For a Few Dollars More
Making an unscheduled stop and disembarking along with his horse in Tucumari, New Mexico, Colonel Douglas Mortimer has a similarly unannounced appointment with Guy Callaway, wanted for murder and with a reward of $1,000 on his head, the bounty on the first rung on a rising ladder which then leads to White Rocks, where “Baby” Red Cavanagh is believed to be hiding out, the price on his head the sum of $2,000.
But Mortimer is not the only one seeking the money, the silent rider who wears a poncho who goes by the name Manco arriving just before him and taking out Red and his trio of henchmen to claim the bounty when news breaks that the notorious El Indio has broken out of jail with a massacre of the guards and his cellmate, the reward for him a grand $10,000 dead or alive, a prize which draws both Mortimer and Manco first as rivals and then as uneasy partners.
Released in Italy in December 1965 as Per qualche dollaro in più where it became the highest grossing film of the time and then in America in May 1967 as For a Few Dollars More, only four months after its predecessor A Fistful of Dollars had been released, the film reunited director Sergio Leone with Clint Eastwood as “the Man with No Name” and Gian Maria Volonté, this time playing El Indio and promoted to the lead villain rather than henchman.
Written by Luciano Vincenzoni and Sergio Donati, For a Few Dollars More is not a simple retread of the first though it is undeniably part of the same story, an unmistakable continuation in themes, character and style, with Eastwood’s reserved, resourceful and determined gun-for-hire turned bounty hunter who has an unerring instinct for finding trouble and a knack for getting himself out of it and again filmed in the Spain with both composer Ennio Morricone and cinematographer Massimo Dallamano also returning.
Another film of desert sand and rocks and blood on the sawdust floors, of subterfuge and betrayals, adding Lee Van Cleef as Colonel Douglas Mortimer changes the dynamic, the men sizing each other up before moving ahead with a frosty accord under the sun where both seeks advantage and neither overshares, Mortimer as tight-lipped about his past as Manco but with a personal reason for his pursuit of El Indio, a damaged, unforgiving and violent man.
The target the bank of El Paso, built like a stone fortress and well-guarded but with El Indio in possession of insider knowledge which gives him an advantage, in a film of over two hours the actual heist takes mere seconds, the prelude and aftermath the focus, the games between the deceitful and greedy players, whittled down to last man standing in the village of Agua Caliente, the fractious band literally ending up in hot water.
A more considered film than A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More is in some ways more grounded but follows a similar template despite the changes, Manco and then Mortimer inveigling their way into El Indio’s band, the latter taking the vacancy created by the summary departure of Klaus Kinski’s trigger happy Juan Wild, the most noticeable absence in this film being the presence of any participatory women, the most significant Rosemary Dexter’s character who is seen only in flashback and unnamed, though in fairness so remains the protagonist.
Arrow in the process of releasing the complete Dollars Trilogy, their new edition of For a Few Dollars More is a 4K restoration from the original 2-perf Techniscope negative featuring a commentary by Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling and a second by film historian Tim Lucas, new and archive interviews with multiple subjects including Leone and Eastwood and several other cast and crew, a visual essay on Morricone’s soundtracks, restoration and location featurettes, galleries and ephemera.
For a Few Dollars More is available on Blu-ray and 4K UHD from Arrow Films now
