Rawhide Quotes

At the studios, everybody`s into sequels or remakes or adaptations of old TV shows. I don`t know if it`s because of the corporate environment or they`re just out of ideas. Pretty soon, they`re going to be wanting to do one of "Rawhide" (1959).

(on how he decided to do Per un pugno di dollari (1964)) I`d done "Rawhide" (1959) for about five years. The agency called and asked if I was interested in doing a western in Italy and Spain. I said, "Not particularly." They said, "Why don`t you give the script a quick look?" Well, I was kind of curious, so I read it, and I recognized it right away as Yojimbo (1961), a Kurosawa (Akira Kurosawa) film I had liked a lot. Over I went, taking the poncho with me - yeah the cape was my idea.

I was tired of playing the nice, clean-cut cowboy in "Rawhide" (1959), I wanted something earthier. Something different from the old-fashioned Western. You know: Hero rides in, very stalwart, with white hat, man`s beating a horse, hero jumps off, punches man, schoolmarm walks down the street, sees this situation going on, slight conflict with schoolmarm, but not too much. You know schoolmarm and hero will be together in exactly 10 more reels, if you care to sit around and wait, and you know the man beast horse with eventually get comeuppance from hero this guy bushwhacks him in reel nine. But (Per un pugno di dollari (1964)) was different; it definitely had satiric overtones. The hero was an enigmatic figure, and that worked within the context of this picture. In some films, he would be ludicrous. You can`t have a cartoon in the middle of a Renoir.