Italy in the 1960s was a very bad place to make a film: safety laws were almost non-existent, and on the low budget films like spaghetti westerns there was even more disregard for the safety of the actors involved. Which is precisely why Eli Wallach was almost beheaded when filming the famous scene where he breaks his handcuffs using the wheels of a train. That's a real train, and there's no stunt double either. Wallach really had to put his hands in the path of a running train, and keep as low to the floor as possible. In an astonishing display of safety on one of these films, the stunt co-ordinators actually calculated how long Wallach had to stay on the floor before jumping up to exit the shot. However, what they didn't count is the jagged metal steps jutting out from the carriages on the train, which would've beheaded Wallach if he'd raised his head at the correct time. For some reason, Wallach had the instinct to stay on the floor until the entire train had passed, which is why he's still alive today. This wasn't the only accident for him though - he also drank acid which had been put in his prop bottle by accident, but had the good sense to spit it out as soon as he realised. The man just likes to cheat death.
