[Ciccone Warhol Monroe]

post your spam.

[uhler]

i haven't eaten spam since i was like ten.

[atsonicpark]

Three men appear at an isolated train station in Arizona. A chalkboard shows that the train from Flagstone will be two hours late, plenty of time for the opening credits. Finally a train stops and leaves behind a man playing a harmonica (Charles Bronson). He asks for a man named Frank, whom he has arranged to meet. Frank himself has not come, sending three of his men in his place. One of the men admits that it "looks like we're shy one horse," since there are only three horses for four men. Bronson replies, "You brought two too many." A showdown ensues. Bronson shoots his would-be killers but is wounded in the process.
On the remote McBain farm, "Sweetwater," Brett McBain (Frank Wolff) and his family are preparing a feast for the arrival of his new wife, Jill (Claudia Cardinale). But they are shot and killed by Frank (Henry Fonda) and his gang, who leave part of a leather duster like those worn by the gang of the generally benign bandit Cheyenne in order to pin the blame on him.
Jill arrives in Flagstone by train from New Orleans and takes a carriage to the McBain farm. Along the way, the driver stops at a roadside establishment, and Jill follows him inside. Cheyenne (Jason Robards) enters after a noisy shootout (heard but not seen) with his prison escort. The man with the harmonica is also there, and Cheyenne calls him simply "Harmonica." Cheyenne helps himself to Harmonica's gun to force another patron to shoot apart the chain between his shackled wrists. His men arrive late, and he tells them, "You're right on time ... to bury my escort." Taking note of the dusters Cheyenne's men are wearing, Harmonica tells of his own shootout earlier: "I saw three of these dusters a short time ago; they were waitin' for a train. Inside the dusters there were three men. ... Inside the men there were three bullets." Cheyenne says that's a crazy story, because no one but his own men would have the guts to wear such dusters around those parts, and his own men would not get killed.

As Jill nears the McBain farm, she sees a group of people standing outside. She is heartbroken to see her dead husband and his children. The crowd came expecting to be wedding guests, but Jill tells them she married McBain a month ago in New Orleans--it was to be a surprise. The funeral is just ending when the fake evidence Frank planted is found, and the men form a posse to hunt down Cheyenne. Jill stays at the farm and searches the house for anything of value, as McBain told her he was rich. She finds only some miniature buildings, including a model train station.
The next morning, Cheyenne and his gang arrive. The posse chased him all night until he eluded them in the desert. He has come to see the scene of his alleged crime. He asks for coffee, and Jill reluctantly complies. He helps make the fire for the coffee, and she sees he's not as ruthless as people say. After his departure, Harmonica appears with what at first seem to be threatening gestures toward Jill. But he only tears the lace from her dress. At the well outside, he protects her from two of Frank's men who have been sent to kill her. He dispatches them with ease, and Cheyenne, observing from a distance, sees that Harmonica not only plays but is also an excellent shooter.
Frank is taken to task by railroad tycoon Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti), for whom he works as a hired gun. Morton wanted Frank to scare the McBains, not kill them. Crippled and slowly dying of tuberculosis of the bones, Morton only rarely leaves his plush private rail car. Frank has been with him since he started building his railroad in sight of the Atlantic, and Morton hopes to reach the Pacific before he dies. Frank has ambitions to become a businessman himself--maybe even take control of Morton's empire--but Morton tells him: "You'll never succeed in becoming like me. ... There are many things you'll never understand. ... There are many kinds of weapons, and the only one that can stop [a gun] is [money]."
Jill comes to town to speak to the laundry proprietor, Wobbles. She wants him to arrange a meeting with Frank. Harmonica follows Wobbles to Morton's train and sneaks aboard but is soon discovered. Frank demands to know who he is, but Harmonica gives only names of men Frank has murdered. Frank kills Wobbles and has his men tie up Harmonica. He leaves to capture Jill himself, while three of his men stay behind to guard Harmonica. Cheyenne has also sneaked aboard--he kills Frank's men but spares Morton. He and Harmonica team up to go rescue Jill.
At the farm, supplies sufficient to construct eight buildings have arrived. Harmonica tells Cheyenne that McBain knew the railroad would have to come past Sweetwater to access its remote source of water. McBain bought the materials needed to turn his farm into a small town, and he procured the rights to operate the depot himself, fulfilling his dream. He paid for the supplies with cash, so they now belong to Jill. The contract (which Harmonica has seen) specifies the station must be built by the time the tracks get there, and Cheyenne puts his men to work building it.
That night, the sadistic Frank has his way with the captured Jill, while also insulting her over her past. (He has learned via telegraph that she was a prostitute in New Orleans before marrying McBain.) She gives herself to him to escape certain execution. He tells her, "I might be a little sorry killin' you," and asks, "Is there anything in the world you wouldn't do to save your skin?" She answers, "Nothing, Frank." He considers marrying her to get the land but knows he wouldn't be any good as a husband: "Too bad. We'll have to think of another solution--simpler, quicker."
In the large saloon in Flagstone, Brett McBain's property is to be sold at auction. Jill is present, and the sheriff (Keenan Wynn) presides. Frank has a plan to buy the McBain farm cheap: his men bid $500 and intimidate anyone else who tries to bid. But Harmonica and Cheyenne have a plan of their own. Harmonica bids $5,000 and "delivers" the wanted outlaw Cheyenne for a reward in that amount to win the auction.
The sheriff puts Cheyenne on the train to the new prison at Yuma, but two of Cheyenne's men also board. Back in the saloon, Jill congratulates Harmonica on getting himself a good deal, but he says he doesn't invest in land. Frank arrives and Jill goes upstairs to take a bath. Frank asks again who he is, but Harmonica gives only more names of Frank's victims. Frank says, "You paid $5,000 for somethin' belongs to me" (he had the auction rigged, after all). He offers Harmonica $5,001, which he lays out in cash, and tries to intimidate him: "You got yourself in somethin's bigger'n you are. You got a chance to get out easy, you better take it." In response, Harmonica plops the lone silver dollar into his own empty glass to pay for his drink. The farm is Jill's.
Morton has had it with Frank's butcher tactics, and he sees his dream of reaching the Pacific slipping away. Stopped away from town on his train, he asks to join a poker game with four of Frank's men who are now guarding him. Instead of cards he deals large sums of money to buy their loyalty. One rides into town to inform the others, and they lie in wait for Frank when he exits the saloon. Mysteriously, Harmonica keeps the gunmen from killing Frank and lets him get away. This angers Jill, who wishes Frank dead, but Harmonica explains that not letting them kill him isn't the same thing as saving him. Frank arrives at Morton's train to find a scene of carnage from a big shootout between his and Cheyenne's gangs. Morton is wounded and dying. Frank is about to finish him off but changes his mind. Morton tries to crawl to a mud puddle, the sound of the Pacific surf crashing in his mind, and dies. The track-laying crews have arrived at Sweetwater, and workers are completing the station and building the town. Harmonica waits for Frank at the gate to Jill's house, but Cheyenne arrives first and goes inside to have more coffee with her. He washes up and shaves a bit, and he advises Jill to take water to the workers and let them enjoy the sight of a beautiful woman. He tells her that men like him and Harmonica are not right for her. People like that have something inside, he says, "something to do with death."
Frank finally arrives at the gate and says, "I know that now you'll tell me what you're after." Harmonica replies, "Only at the point of dyin'," and they get themselves positioned for their duel. Harmonica's motive for revenge is revealed in a flashback. Long ago, Frank hanged Harmonica's older brother. Harmonica, then a boy, was forced to stand under his brother, who stood on the boy's shoulders with his neck in a noose. Both had their hands bound behind their backs. His brother would hang when the boy collapsed. Frank told him to "keep your lovin' brother happy" and put a harmonica in his mouth. His brother died, and it left him scarred and thirsty for vengeance. Now he faces Frank in their final showdown. Harmonica makes his move; the men draw and fire. Frank loses. As he's dying Frank asks again, "Who are you?" In answer, Harmonica pulls the old, battered harmonica from the lanyard around his neck and puts it in Frank's mouth. It brings back Frank's memory of the hanging, and he nods weakly in recognition before dying.