Budget

We had no money. I mean, it was the first one. We had a very limited budget. And I got a bit desperate. I came up with a firm over at Farnham, I believe, who were rake on me. And I got in touch with a gentleman there. And he said, well, what do you want to do? I said, well, I've got, I think it was 12 stations, 12 operators. And each man has to have his own.

5:43 · jump to transcript →

Well, I held it about as long as I thought we could, you see. And now when it's run, a few of the conoscente, I mean, there are still, there are some people who begin to giggle, and this pleases me very much because it was meant as a faintly comic effect. If you remember, you first see his hand, then all the props, the gunmetal case, the little lighter, the woman shoveling the money across, and finally she says, and this is a very, very interesting point, she says, and to whom do I make out the check?

8:01 · jump to transcript →

Ken Adam remembers the challenge of preparing the set for M's office on a limited budget. I tried to give M a traditional background of a good taste English paneled office with, since he had been ex-navy with ship models and naval pictures.

11:45 · jump to transcript →

She's basically a dancer. She's not an actress, as I'm sure you were watching this. And I was always fascinated with her. She did another really excellent film after this called Agony of Love. It's probably one of the only good films that Harry Novak ever produced. William Rotsler? William Rotsler, yes. And it's really good. And she plays a somewhat psychotic housewife who's almost compelled to sell herself as a hooker. She doesn't care. I mean, she really doesn't even need the money. It's just...

25:20 · jump to transcript →

According to Steve, he was like an ex-FBI guy who put in $15,000. Yeah, and according to Steve, in an interview with him, he said, I matched it, and we were in business, so apparently the budget of this was $30,000. And that kind of makes sense. Yeah, so you want to mention her name too? Stephanie Jones. Oh, Stephanie, you're great in this. All right. Go on, she got some credit. Once, yeah.

48:27 · jump to transcript →

The guy who distributed Orgy was Fred O. Gephardt. May he rest in peace. So his initials were F-O-G, Fog. I should have known something. So Freddy gave me three checks for $5,000 each in advance. And what do I do when I have the money? I make a picture. So I had Eddie Wood write a script about a transvestite detective. Transvestite detective. Now, who else, right? Who else? About a transvestite detective in Paris called Seven...

1:00:20 · jump to transcript →

Tim Lucas

like it's there for no better reason than to be droll, but it's actually quite significant, as we will soon see. Sergio Leone was a master raconteur, and it was in this film, made in the wake of the immense European commercial success of Per un pugno di dollari, A Fistful of Dollars, that he could first afford to indulge himself as a storyteller. For this film, the budget jumped from $200,000 to $600,000.

1:59 · jump to transcript →

Tim Lucas

It was this crazy idea. And it stayed. And it stayed. To put his hands on the money inside. Get in there and grab all the money. Sure? You think that carpenter was lucky the way things work out. That he was lucky to go and joust that bank. It wasn't true. His good fortune stopped that day. Because later...

39:05 · jump to transcript →

Tim Lucas

When I first screened this film in preparation for this commentary, I looked at this explosion and immediately told myself it had to be a scale model special effects shot. And then Sancho himself appeared in the hole blown into the side of the building, which means this jail was actually built and blown up so that Sancho Perez could leap into freedom. Here you see the difference made possible by Leone's leap in budget.

1:04:57 · jump to transcript →

Tim Lucas

But Sergio Leone was probably the first Italian director to be indulged with a budget of more than $1 million. You might see crowds like this assembled for the Hollywood on the Tiber spectacles of the 1950s, but those were Hollywood films using Italy and its environs as a location.

1:20:10 · jump to transcript →

Tim Lucas

War is a poor alternative to self-centered profiteering, end quote. I have a feeling it's really going to be a good long battle. Blondie? Huh? The money's on the other side of the river. Well, where? Maybe I said the other side, if that's enough.

2:05:12 · jump to transcript →