a supporting role as a secondary villain. The film was released in the United States in 1967 and is the second part of what is commonly known as the Dollars Trilogy. In Japan, it was, along with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, part of a separate trilogy known as the Gunman in the Setting Sun Trilogy.
Synopsis[]
In the Wild West, a murderous outlaw known as El Indio (Gian Maria Volonte) and his gang are terrorizing and robbing the citizens of the region. With a bounty on El Indio's head, two bounty hunters, Monco (Clint Eastwood) and Col. Douglas Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef), come to collect the prize. Upon their first meeting, the two men view each other as rivals, but they eventually agree to become partners in their mutual pursuit of the vicious criminal.
Plot[]
| Spoiler Warning: The following contains important plot details of the entire film. |
Clint Eastwood (marketed as the "Man with No Name") and Lee Van Cleef (as Colonel Douglas Mortimer and marketed as the "Man in Black") portray two bounty hunters in pursuit of "El Indio" (Gian Maria Volonté), one of the most wanted fugitives in the western territories, and his gang (one of whom is played by Kinski). Indio is a ruthless, intelligent man. He has a musical pocketwatch that he plays before engaging in gun duels. "When the chimes finish, begin," he says. Flashbacks reveal that the watch originates from a young woman (Rosemary Dexter), who killed herself while being raped by Indio after he had found her with her lover (in Joe Millard's novelization of the film, the young man is her newly-wed husband) and killed him. The watch bears a photo of the woman and was presented as a gift by the young man before being killed.
The film begins with Colonel Mortimer (Cleef) illegally stopping a train in Tucumcari, and soon after collecting a bounty of $1,000 on Guy Calloway (José Terrón). Mortimer's gunslinging skill is displayed as he easily kills him from long distance. After collecting the bounty he inquires about Red "Baby" Cavanagh (José Marco), 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" (meaning one-armed in Spanish — see below for an explanation). We see Manco ride into town and track down Cavanagh at a saloon playing five-card draw 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 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 (Klaus Kinski) 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 (Mario Brega), 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 (Luigi Pistilli) 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 Henry 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.
Cast[]
Leads[]
- Clint Eastwood as Manco ("Blondie") ("The Man with No Name")
- Lee Van Cleef as Colonel Douglas Mortimer
- Gian Maria Volonté as El Indio ("The Indian")
Gang members[]
- Luigi Pistilli as Groggy, member of Indio's gang
- Klaus Kinski as Juan Wild, the hunchback, member of Indio's gang
- Benito Stefanelli as Huey (aka Luke), member of Indio's gang
- Mario Brega as Niño, member of Indio's gang
- Aldo Sambrell as Cuchillo, member of Indio's gang
Other characters[]
- Dante Maggio as Carpenter in cell with El Indio
- Diana Rabito as Calloway's girl in tub
- Giovanni Tarallo as Santa Cruz telegraphist
- Joseph Egger as Old Prophet
- Lorenzo Robledo as Fred, El Indio's traitor
- Mara Krupp as Mary, hotel manager's wife
- Mario Meniconi as Train conductor
- Roberto Camardiel as Station clerk
- Sergio Mendizábal as Tucumcari's bank manager
- Tomás Blanco as Tucumcari's sheriff
English-dubbed version (all uncredited)[]
- Clint Eastwood as Manco ("Blondie") ("The Man with No Name")
- Lee Van Cleef as Colonel Douglas Mortimer
- Bernard Grant as El Indio ("The Indian") (most lines); Cuchillo, member of Indio's gang; and additional voices
- Gian Maria Volonté as El Indio ("The Indian") (scratch track and some lines)
- Lloyd Battista as Groggy, member of Indio's gang
- Gilbert Mack as Juan Wild, the hunchback, member of Indio's gang; and additional voices
- Ray Owens as Huey (aka Luke), member of Indio's gang; Niño, member of Indio's gang; and additional voices
- Robert Dryden as Old Prophet
- Joyce Gordon as Mary, hotel manager's wife; and additional voices
Production[]
After the box-office success of A Fistful of Dollars in Italy, director Sergio Leone and his new producer, Alberto Grimaldi, wanted to begin production of a sequel, but they needed to get Clint Eastwood to agree to star in it. Clint Eastwood was not ready to commit to a second film when he had not even seen the first. Quickly, the filmmakers rushed an Italian-language print (a U.S. version did not yet exist) of Per un pugno di Dollari to him. The star then gathered a group of friends for a debut screening at CBS Production Center and, not knowing what to expect, tried to keep expectations low by downplaying the film. As the reels unspool, however, Eastwood's concerns proved to be unfounded. The audience may not have understood Italian, but in terms of style and action, the film spoke volumes. "Everybody enjoyed it just as much as if it had been in English", Eastwood recalled. Soon, he was on the phone with the filmmakers' representative: "Yeah, I'll work for that director again," he said. The film was shot in Almería, Spain, with interiors done at Rome's Cinecittà Studios.
The production designer, Carlo Simi built the town of "El Paso" in the Almería desert: it still exists, as a tourist attraction Mini Hollywood. The town of Agua Caliente, where Indio and his gang flee after the bank robbery, is Albaricoques, a small "pueblo blanco" on the Nijar plain.
Characters[]
Manco[]
In the English-dubbed version of the film, Eastwood's character is said to "go by the name of 'Manco.'" "Manco" is a Portuguese/Spanish word that means "one-armed" and "lame of one hand"; Eastwood's character performs nearly all actions using only his left hand, to leave free his right hand, with which he draws. His behavior thus bears a joking resemblance to that of a one-armed man.
The Italian equivalent of the word "manco," which serves as Eastwood's character's sobriquet, is "monco." In many written sources,[citation needed] the Man with No Name is called Monco, either due to the Italian form or to faulty spelling. In any case, the dubbed voices of the film's characters seemingly pronounce "Manco" when they refer to him.
El Indio[]
El Indio (Spanish for "The Indian") played by Gian Maria Volonté (appearing in the cast as Jon Wels) is a ruthless character, considered by the authorities in the film to be one of the worst criminals of the times; according to a bank official "Not even Indio would dare to rob that one." In a flashback sequence it is revealed that he shot a young man and raped his wife. The girl shot herself in the process. The girl was the sister of Van Cleef's character. El Indio smokes what seems to be cannabis or opium to ease the intensity of the memory. In the film El Indio has a gang of fourteen men who rob the bank in El Paso.
Colonel Douglas Mortimer[]
Colonel Douglas Mortimer is a rival bounty hunter, though he is much older than Eastwood's character: "almost fifty years of age." Manco, Clint Eastwood's character, travels to visit a man known as "The Prophet" early in the movie to find out all he can about his rival. "The Prophet" explains Colonel Douglas Mortimer to have "once been a great man, a soldier" and "the finest shot in the Carolinas. Now he's reduced to being a bounty killer same as you." At the bank in Tucumcari, Mortimer explains to a bank manager he was from the Carolinas. The bank manager is encouraged by Mortimer's presence, giving the indication Mortimer has a large amount of money elsewhere which the bank of Tucumcari would be glad to accept. Unlike Manco, Mortimer's motivation throughout the movie is not the bounty over El Indio and his gang, but vengeance for the death of Mortimer's sister many years before, who killed herself while being raped by Indio. During an encounter with El Indio in the movie, Mortimer exclaims, "This is Colonel Mortimer, Douglas Mortimer. Does the name mean anything to you?" Having seen the death of Indio, Mortimer leaves all of the bounty to be collected by Manco at the end of the movie. Mortimer says to Manco, after being questioned by Manco about the bounty, "It's all for you, I think you deserve it." Mortimer rides off alone at the end, as his purposes were then completed.
Music[]
Ennio Morricone composed the film's soundtrack as he did for A Fistful of Dollars: before production had started, under Leone's explicit direction. In fact Leone often shot to Morricone's music on set. In the United States, Hugo Montenegro released a cover version as did Leroy Holmes who released a cover version of the soundtrack album with the original American poster art. Maurizio Graf sang a vocal "Occhio Per Occhio"/"Eye For An Eye" to the music of the cue "Sixty Seconds to What" track that did not appear in the film but was released as a tie-in 45rpm record.
The rock band Year Long Disaster has recorded a song called "Per qualche dollaro in più". However, it is unknown how large the connection with it is.
British band Babe Ruth famously covered the main theme as part of their song The Mexican.
Reception[]
Critical response[]
The film has since grown in popularity, while also gaining more positive feedback from contemporary critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 92% approval rating with an average rating of 8/10 based on 36 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "With Clint Eastwood in the lead, Ennio Morricone on the score, and Sergio Leone's stylish direction, For a Few Dollars More earns its recognition as a genre classic."
Alternate versions[]
Different cuts were made for release in several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. These different cuts are described as follows:
- English Theatrical Version: The basis of English-dubbed releases in most countries, as well as the Latino Spanish-dubbed version. The beating scene is censored, as is a single utterance of Manco's name early in the film.
- American Theatrical Version: Similar to the English Theatrical Version, with additional censorship in the bounty killing of Guy Calloway and El Indio's prison escape. This version was released on laser videodisc in 1991.
- British Theatrical Version: More heavily cut than the English and American Theatrical Versions. In addition to Tomaso's torture and execution, the beating scene was further censored, and the flashback to the rape and suicide of Colonel Mortimer's sister was excised entirely. This version was never released on home video, as even right after the Video Recordings Act 1984 passed the film was passed uncut, so the specific extent of the cuts remains unknown.
- German Theatrical Version: The opening credits are shortened, and censorship was applied to the bounty killing of Guy Calloway, El Indio's prison escape, Tomaso's torture and execution, the beating scene, the flashback to the rape and suicide of Colonel Mortimer's sister, and Groggy's death.
- 1997 Restoration: This cuts part of Manco's introductory scene, the tail end of El Indio's maniacal laughter at the conclusion of the prison escape, and the entire tail end of the beating scene. This is the source of most modern releases.