Taglines: A town where everyone is rich… or dead.
A Fistful of Dollars movie storyline. A Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood) arrives at a little Mexican border town named San Miguel. He is quickly introduced to the feud between two families vying to gain control of the town: the Rojo brothers, consisting of Don Miguel (Antonio Prieto) (the eldest and nominally in charge), Esteban (Sieghardt Rupp) (the most headstrong) and Ramón (the most capable and intelligent, played by Gian Maria Volontè, who would reappear in For a Few Dollars More as the psychopathic El Indio), and the family of so-called “town sheriff”, John Baxter (Wolfgang Lukschy).
The Stranger quickly spies an opportunity to make a “fistful of dollars” and decides to play both families against each other. His opportunity comes when a detachment of Mexican soldiers escorting a shipment of gold passes through the town. The gold is ostensibly being delivered to a troop of American soldiers at the border river in exchange for a shipment of modern American weapons, but after following the Mexican troops, the Stranger watches from hiding as they are massacred by members of the Rojo gang, disguised in American uniforms and led by Ramon Rojo.
The Stranger takes two of the bodies to a nearby cemetery and sells information to both sides that two soldiers survived the attack. Both sides race to the cemetery, the Baxters to get the “survivors” to testify against the Rojos, and the Rojos to silence them. The factions engage in a fierce gunfight, but Ramon manages to kill (as he believes) the “survivors” and Esteban captures John Baxter’s son, Antonio. While the Rojos and the Baxters are busy, the Stranger takes the opportunity to search the Rojo hacienda, but accidentally knocks out Ramón’s beautiful prisoner and unwilling mistress, Marisol (Marianne Koch), when she surprises him. He takes her to the Baxters, who arrange for a prisoner swap with the Rojos.
The day of the exchange, the Stranger learns Marisol’s history from Silvanito (José Calvo), the innkeeper: “… a happy little family until trouble comes along. And trouble is the name of Ramon, claiming the husband cheated at cards, which wasn’t true. He gets the wife to live with him as hostage.” That night, while the Rojos are celebrating, the Stranger rides out and frees Marisol, shooting the guards and wrecking the house to make it look like it was attacked by a large band.
The Stranger tells Marisol, her husband and their son to leave town, and gives them some money to live on. Marisol then asks the Stranger, “Why do you do this for us?” And for the first and only time, the Stranger provides some insight for his actions when he replies to Marisol, “Why? Because I knew someone like you once. There was no one there to help. Now get moving.”
The Rojos capture and beat the Stranger up after this betrayal, but he escapes, killing Chico (Mario Brega) in the process, with the help of the coffin maker, Piripero (Joseph Egger, who would also resurface in For a Few Dollars More). Believing the Stranger to be protected by the Baxters, the Rojos set fire to the Baxter home and massacre all the residents when they are forced to flee the flames, including John Baxter, his son and his wife Consuelo (Margarita Lozano). The Rojos become the only gang left in San Miguel.
A Fistful of Dollars (Italian: Per un Pugno di Dollari, lit. ‘For a Fistful of Dollars’ titled on-screen as Fistful of Dollars) is a 1964 Spaghetti Western film directed by Bob Robertson and starring Clint Eastwood in his first leading role, alongside John Wells, Marianne Koch, W. Lukschy, S. Rupp, Jose Calvo, Antonio Prieto, and Joe Edger. The film, an international co-production between Italy, West Germany, and Spain, was filmed on a low budget (reported to be $200,000), and Eastwood was paid $15,000 for his role.
Released in Italy in 1964 and then in the United States in 1967, it initiated the popularity of the Spaghetti Western genre. It was followed by For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, also starring Eastwood. Collectively, the films are known as the “Dollars Trilogy”, or the “Man with No Name Trilogy”.
All three films were later released in sequence in the United States in 1967, catapulting Eastwood into stardom. The film has been identified as an unofficial remake of the Akira Kurosawa film Yojimbo (1961), which resulted in a successful lawsuit by Toho, Yojimbo’s production company. In the United States, the United Artists publicity campaign referred to Eastwood’s character in all three films as the “Man with No Name”.
As few Spaghetti Westerns had yet been released in the United States, many of the European cast and crew took on American-sounding stage names. These included Leone himself (“Bob Robertson”), Gian Maria Volonté (“Johnny Wels”), and composer Ennio Morricone (“Dan Savio”). A Fistful of Dollars was shot in Spain, mostly near Hoyo de Manzanares[7] close to Madrid, but also (like its two sequels) in the Tabernas Desert and in the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park, both in the province of Almería.
A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
Directed by: Sergio Leone
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Marianne Koch, Joe Edger, W. Lukschy, John Wells, Daniel Martín, Carol Brown, Benny Reeves, Margarita Lozano, Antonio Prieto, Benito Stefanelli
Screenplay by: Bob Robertson, Víctor Andrés Catena, Jaime Comas, Fernando Di Leo, Duccio Tessari, Tonino Valerii
Cinematography by: Jack Dalmas
Film Editing by: Bob Quintle
Set Decoration by: Sigfrido Burmann, Francisco Rodríguez, Carlo Simi
Art Direction by: Carlo Simi
Music by: Dan Savio
MPAA Rating: R for violence.
Distributed by: Unidis
Release Date: September 12, 1964 (Italy), March 5, 1965 (West Germany), September 27, 1965 (Spain)
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