Eli Wallach interview

In 1975, Sergio Leone expert Bill Shaffer interviewed Eli Wallach about Leone and the shooting of ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ (1966). You can read Bill’s interview with Eli at Current Thinking on the Western: Bill Shaffer’s Eli Wallach interview | Current Thinking on the Western

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Interesting … but I wonder did Bill also try to contact others from the production. Thanks for the link :slightly_smiling_face:

Thanks for sharing.

I found these two comments by Wallach interesting:

The graveyard sequence: It took several weeks to build that graveyard. It wasn’t there. They built it. They had forms and mounds and signs and I suggested to Sergio Leone a shot that I remembered from the film, Great Expectations (1946) and I also asked Kazan to use it in the film, Baby Doll (1956) – that is, I became the camera as I was running around in that thing.

So Wallach seems to be claiming to have provided the creative inspiration behind the way this scene was filmed.

I’d love to work with Sam Peckinpah. I’d love to work with Robert Altman. I’d love to work with Mike Nichols, with Elia Kazan, with Arthur Penn. I could go on and on.

I’d like to have seen Wallach work with Peckinpah or Altman on a Western.