Yes he got a second career in the italian film industry in the 60s and 70s, like some other US actors, Jack Palance for example.
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Of course he was needed for the film’s narrative also, not only for commercial reasons. And the relationship between a gringo and a mexicano became a recurring theme in many SWs.
Eastwood couldn’t play exactly the same character in For a Few Dollars More because of a lawsuit from Jolly Films who I believed kept the rights to ‘Joe’ so he had to be called something else and his appearance tweaked slightly.
Yes, but they could have chosen another actor. They deliberately did not. In GB Tuco and Blondie are the central characters; Eli had the more interesting part, but it’s basically a story about two fortune seekers whose adventures are placed against the background of the Civil War. The German title of the movie reads Zwei Glorreichen Halunken. The story by Guy de Maupassant that was a major influence, was also called Deux Amis. Lee’s Sentenza is clearly less essential to the action; in most versions the film goes quite a while on without him and only later he becomes essential to the plot.
Either way, a perfect cast in GBU with Clint, Wallach, and Van Cleef, commercial or otherwise.
Yes; Sergio first wanted Charles Bronson for the Sentenza part but settled for Lee when Bronson rejected the offer. Today it’s difficult to imagine any other than Lee in that role.
Are you really sure about this?
I think Bronson was considered already for Fistful, but I’ve never read anywhere that Leone wanted him in GBU.
Yes, he had wanted Bronson for the Fistfull part as well, and according to some also for For a few Dollars More (but I’m nog sure about that). Lee was already working with Sollima on The Big Gundown when Leone asked him for GBU. Lee couldn’t refuse anything coming from Leone, so he made the movies back to back.
In his book, Marco Giusti (Dizionario del western all’italiana) says:
“Per la secondo volto torna nel cinema italiano Lee van Cleef. Anche se in un primo tempo Leone cerca Charles Bronson, che pero devo girare con Robert Aldrich Quella Sporca dozzina”
(Lee van Cleef turns to Italian cinema for the second time. Although Leone initially wanted Charles Bronson, who, however, was to make The Dirty Dozen with Robert Aldrich.)
Seems more logical though that Leone would have wanted Van Cleef again, since he was in the previous film and had the right looks for the character, a more sinister version of the black-clad Mortimer.
Bronson would have been miscast, or at least not at all as good as the actors we finally got, in both Fistful and GBU.
Don’t know if Bronson would have been miscast. Leone had - so to speak - a nose for faces, that was part of his brilliance. He had wanted Bronson for Fistfull already, so he saw something in the man’s face. No Name (Joe), Sentenza and Harmonica are all three different characters, but Leone could do miracles with the faces he wanted.
But we can’t be sure, of course. It’s a what if .. What if Bronson this or if Clint that. And you know what they say about my sister if she had a … you know what. In that case she would be my brother, although these days you can’t be sure about these things either.
Of course Bronson finally got to be in a Leone film, there he was some sort of mexican, which suited his appearance.
But him in GBU, then it would have been “2 mexicans and a gringo”, not “the good, the bad, the ugly”.
That’s true.
Furthermore Bronson was only in 2-3 SWs or euro westerns, he wasn’t that well suited for the genre.
An actor brought over from America to Italy should play a gringo, and for mexicans there were often better suited actors.
Van Cleef on the other hand became one of the most prominent ex-US actors in the italian film industry, he was in a long string of movies.
2 exceptions of US actors who didn’t play gringos were of course Tony Musante in The Mercenary (1968) and Burt Reynolds in Navajo Joe (1966).
Musante was an italian-american though and did his part very well. He had the sort of role that Tomas Milian regularly did in the SW genre, as you know.
Reynolds had a few drops of native american blood and began as a stuntman early in his career, with his wig he could pass for an indian and he handled the physical stuff in that film very well.
Both these men only did one spaghetti western, they did it well but one film was enough. There were other US actors who were more suited for making several films.
Don’t know what you’re trying to say. Sentenza wasn’t Mexican, as far as I know. Bronson played a half Mexican, half Irishman (Bernardo O’Reilly) in The Magnificent Seven and a full-blood Mexican, Rodolfo Fierro, in Villa Rides. In that movie you can see how effective he could be in a villainous role: Fierro was Pancho Villa’s executioner, a murderer of the most murderous kind, and bronson played him chillingly well.
I’m by the way not sure what ethnicity Harmonica is supposed to be.
Bronson, Mexican style:
Gringo means a “caucasian”, of course Sentenza wasn’t a mexican.
And like you point out yourself, Bronson was more suited to play a mexican.
Joe in Fistful wasn’t supposed to be a mexican.
Of course Harmonica is a mexican, it’s obvious in the flashback when the other man stands on his shoulders.
Harmonica was a Native American.
Back to the ‘Man with No Name’, #2: Monco takes the precaution of removing that leather wrist brace before infiltrating El Indio’s gang. It’s back above his gun hand when he dispatches Blackie (Frank Braña) in the next scene. An old injury or just stylization? He’s presumably of some renown, as he’s pictured on the front page of the El Paso Tribune, standing over the Morton brothers. News of a particularly lethal bounty killer wearing a serape-style poncho would travel fast. El Indio possibly knew Monco’s identity from the start, and just played along. Of course, it also makes a great plot device - “Put it on!”
Ok, how is this evident?
I think the young Harmonica looks like a mexican.
Edit: Or maybe Harmonica is a “mestizo”, that could be true.
Frayling says (p. 183 of his Leone book) that he tried to get both Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson to play Colonel Mortimer but both refused. He tried to get Lee Marvin as well but couldn’t get him and went for Van Cleek. Frayling says (p. 220 of his Leone book) that he wanted Bronson for ‘the bad’ and Bronson agreed but was unable to do it because it conflicted with The Dirty Dozen. So, Leone picked Van Cleef again.
So, according to Frayling, Bronson was touted for all 3 dollar movies - and both both Van Cleef roles.
Frayling says (p. 221) that Gian Maria Volonte was considered but rejected for Tuco and Leone wanted Wallach on the basis of How the West Was Won and went to see him in Los Angeles.
Maybe Frayling has the same source for this claim as scherpschutter here on the forum, from that italian book. I still think it sounds like a strange choice with Bronson as the bad.
Ok, so Volonte was considered for Tuco but then rejected. Wallach was better for the part and Leone understood this.
Leone really liked Henry Fonda, and he finally got him for OUATITW and My Name Is Nobody.