5. The Dollars Trilogy
The Myth: Sergio Leone's much praised Man With No Name films form a trilogy. A Fistful Of Dollars, A Few Dollars More and The Good The Bad And The Ugly made Clint Eastwoods name (ironically playing a man without one). The Dollars films are quintessential spaghetti westerns and continuously pop up on top lists of best movie series. They chart the adventures of Eastwoods nameless outlaw, from his origins in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, through his later successful exploits. To this day, the films are always released in collected box sets under one trilogy banner or another, so they must be connected, right?
The Shocking Truth: They're not connected at all. As with Blade Runner, this is another case of opportunistic studios doing a wondrous job of advertising. Director Sergio Leone never intended the films to be linked, but United Artists (who owned the rights) saw added money and began marketing it as such. Theres a whole theory about the gradual development, with references to the passing of the civil war and the recurrence of actors (although often playing different characters), but as its not influenced by Leone, it does make it all a marketing ploy. Ultimately, whether the films are connected are not doesn't matter; all three aresuperbly shot and kept public interest in the western genre going that little bit longer.