Rod Steiger and James Coburn as Stars in this Movie

The trivia says that Steiger got the lead in Duck You Sucker(I'll pick that title for here) after Eli Wallach either turned it down or lost it(turned it down, then said he'd take it , but too late.) James Coburn got his role after Clint Eastwood turned it down; Jason Robards was considered(he'd been in Once Upon a Time in the West) but considered not big enough here.

And in Coburn's case, he took the role after having turned down such other Leone films as A Fistful of Dollars(The Eastwood Role), GBU(The Van Cleef role?), Once Upon a Time in the West(who knows what role.) In fact, you could say that Leone had been pursuing James Coburn from his very first spaghetti Western on. And he finally got him(Coburn went to dinner with Henry Fonda to ask about Leone as a director, and Fonda said he was great.)

They're an odd mix, Steiger and Coburn. Coburn is billed second(because Rod Steiger had a Best Actor Oscar win behind him), but Coburn seems much "starrier" than Steiger.

Indeed, watching James Coburn in this , I thought to myself: "How come James Coburn was always sort of a second-tier garden variety star, but Leo DiCaprio is a giant?" Honestly, in 1971, Coburn had it all going on: the stereophonic deep voice, the lanky tall man's stride, an intense face of sharp features, a moustache(Coburn looked great with a moustache), longish 1971 hair(Coburn looked great in long hair) -- the Total Movie Star package, compared to Young Leo.

I will admit that Coburn does some flashbacks in Duck You Sucker in which his moustache is gone and his hair is cut short and his features look a bit strange -- he's not as cute as Leo. But in full long hair/moustache, he's Joe Cool indeed. (Coburn would repeat this effect two years later in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid -- the does part of the movie without the moustache and looks loads better WITH the moustache in other scenes.)

Rod Steiger had been a classic character guy since at least "On the Waterfront"(1954) and his legendary taxi scene with Brando. For the next decade, Steiger had sort of a 50/50 "serious actor/camp actor" thing going. He was the Method Actor Deluxe -- with a voice that could start very low and quiet and lunge up into a rage. Steiger never just "emoted." He OvER-emoted and took it up high.

Steiger won the Best Actor Oscar in 1967 for playing the overweight good ol' boy Southern Sheriff in "In the Heat of the Night" ( You in a heap of trouble boy! Oh, YEAH!) A role that was a staple for comedy in the 70's(Live and Let Die, Smokey and the Bandit) was serious and troubled and moving in Steiger's hands(his sheriff has to cooperate with Sidney Poitier's black supercop while staving off bigoted city fathers)

Steiger's win for "Heat of the Night" was comparable to George C. Scott's win for Patton(which Steiger either turned down or lost) --these were character guys earning stardom with flashy parts - and then struggling to hang on as stars. This happened with Lee Marvin and Walter Matthau, too. Matthau lasted the longest as a star -- he was often a comedy guy. Marvin and Scott hung on -- Marvin died youngish(63).

Steiger frankly told the press about his loss of leading man stardom: "The ladies didn't fancy me on screen, and if they don't, you can't be a leading man." Probably because of his weight. He had a handsome face and a great voice.

And Rod Steiger found himself soon back in the character ranks -- but always a "name" and really really funny as a Mad General in "Mars Attacks" in 1996.

"Duck You Sucker" is almost the end of the line for Rod Steiger as a leading man star. It came after his turn as Napoleon in Waterloo, another star lead. But you can see Steiger slipping in "Duck You Sucker." Coburn is the more slender, handsome, movie-starrish man -- Steiger has to transform his girth and gut into bearish macho man stuff -- he gets it done with a deep dark tan(make-up?) a beard, big clothes, and a big peasant hat. Surprisingly, Steiger doesn't really get to chew the scenery like he usually does -- maybe because he doesn't get to talk a lot.

All that said, by the time "Duck You Sucker" comes to its surprisingly poignant end, both Steiger AND Coburn have brilliantly fulfilled their "buddy movie/movie star duties" under the strange-as-usual requirements of a Sergio Leone Western: a camera so close to their faces that you could see every pore on their skin(honestly, movie star faces STOP being movie star faces in Leone) , shots held for so, so, so long that neither man could really ACT and yet...they're stars. Fun to watch together. Fun to watch apart.

And a good movie for both of them.