A Fistful of Dollars

Action, Western

Clint Eastwood	The Man with No Name
Marianne Koch	Marisol
Gian Maria Volonté	Ramon Rojo
Wolfgang Lukschy	John Baxter
Mario Brega	Chico
Carol Brown	Antonia Baxter
Antonio Prieto	Benito Rojo
Josef Egger	Piripero
Benny Reeves	Rubio
Pepe Calvo	Silvanito
Joe Edgar
W. Lukschy
S. Rupp
John Wels
Sieghardt Rupp	Esteban Rojo
Margarita Lozano	Consuelo Baxter
Benito Stefanelli	Rubio
Bruno Carotenuto	Antonio Baxter
Joseph Egger	Piripero
Gian Maria Volontè	Ramón Rojo
José Calvo	Silvanito
Daniel Martín	Julián
José Calvo (II)

Director	Sergio Leone; Monte Hellman
Producer	Arrigo Colombo; Giorgio Papi; Harry Colombo; George Papi
Writer	Ryuzo Kikushima; Akira Kurosawa
Cinematography	Massimo Dallamano; Federico G. Larraya
Musician	Ennio Morricone
User Credit 1	Roberto Cinquini; Alfonso Santacana
User Credit 2	Carlo Simi

By the time Sergio Leone made this film, Italians had already produced about 20 films ironically labelled "spaghetti westerns." Leone approached the genre with great love and humor. Although the plot was admittedly borrowed from Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961), Leone managed to create a work of his own that would serve as a model for many films to come. Clint Eastwood plays a cynical gunfighter who comes to a small border town and offers his services to two rivaling gangs. Neither gang is aware of his double play, and each thinks it is using him, but the stranger will outwit them both. The picture was the first installment in a cycle commonly known as the "Dollars" trilogy. Later, United Artists, who distributed it in the U.S., coined another term for it: the "Man With No Name" trilogy. While not as impressive as its follow-ups For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), A Fistful of Dollars contains all of Leone's eventual trademarks: taciturn characters, precise framing, extreme close-ups, and the haunting music of Ennio Morricone. Not released in the U.S. until 1967 due to copyright problems, the film was decisive in both Clint Eastwood's career and the recognition of the Italian western. — Yuri German