A Fistful of Dollars

Sergio Leone’s 1964 film runs 99 minutes and drops a nameless stranger into a border town where he sells information to both warring families. A West German, Italian and Spanish co-production, it was shot on location in Spain, mostly outside Madrid and at Almería, in eight weeks on a budget of $200,000. Clint Eastwood took the part for $15,000. The credits were Americanised: Leone billed himself as Bob Robertson, Ennio Morricone as Dan Savio and Gian Maria Volonté as Johnny Wels, because Leone feared audiences would not turn out for an Italian western. It opened in Italy in 1964, and American audiences did not see it until early 1967, so the year in the catalogue is the Italian one. In between stood the dispute over its uncredited use of Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. Kurosawa wrote to Leone that it was a very good film, but that it was his film, and the matter closed out of court: he and Toho took 15 per cent of worldwide receipts plus distribution rights in several Far Eastern countries. A good fit if a credit reading Bob Robertson strikes you as saying something about what the film was passing for. Not for anyone waiting for one side to be proved right; the stranger sells to both and the film does not clean him up.