“He’s whittling on a piece of wood. I got a feeling that when he stops whittling, something’s gonna happen.”
Director Sergio Leone originally intended to reunite the three stars of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966): Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach, in cameo roles as the three gunmen waiting for Harmonica (Charles Bronson) at the start of the film, but Eastwood was unavailable. Al Mulock, who played one of the three gunmen in the opening sequence, committed suicide by jumping from his hotel window in full costume after a day’s shooting. Production manager Claudio Mancini (who plays Harmonica’s unfortunate brother) and screenwriter Mickey Knox saw Mulock’s body pass by their hotel window. While Mancini put Mulock in his car to drive him to the hospital, Leone said to Mancini, “Get the costume! We need the costume!” Henry Fonda prepared for his role as the villain (Frank) by arriving in Italy wearing a pair of brown colored contact lenses. Leone ordered them removed as he wanted to introduce Fonda’s character in a close-up and wanted to show his cold blue eyes. Co-writer Bernardo Bertolucci suggested to Leone that the central character be a woman. Leone was hesitant, but then suggested the introductory shot of Jill (Claudia Cardinale) should be from below the train platform so the camera could see under Jill’s dress and show she wasn’t wearing any undergarments. Cardinale says she wasn’t told this idea and might not have agreed to be in the movie if it had required that shot. Cardinale and Paolo Stoppa take the longest buggy ride in movie history. It begins in Spain and goes through Monument Valley, Utah.
