Once Upon a Time in the West

Sergio Leone’s man-with-no-name trilogy (starring Clint Eastwood) often overshadows this western masterpiece. However, among Leone fans it wouldn’t be controversial at all to make the case that Once Upon a Time in the West could very well be his best movie. It has all the Leone hallmarks including dark anti heroes, and even darker villains. In fact, Henry Fonda’s turn as a mercenary named Frank will go down in film history as one of the most evil, despicable characters ever put to celluloid. Already cast against his good-guy-in-white type, Fonda wanted to use brown contacts to make his character appear even more dark and sinister. Luckily for audiences, Leone convinced Fonda that the baby blue, doughy eyes audiences were familiar with would come off cold as ice in this particularly villainous role.

This country-of-origin Italian poster is very rare and features wonderful art of all the principal cast members from Rodolfo Gasparri. This “pink border” style is from the rare 1st printing. As word of a mouth spread later in the distribution cycle, another identical poster was printed with a dark brown border — perhaps to give it a more “western” feel! Both styles are rare, but particularly this pink border poster in such nice condition.