This stuff is gold … thanks once again, Montero.
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Absolutely! I second that…
Well done, Montero…please keep it coming… 
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An article by Sergio Leone plus an interview with Vivienne Chandler and a couple of reviews from the UK. By and large the reviews were more positive than for ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’. It opened in London on 15th September 1972.
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The article from the Rochester Chronicle echoes one of my mysteries about this film, shot in the Summer of 1970 but not released until October 1971. Why did it take so long to come out? Leone’s films were usually Christmas movies. When it was filmed They Call Me Trinity had not been released. Neither had Companeros. It then came out competing against Trinity Is Still My Name and presumably suffered at the box-office as a result. Duck You Sucker is a lot more serious than Companeros and if it had been released in Christmas 1970 might have wiped the box-office floor.
A few observations:
The whole Juan/John thing is taken from Viva Maria (the original Zapata movie) when you have Maria and Marie which becomes Maria and Maria. When Juan asks Sean his name, he says ‘Sean’ and then when Juan expresses confusion my take on this was that Sean says ‘John’ to placate Juan and tell him what his name is in English. So Juan and Sean become Johnny and Johnny like Maria and Marie become Maria and Maria.
The scene in which the bank robbery occurs is very similar to the bank robbery scene in The Mercenary (same writer) in which Kowalski sits at a cafe across the road from the bank and crosses off actions on a piece of paper. Kowalski even drinks out of an egg - which Guttiriez does later in Duck You Sucker.
I thought Maria Monti was dressed up to look like Barbara Rush in Hombre. This has a similar scene in a stagecoach in which the bourgeois passengers are disgusted by the ‘hero’. I think Rush even uses the words ‘I can’t imagine’.
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Also, the scene in which Coburn holds open his coat to reveal dynamite was taken from Sabata.
Despite the numerous borrowings and crude humour, the film is a masterpiece. It works on so many different levels; as a literally dynamite action film, a critique of the Hollywood Mexican revolution genre, a critique of the Zapata revolution sub genre; a WW2 allegory and an allegory on social revolution in contemporary Europe.
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That scene is in a still only and not in the movie.
But the first appearance of Coburn when he is wearing motorcycle glasses is very similar to the intro of John Steiner’s character in Tepepa (also wearing driving goggles and I think in both there is a PoV shot from inside the glasses).
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Very sharp-eyed @Wobble, nonetheless the dynamite-inside-the-coat was probably lifted from ‘Sabata’ one way or another.
IMDb lists various U.S. release dates for ‘Duck, You Sucker’ - June 28 1972 (LA), June 30 1972 (NYC) but it was already playing in Fort Worth a week earlier on June 21 1972 (below).
‘A Fistful of Dynamite’ premiered in the UK at the London Pavilion (14th Sept '72?) followed by the New Victoria from 15th September 1972. It made its British TV debut on Thursday 12th July 1979 (BBC2 21:20 - 23:35).
Source below: (Evening Standard, 14th September, 1972)
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I think the sombre atmosphere and the music are the best things about this one. I dont think Wallach would have been better as Juan.
And the other way around Steiger wouldn’t have been better as Tuco, (not that it was considered, just hypothetically).
It’s nice you point out some similarities with previous Zapata SWs, hadn’t thought about this myself.
Some scenes were filmed in Guadix City in Spain, just like Tepepa. Great location.
The scene were Juan is about to be executed and John comes and picks him up on his motorcycle is very spaghetti-esque.
DYS is a spaghetti western, not a war film.
The trains near the ending look like model trains. This has occured in movies before though, that models look too much like models.
I don’t like the sloppy eating in the beginning, what was the point of that. There is sloppy eating by people in other SWs and then it’s not a big deal. No close ups. But of course it’s to show these upper class characters as not so well mannered. And then they have to strip nude and sent away on the cart. It is too crude.
Juan pissing on the ants and showing off his male organ to the woman is also too crude. This was cut from some versions before I think.
Like you pointed out in the thread also, when one of Juan’s sons is blown upp in the beginning this is just treated as a joke.