is a 1972 mystery film by director Sergio Leone and screenwriter Frederic Raphael. The film stars Charles Bronson, Yul Brynner, Jean Gabin, and Boris Karloff.
Leone described the film as “one of those” movies that he had a desire to make but was too busy with a film he was making and never finished, “Once Upon a Time in the West”.
The story is based on the actions of Colonel Edmund Samwell, who helped organize and raise the funds to establish Iraqi Intelligence in 1942.
The character became one of Samwell’s two non-military units, along with Samwell’s secret police force, the Eye of the Thugee.
The film is partially based on the first “Eyes of the Thugee” action/horror film.
After his senior officers are killed in a plane crash, Samwell seizes command and begins an investigation into what caused the accident.
Samwell recruits his son Sid to help him.
According to Leone, the inspiration for the film came when Sid introduced him to a “journalist”, a former member of the British “Daily Mirror” who was investigating Samwell.
The journalist persuaded Sid to investigate Samwell’s past.
Leone got a hold of the story and began writing a script.
However, by that point he had begun work on “Once Upon a Time in the West”.
“But the story stuck with me, and I promised I would take some time to develop it”.
Leone’s final version of the script, in addition to other changes, includes the use of Italian words that cannot be spoken in English and a scene in which Colonel Samwell is taken away to a secret police headquarters.
However, in one sequence of the film, a stunned Sid stumbles upon a meeting in which Colonel Samwell is told by a Chinese merchant that Colonel Samwell is no longer welcome in China.
Leone cut this scene and replaced it with a scene involving a confederate of Colonel Samwell’s in the oil business.
The original script was edited down to a 138-page treatment, which Leone trimmed down to just 106 pages by changing some character names and small details.
The final script includes some dialogue not in the original version, including a more direct allusion to “L’Eclisse” (1962) when Sid Samwell pretends to know some Italian by asking “I see you’re taking advantage of the Italian language.”
Other changes were made to make the film more coherent: the film was much shorter than planned, and Samwell’s son was named Samwell Aldrich after a spy and CIA agent whose son was later killed in Iraq.
“It’s the first time I tried to mix the genres of a Western with an action film”.
“The whole story of the film is a bit confusing”, Leone said.
“The center of the story is Samwell Samwell Aldrich, an American spy who worked as an attaché in the British Embassy.
When he was there, he had contacts with the chief of a big oil company.
