>From: Tony Williams >English >SIUC > Leone once claimed that an Italian comedy, "Harlequin - The Servant of Two >Masters" was the real inspiration behind A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. =========================== "The Servant of Two Masters," if I recall correctly, is a commedia dell'arte play about a servant trying to survive while satisfying the demands of two masters. The Man with No Name is out to destroy both sides in the conflict by playing one against the other over his services as well as over other issues of power and profit. "Servant" may have had some initial small influence on Leone's thinking, but there are so very many point-by-point correspondences between YOJIMBO and A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS that Leone's debt to Kurosawa is unquestionable. It's also greater than Kurosawa's debt to Hammett. P.S. See THE WARRIOR AND THE SORCERESS for a sci-fi/fantasy remake of the same plot. --Richard Leskosky