The Good, the Bad and the Ugly/Trivia


 * Enforced Method Acting: Sergio Leone let a dog onto the set during one of the final scenes without telling anyone. Eli Wallach's reaction was kept.
 * Just Train Wrong: The military train scene. The engine is quite clearly a Spanish engine with a cowcatcher and balloon smokestack clapped on, and the buffers are clearly visible. As the train moves on, we can see the European-style two-axle cars, instead of the American bogie cars, which were well established by the 1860s.
 * No OSHA Compliance: Truth in Television, since Eli Wallach describes being almost decapitated during the filming of one of the train scenes on the DVD.
 * Clint Eastwood apparently warned Wallach not to trust the Italian film crew because of how dangerous it could become during filming. Wallach describes how he burned his throat after mistakenly drinking a bottle of acid that was simply poured into a bottle of lemon juice and not properly marked. And then one of the horse stunts where Wallach's hands were tied behind his back and the horse galloped off and no one was around to stop the horse once it took off. And again where pyrotechnics used to sever a rope didn't quite get the job done right and the rope nearly choked Eli to death. And of course, there's that whole thing about the big bridge explosion going off at the wrong time because of poor communication.
 * Speaking of the bridge scene, if you look closely, a huge piece of debris lands about two feet from Clint's head as he's behind the sandbags. And you all thought it was for effect.
 * Older Than They Look: Eli Wallach was 51 at the time of filming. He does not show it at all.
 * The Other Darrin: Some scenes from the Italian original were cut from the first English-language version and didn't get put back in until 2003. Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach were still available for the English dub of these scenes, but since Lee Van Cleef was dead, Simon Prescott did his voice.
 * Throw It In: Tuco's line "When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk!" was actually improvised by Eli Wallach, which apparently caused the whole crew to burst out laughing. Eli was a little perplexed because he thought that what he said was actually pretty sensible; that is, he didn't mean it as a joke.
 * It was sensible but his delivery and the look on his face (think Bugs Bunny going "ain't I a stinker?") made it side-splittingly hilarious.