Burattino

I found these references to Leone’s love of puppet theatre in Italy:

Leone had a keen knowledge of Traditional Sicilian puppet theatre The Puparri and he used the stories and themes seen in these shows as inspiration for his westerns including For a Few Dollars More.

He saw many similarities between these marionette shows and the traditional western stories. The details and locations obviously differed but the adventure described were in essence the same. Just as in the puppet shows the elements are linear the action taking place in the main street rather like a stage and the story is encapsulated in short episodes that eventually build up to a climax set piece. The character of The Man With No Name is pivotal to the dollars trilogy and can be seen as being equivalent to the Trickster character in the marionette shows or the harlequin figure of the traditional theatre. He is devoid of history and has no relationships, he never makes any moral political or social choices. The act of vengeance that Col Mortimer is seeking as perfectly ties in with Sicilian tradition.

Burattino

The puppet named burattino is moved by the hand of the puppeteer, inserted in the body, or by a baton. The burattino is without legs and is not realistic for the proportions of the limbs. The head is in wood; the eyes are carved directly in the head. The head of the burattino encloses all its character; in the natives' burattini of Bergamo, as an example, the head is very disproportionate to comparison by the two little arms (the head has a dimensions like that one of a child); in the Neapolitans burattini, the head can be proportioned. The burattino it must have a strong head because is on the head that the burattino takes the blows with a club, present in all the traditional pieces. In spite of the shrewdness of twist the head of the burattino and present the nape to the stick blows, many times the nose is break; to repair it is used a layer papier-mâché and flour glue. The body is a tube of cloth more wide on the back; the sleeves are inserted in two holes in front of the dressed one. The hands are flat, in wood. The women have a proportioned body, hands and arms are in wood and a stick sup-ports the movement.