Man With No Name Movies Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sergio Leone

An obscure director named Sergio Leone was given $200,000 and a load of leftover film stock and told to make a Western. With a script based on Akira Kurosawa's samurai epic 'Yojimbo', an American TV actor named Clint Eastwood, a music composer named Ennio Morricone, and a cameraman named Massimo Dallamano, Leone made 'Per un Pugno di Dollari -- A Fistful of Dollars'.

This violent, cynical and visually stunning film introduced The Man With No Name, the anti-heroic gunslinger for whom money is the only motivation and the villains are merely obstacles to be removed. Leone's unique style, artistic camera angles, extension of time and raw, explosive violence presented a skewed view of the West, making his film different from any Western that had come before. Audiences loved it, and the Spaghetti Western took off like a bullet from a Colt .45. Michael Carreras produced a Spanish made movie called 'Savage Guns' (1961) starring Richard Basehart and Alex Nichol. Horst Wendlandt and director Harald Reinl teamed up to make 'The Treasure of Silver Lake' (1962) starring American actor Lex Barker and Frenchman Pierre Brice in the lead roles based on the frontier stories of German writer Karl May. Ricardo Blasco's made 'Gunfight at Red Sands' (1963) with Richard Harrison, who would eventually star in seventeen Spaghetti Westerns.

Answer: Bob Robertson and Dan Savio

When deciding on the music for 'A Fistful of Dollars', Leone was going to use Francesco Lavagnino, who did the score for an earlier Leone movie. Luckily, he met Ennio Morricone, who remembered that they knew each other as boys, when they went to the same school. Previous western scores sounded like popular American music, almost always pleasant, with male vocals. Morricone's score was in a Western style, and sounded much like Mexican folk music. For the release of 'A Fistful of Dollars', Leone was afraid that American audiences would not go to see a western made in Italy.

After all, the western was up until then an American controlled genre. So both Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone changed their names, becoming Bob Robertson and Dan Savio.

Answer: Yojimbo

Leone based his movie almost exactly on the Japanese movie 'Yojimbo', by Akira Kurosawa. Leone borrowed heavily from Kurosawa's bustling and action packed sets, the quiet, confident, and deadly man with no name, the use of music to replace dialogue, and finally Kurosawa's slow motion photography. 'A Fistful of Dollars' is not simply a copy of 'Yojimbo', however, Leone perfected Kurosawa's techniques, but also inserted elements of his own style: quick zooms and extreme close-ups of thin, squinty eyes which became trademarks in future movies. Kurosawa also directed 'Shichinin no Samurai - the Seven Samurai', later made into a Western, 'The Magnificent Seven'. 'Koroshi no rakuin' is a movie about a hitman for the Japanese Yakusa. 'Chushingura' is a masterpiece of a movie by director Hiroshi Inagaki, also known as 'The 47 Ronin'.

Answer: The Colonel's Sister

In the movie, the Man With No Name is a bounty hunter who is intent on knocking off the member's of Indio's gang to collect the rewards that have been placed on their heads. He originally thinks that the Colonel is another bounty hunter breaking in on his turf and trying to do the same thing, so the two try to outwit each other in killing the Wanted Men.

The Colonel's real reason, however, for tracking down and killing the bad guys, is that many years ago Indio raped the Colonel's sister and then killed her husband, which causes the Colonel's sister to kill herself.

The Colonel had given the watch to his sister as a wedding present and also had one himself. The watch is used to amazing effect in the final shoot out at the end of the movie. The Colonel was portrayed by Lee Van Cleef, an actor Leone had often seen in fifties westerns. Van Cleef had been very ill for three years and was just working as a freelance painter.

Answer: A Coyote's Howl

There are only a rare number of film scores that have gone further than the films they are associated with to become part of our culture (the stabbing music in 'Psycho', is an example), and this is one of a very select group. Morricone's theme was the attempt to recreate a coyote's cry, and while most people don't recognize a hyena, the pure energy and aggressiveness of the scream is a powerful motif in the film that Leone uses to good advantage, punctuating scenes with them throughout his film.

Answer: Eli Wallach

This man is truly remarkable. Eli Wallach was born on December 7, 1915, in Brooklyn, New York. In 1930, at the age of 15, he appeared in his first public performance in an amateur production. Wallach went to the University of Texas in Austin (where he learned to ride horses, handy in a Western).

He graduated with a BA degree and subsequently attended the City College of New York, planning to be a teacher (Wallach's brother and two sisters are all teachers.) Wallach earned his master's degree from CCNY in 1938.

He also enlisted in the Army in 1941 and served for five years in the Army's Medical Administrative Corps during World War II, eventually reaching the rank of Captain. Wallach has a very considerable Broadway career, which he started before his sojourn into movieland.

The actor made his film debut in 1956 and appeared in many films, most memorably in such films as 'The Magnificent Seven' (1960), 'How The West Was Won' (1962), and 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' (1967). Wallach continued to work on the stage, as well, and he made frequent appearances on television.

As of 1998 he was still appearing on Broadway.

Answer: $200,000.00

Not too much to say about the money aspect in this question, other than it was quite a coincidence that the amount was the same in both movies. It is notable though that the central character of the Man With No Name, portrayed by Clint Eastwood, was the definition of anti-hero.

In all three of the Man With No Name movies (the other being 'For a Few Dollars More'), the hero is every bit as ruthless and money hungry as the villains. The only difference being that he spares innocents in his task. All three movies also concern the acquisition of large amounts of gold by the Man With No Name playing two sides against each other.

Answer: El Paso

Indio robs the seemingly impregnable bank at El Paso. It is this robbery in the film which provides the opportunity for Mortimer (the Colonel) and Manco (the nickname given to the Man With No Name in this movie) to go into their partnership. Manco is to infiltrate the gang, as Mortimer is already known to them for trying to pick a fight with one of them (Klaus Kinski) in the saloon. Santa Cruz is where the diversion is made in the movie to draw the men away from El Paso. San Miguel is the name of the town in 'A Fistful of Dollars'. Malpaso is the name of the production company that Eastwood founded after the money started flooding in shortly after 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'.

Answer: Henry Fonda

Leone has always dreamed about directing Henry Fonda. Even before he started shooting 'A Fistful of Dollars' he thought that Fonda would be a perfect 'The Man with No Name'. Fonda, however, was too expensive for the Italian cinema. So was James Coburn, who was also offered the role.

The role was then offered to Charles Bronson. Leone thought of of him because of his 'granite face of destiny'. He turned it down by saying that 'it was worst script he had ever seen', later regretting it and saying 'he certainly knows what I don't'. Clint was not even on the original list, the role was offered to various American actors living in Germany and Italy, one of whom was Richard Harrison, who has played in an Italian western before.

He suggested Leone watch the clean-cut, thirty-four year old actor of the CBS TV series, 'Rawhide', who had co-starred in it with Harrison.

Answer: A Cat

Leone stated the following about Eastwood: 'In real life, Clint is slow, calm, rather like a cat. During the shooting he does what he has to do, then sits down in a corner and goes to sleep immediately, until he is needed again.' When Leone originally watched Eastwood in his 'Rawhide' episodes, he noticed how Eastwood rarely said a word and he didn't like it, but he did like the way that Eastwood was good at getting on a horse and had a way of walking with a tired, resigned air. Leone also felt that Eastwood was wrong because he was a little too sophisticated. Leone decided that he needed to make him look more virile and hardened.

When Leone first offered Eastwood the part, he had never smoked in his life and before the second film, Eastwood told Leone 'Listen Sergio, I'll do everthing you want, except smoke!' - but that was impossible, as the character was the same as the first movie.

Answer: Sergio Leone

It was Leone himself that did the whistling. Leone really wanted to depict the West as he felt it would truly have been and immersed himself in the atmosphere that he believed would have existed to create the right image. In fact he felt that the American view of the West was extremely naive.

In one interview he stated: 'The Americans have always depicted the West in extremely romantic terms - with a horse that runs to his master's whistle. They have never treated the West seriously, just as we have never treated the ancient Rome seriously. Perhaps the most serious debate on the subject was made by Kubrick in the film 'Spartacus': the other films have always been cardboard fables.

It was this superficiality that struck and interested me.'

Answer: Baxter and Rojo

A cigarillo smoking stranger (Eastwood) rides into the Mexican border town of San Miguel, a town in which rival factions are battling for control: there are those employed by Sheriff John Baxter, who sells whiskey and guns to the Indians, and those led by Ramon Rojo.

As he rides into town, the Man With No Name (occasionally referred to as Joe) is taunted by the Baxters, who shoot at his mule's feet. Upon discovering the status quo in the town from an innkeeper - and being warned to leave town as soon as possible - the stranger rides over to the Rojos and offers his services.

He then takes revenge on the four men who harassed him, gunning them down in the street.

Answer: His Brother

Tuco slaps his brother after they have an argument where Father Ramirez accuses Tuco of leaving his parents to die without the comfort of both of their sons. Tuco's brother is the Father of the seminary in the middle of the desert. Tuco relates that he left home at an early age and points out to his brother that there were only two choices, become a priest or a bandit, Tuco obviously chose the latter.

When Tuco asks how their parents are, Father Ramirez tells him they are dead and that he had to bury them alone.

He starts to tongue-lash his brother for being a thief and not caring for his parents, leading to the smack in the chops.

Answer: Tuco Benedito Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez

Don't ask me why, I know it is a mouthful. Interesting tidbit that most of you probably already know, but the inclusion of Maria in a man's name is not at all unusual, particularly in Catholic countries. Quite often a man will have the name of a specific saint (male or female) and Maria is commonly chosen being the most holy of women.

In other countries the female name included is normally the name or a name of the man's mother.

Answer: He is not wearing a poncho

After the Man With No Name (nicknamed 'Blondie' by Tuco) escape from the Prisoner of War camp, they stumble along towards the Graveyard, until they run into a battle being fought over a bridge. Since they need to get to the other side of the river, Tuco and Blondie blow up the bridge, thereby removing the cause of the battle.

When the two armies move on, the two men cross over and make their way to the cemetery. While Tuco runs on ahead, Blondie offers his cigarillo to a dying soldier, who very shortly dies. Blondie removes his trench coat and covers the dead man, taking his poncho as a replacement.

The film is set chronologically before the previous two films, and it implies the development of the character of the Man With No Name. We see him despairing at the war, and we are also shown a compassion which is absent from the other films.

When he removes his trench coat and replaces it with the familiar poncho, it symbolizes that he has become the character of the earlier movies.