5 Scenes That Prove Eli Wallach’s Tuco Was The Best Part Of The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

The “ugly” representative of Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Eli Wallach’s Tuco Ramirez is rightfully regarded as one of the greatest Western characters in the history of cinema. While Leone’s picture is widely viewed as the Clint Eastwood show, Wallach arguably turns in the best performance of the film’s titular trio as the resourceful Mexican bandit, breathing life into an iconic character who has stood the test of time as one of the genre’s most unforgettable faces.

The man behind many of the movie’s best quotes and most immortal scenes, Tuco’s character has served as the blueprint for countless imitations. Blending whip smart cunning with borderline oafish comic relief, Wallach’s Mexican bandit remains one of the genre’s most unforgettable characters, courtesy of a score of excellent scenes within the movie that highlight just how indispensable his presence truly was. One has to be pretty special to upstage Clint Eastwood in a Western, a state of affairs that Wallach clearly relished in proving.

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5

Meet Tuco

“The Ugly”

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The titular trio’s introductions in the movie’s opening stages are one of many notable elements of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly that still hold up today. Tuco’s entrance arguably serves as the pick of the bunch, an even more impressive accolade considering that he doesn’t actually do any talking. The movie begins with three bounty hunters preparing to ambush Wallach’s character in an abandoned town, with Leone steadily ratcheting up the tension by using nothing more than the sound of the wind.

As the bounty hunters enter the building, the camera pans away as a volley of gunfire rings out. That’s before Tuco introduces himself in unforgettable style, making his first appearance in a manner perfectly emblematic of his personality. Wallach’s charge flies through a glass window with a gun in one hand and a drumstick in another, before Ennio Morricone’s unmistakable score rings out and the camera freezes on his grimacing face to introduce “the Ugly” in immortal fashion.

4

Robbing The Gunsmith

“How Much?”

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An early scene in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly produces one of Tuco’s most memorable sequences, a state of affairs that is all the more remarkable for him barely uttering a word throughout. Fresh off being abandoned in the desert by the Man with No Name, Tuco stumbles into a local gunsmith, where he proceeds to assemble a firearm and test it out before robbing the proprietor in a manner that comes across as almost polite.

Much of this iconic scene was improvised by Wallach, who had zero idea how to put a revolver together. Perhaps more impressively in the context of his performance, the sequence takes on an air of menace in an instant as the shopkeeper realizes “How much?” means how much money he has in the shop, rather than how much the gun costs. Ending the scene with a glorious bit of darkly comical symbolism, Tuco leaves the unfortunate gunsmith his whiskey bottle, but places the “closed” sign in his mouth to warn him to stay silent.

3

Tuco’s Change Of Heart

“Blondie, Don’t Die! I’m Your Friend. Please Don’t Die!”

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Tuco’s abrupt shift in personality following his realization that Blondie is the only man who knows where the stash of gold is buried is the stuff of legend. In what are arguably the movie’s funniest scenes, the bandit goes from laughing maniacally as he sadistically tortures Eastwood’s parched character in the desert to a paragon of care and attentiveness, literally dabbing water onto Blondie’s cracked lips as he tries to get him to give up the location.

The scene also does a great job highlighting Tuco’s lack of morals and duplicitous personality. Despite affecting a facade of concern, Wallach’s charge is swigging from a whiskey flask in front of a crucifix the instant the hospital priests turn their backs. He even tries to convince Blondie that he is actually dying to get him to reveal the name, despite the priests informing him seconds earlier that Eastwood’s charge is expected to make a full recovery, hilariously reverting to type when he gets water splashed in his face.

2

Meeting Tuco’s Brother

“I Know There’s A Brother Somewhere Who Will Never Refuse Me A Bowl Of Soup.”

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Tuco’s poignant reunion with his brother Pablo serves as a melancholy humanization of a character who might have been dismissed as comic relief, a status quo due in large part to Wallach’s magnificent performance. Now a priest working on a mission, Pablo informs his brother of their parents’ deaths, brutally chastising him for his sinful way of living. Tuco’s tumultuous origin story is revealed and the brothers exchange blows before parting furiously in arguably the movie’s most loaded emotional scene, courtesy of some stellar work from Wallach and Luigi Pistilli.

Tuco’s brash bandito act vanishes when he hears the news that his parents are dead, with his heartbreaking transformation lending more depth to the backstory and personality of Wallach’s charge in an instant than either of his titular companions. It’s a seriously impressive bit of acting that captures the complex nature of the bond between brothers, while highlighting the devastating emotional impact that this relationship breaking down can have on a person.

1

Taking A Bath With Tuco

“When You Have To Shoot, Shoot. Don’t Talk.”

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Producing one of the most immortal Western lines of all time, Tuco’s iconic impromptu bath arguably remains the scene that his character is most closely linked with. The sequence depicts Tuco being ambushed by a one-armed gunslinger as he relaxes in the tub, only for Wallach’s character to still get the last laugh despite his predicament. “The Ugly” guns his tormentor down through his bubbles, before producing the unforgettably slick kill line of “When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.”

With Leone highlighting his status as one of the best Western directors by steadily ramping up the levels of tension as Tuco’s tormentor sneaks up on him, the entire sequence is a masterclass in Western suspense and unpredictability. In addition to producing one of the best movie soundbites of all time, the scene also serves to highlight Tuco’s status as a formidable and dangerous individual, despite simultaneously operating as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly‘s comic relief. It’s a deft line to walk, one that wouldn’t be possible without Wallach’s masterful talents.

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Western

Release Date

December 29, 1967

Runtime

161 minutes

Director

Sergio Leone

Cast

• 

  Clint Eastwood

• 

  Eli Wallach

• 

  Lee Van Cleef

In the United States, a mysterious gunfighter tries to work together with a bandit and a bounty hunter to find a hidden treasure. The men are forced to forge a difficult alliance as each knows only part of the location. The big problem is that none of them has any intention of sharing the wealth once they’ve found it.

Main Genre

Western

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