Props

Tim Lucas

It's in moments like this that Leone's masterful eye for detail and stage props comes to the fore. When Tuco asks for ammunition, Leone begins to tease us. He lets us imagine we know where this scene is headed. We don't, but that's all part of the fun, having Leone engage us in a bit of cat and mouse. Leone loved leading people around by the nose. The actors who worked with him remember that he always invited them aboard his various projects by relating their stories.

34:56 · jump to transcript →

Tim Lucas

Leone does not tip his hand with this shot. This seashell compact turns out to be one of the film's most important props. He could have chosen to show us the cushioned inlay embroidered with the name Bill Carson, but that would be revealing everything much too soon. Instead, he introduces the character who turns out to be Bill Carson, which adds a bit more to the running time and makes the whole a somewhat grander proposition.

58:13 · jump to transcript →

Tim Lucas

and that he died wearing his Once Upon a Time in the West costume. He had only one shot that remained to be filmed, but evidently he couldn't wait. Sergio Leone never forgave him. He reportedly stepped over Mulock's dead body, telling the wardrobe man to take off his costume, which was then handed to a stand-in who took his place in that last shot, viewed only from behind. There is some masterly interplay with props here on the part of Mr. Wallach.

1:46:19 · 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 →