2) Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
There is relatively little information about the actual filming of the beginning of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West. This is not really surprising given that it contains almost no action. But there is an account involving one of the three actors who starred in this notorious sequence. It is a shocking one, but it deserves to be mentioned, partly because it had a significant effect on the opening scene – but mainly out of respect for the man it concerns.
Firstly, a few notes on the scene itself. At almost 14 minutes long, Once Upon a Time in the West was, in its day, the longest opening credit sequence ever made. What is even more crucial is that it achieved its heights of admiration while featuring very little dialogue, very little movement, and [almost…] no music.
[zergpaid]But that is not to say that there is no soundtrack. In fact, the beginning of Once Upon a Time in the West is considered to be one of the best examples ever made of how to specifically use sound as a storytelling device. The entire point of this legendarily elongated scene in which three men await the arrival of a train is to force the viewer into sharing the tedium of that wait.
The various sounds emphasize their boredom to an almost agonizing degree. There is a constant, solemn squeak of a water wheel, which becomes as excruciatingly irritating to the viewer (and – just to give you a heads up – to any nearby dogs) as it does to the characters. One of the men is pestered by a very loud fly. Another finds himself standing beneath steadily dripping water. The third man amuses himself by running his hands through a water trough, and cracking his knuckles at a wince-inducing volume. When the train arrives, there is a cacophony of sound, but underneath it the engine is thumping rhythmically, still maintaining that sense of lapsing time, and of anticipation.
Then, as the men conclude that the train has not brought their man and start to walk away, another sound joins the noise of the moving train. It is three notes of music, being played slowly, in sequence. It sounds like the film’s studio score has now begun, but it hasn’t. This is the introduction of Harmonica, the man who will pursue the film’s main protagonist and who – after a brief but memorable exchange regarding the number of horses that are available (“you brought two too many”) – will shoot dead the three waiting men. The harmonica is his trademark symbol, that simple tune he plays on it the herald of his presence.
Now to the tragic story of the real-life fate of one of the waiting men.
Al Mulock played the tousled haired, finger-crunching character that became known as Knuckles (although the name is uncredited in the film). He had also been in Leone’s 1966 classic Western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and was popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in both film and TV.
One afternoon, Once Upon a Time in the West production manager Claudio Mancini and screenwriter Mickey Knox were sitting in room of the cast and crew’s hotel, when a body suddenly fell past the window. It was Mulock. He had just returned from filming, and was still wearing his costume. He had jumped from the window of his room above. Mancini and Knox ran downstairs to find Mulock still alive. Mancini put Mulock in his car in order to drive him to the hospital, and Knox informed Leone of what had happened.
At this point, two of the most awful parts of the story occur. The first is Leone’s reaction. Upon hearing of Mulock’s attempted suicide, Leone yelled to Mancini to ‘get the costume! Get the costume!” Shooting on the opening scene hadn’t yet finished, and they were clearly going to need a body double. Provided they reclaimed the costume, there apparently wouldn’t be a problem.
The other terrible aspect is the fact that whereas Mulock didn’t die upon impact with the ground, he had broken several ribs. During the long ride to the hospital over the rough and uneven ground, one of his ribs was jolted, and it punctured his lung. He then died in the back of Mancini’s car.
As we were so sensitively informed by Leone, shooting on the opening scene was still underway. And once we know this, Mulock’s absence suddenly becomes highly conspicuous. We last see Mulock’s own face just as Harmonica appears. After this, Knuckles simply disappears from the shots. As the three men realize that Harmonica is here to kill them, the camera cuts to the face of two of the men, but, noticeably, not to Knuckles. Only the back of his replacement is visible – wearing, of course, Mulock’s original costume.
