The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Characters: "The Ugly"

 Old South Western Tribune

By Richard Garcia

Eli Wallach plays Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez "Le Truand"; a comical, clumsy, volatile bandit, wanted by authorities. This is the movie's most detailed character: you meet his brother, understand where he came from and why he became a bandit, while the other two main characters remain mysterious. Tuco learns the name of the cemetery where gold is buried, but he doesn't know the name of the grave; only Blondie knows. This situation forces both of them to become travel companions.

To Leone, Tuco represents all of America's contradictions and partly his own. After considering offering the role to Gian Maria Volontè, he chose Eli Wallach, in whom he felt something chaplainsque9. Leone had detected the comedic dimension of the canton actor so far in dramatic roles by seeing a scene from the movie Conquest of the West (1962)7: when Wallach gets off the train and talks with Peppard, he sees a child (Peppard’s son), he suddenly turns around and Pulling his finger at him with a face.

The two men meet in Los Angeles, but the actor is reluctant to play this type of character again. He’s convinced after watching the opening sequence of Et for a couple more dollars7. Both get on great, sharing the same strange sense of humour. Leone allows Wallach to make modifications to his character, in his staging and in the way he moves. Tuco's clothes were chosen by Wallach himself7. He is also the one who proposes the compulsive cross sign of the character 7.9.

Both Eastwood and Van Cleef felt that the director particularly liked Tuco's character. To them it was clear that the public would prefer the character of Wallach7. If Wallach has few memories of working with Van Cleef aside from his new Mercedes, he appreciated Clint Eastwood, who, quiet but attentive, offered ideas and details that made Tuco's character even better.