Duello nel Texas - The Extras

Richard Harrison, the Man who wouldn’t be No Name

He was one of the muscular American actors who came to Europe in the early 1960s to appear in sword and sandal movies. Unlike colleagues like Brad Harris and Steve Reeves, successfully made the transition to other genres such as westerns and spy movies. After completing Duello nel Texas, he was asked by producers Papi & Colombo to do a second western for them, one that was to be directed by a man called Sergio Leone. Harrison had never heard of Leone and was also offered another role, in yet another sword and sandal movie, The Giants of Rome. The name of the director of that movie was Antonio Margheriti. Harrison asked several people and they all told him that Margheriti was the better director of the two. He then decided to do the peplum.

Harrison was not Leone’s first choice. He had wanted Henry Fonda for the part of the magnificent stranger, and a copy of the script was indeed sent to Fonda’s agent, who sent it back without showing it to Mr. Fonda. A copy was also sent to Charles Bronson and James Coburn. Bronson read the script but thought it was rubbish, Coburn showed some interest but wanted $ 25.000, which was way beyond Leone’s means. Many people have claimed that they were the very person who advised Leone to take Clint Eastwood. The person who attracted Papi & Colombo to the actor, was employee who had seen him as Rowdy Yates in Rawhide. Clints name came on a list with two others (nobody remembers the other two names), which was shown to various people, among them Richard Harrison (and probably Mark Damon as well). Harrison told Jolly Films to take Clint … because he could ride a horse.

When Sergio met Ennio

Leone didn’t like the score Morricone had written for Duello nel Texas. He thought it was a typical old school score, ‘un Tiomkin dei poveri’ (a poor man’s Tiomkin). He therefore wanted to ask Angelo Francesco Lavagnino (who had done The Colossos of Rhodes for him) for a score for A Fistful of Dollars, but Papi & Colombo wanted him to talk to Morricone first. When the two finally met, Morricone showed Leone a picture which showed that they had been class-mates at the elementary school Saint Juan Baptiste de la Salle, a school run by a catholic educational order known as the Scolopi (Poor Clerics of the Mother of God).

Morricone proposed two compositions, the first one was a piece that had been rejected by the producers for the previous film. It was different from what he had done before, more solemn and plaintiff. Leone liked it but asked Morricone to chance a few things. It would become the dramatic theme, used during the finale, prior to the shootout. The second composition was called ‘Pastures of Plenty’, a song by Woody Guthrie (based on a traditional folk song called ‘pretty Polly’), for which Morricone had done the orchestration. It had become a small hit in Italy in the version of Peter Tevis, who had also recorded the theme son A Gringo like Me for Duello nel Texas (in the movie it was sung by Dickie Jones). Leone didn’t like the idea of a theme song with lyrics, but couldn’t get the melody out of his head. Instead of a human voice, a human whistle was added to it, plus some strange choral chants, and the sound of whips and gunshots, and the thing became one of the most spectacular theme songs in the history of film making.

--By Scherpschutter