To me he was the best character in this. He was such a great actor, always fun to watch. What a great movie. The only problem I had was I had trouble understand what they were saying in some parts. I had to turn on the captioning. :<
shareHis role as Tuco clearly topped this.
Short Cut, Draw Blood
Tuco was a great performance. TGBU is one of my favorites.
shareJust watched this again after a long time, funny to see Wallach playing the Mexican bandido so well, actually was sorry to see him die at the end. Kinda of strange tale, forgot that almost everybody, except the villagers, gets killed off. Looks a little bit silly and overdone today...
RSGRE
Wallach was one of the greatest character actors of all time. It's not considered PC today, but he played two of the best Mexican bandits ever--Calvera and Tuco.
shareWhat's interesting is that modernly, Eli Wallach would never be allowed to play those parts.
He was not of Mexican heritage.
And indeed, when "The Magnificent Seven" got a remake in 2016, the villain was converted into a rather sick-looking and spastic American called "Bartholmew Bogue."
By the way, Wallach as Calvera got some great lines, and boy did he deliver them with gusto:
"Generosity...that was my first mistake!"
"If the Lord hadn't had wanted them sheared, he wouldn't have made them sheep!" (White guy Bartholomew Bogue keeps this line in the remake.)
"You came back....to a town like this...why?....a man like you...WHY?"
I saw an interview with Ricardo Monalban on TCM.
He said he resented Mexican bandits in movies.
He also said he resented not being asked to play Calvera in "The Magnificent Seven".
I like Ricardo Montalban very much, but dude, you can't have it both ways.