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People scare better when they're dying.
~ Frank to Mr. Morton.
Keep your lovin' brother happy.
~ Frank to a younger Harmonica, who is holding his hanging brother on his shoulders.

Frank is the main antagonist of Sergio Leone's 1968 epic Spaghetti Western film Once Upon a Time in the West. He is a ruthless, sadistic mercenary who was hired by the railroad tycoon Mr. Morton to manipulate McBain into moving off the land, but he killed him and his family instead, and he has only one goal: to kill Harmonica and Cheyenne.

He was portrayed by the late Henry Fonda.

Backstory[]

Very little is known of Frank's past; what is known is that he has been an outlaw since a young age and that he hanged Harmonica's brother. And he apparently framed many other outlaws and criminals for his crimes. He has known Mr. Morton, the railroad tycoon who wants to have the McBain ranch, for a long time, and it is implied he has killed many enemies of Mr. Morton, saying he has "removed small obstacles from the tracks" in a conversation with him.

History[]

Upon learning that a railroad would have to pass through Sweetwater (a piece of land near the town of Flagstone), railroad tycoon Mr. Morton sends Frank (his hired henchman) to scare Brett McBain (who has bought Sweetwater) away from the land. Instead, Frank kills McBain and his wife and children—and plants evidence—to frame the bandit Cheyenne (and his gang) for this heinous crime.

Later, when Morton asks him if it was necessary to kill them, Frank simply replies that people scare better when they're dying.

In the film's opening scene, Frank sends three men to pose as Cheyenne's men and kill a gunman playing a harmonica, who is later given the nickname "Harmonica." However, Harmonica kills the two men and informs Cheyenne that the gunmen Frank sent were posing as Cheyenne's men. Frank then later sends three men to kill Jill (formerly McBain's fiancée), but Cheyenne kills these men.

Later, Frank turns against Morton and has sex with Jill before forcing her to sell Sweetwater at an auction. He tries to scare the other bidders at the auction so he can pick up the land cheaply for himself.

However, Harmonica arrives, holding Cheyenne at gunpoint, and manages to make a much higher bid based on the reward money he would receive from delivering Cheyenne to the authorities. Despite trying to scare Harmonica, Frank fails to do so, and Jill buys back the farm from Harmonica. After this, some of Frank's men finally turn on Frank himself, having been paid to do so by Morton.

Harmonica kills them so he can have the honor of killing Frank himself. With Morton and the rest of Frank's men having been killed in a battle with Cheyenne's gang, Frank goes to Sweetwater and confronts Harmonica. On two occasions, Frank has asked him who he is, but Harmonica simply refuses to answer. Instead, he names men who Frank has murdered.

Eventually, Harmonica's motive for revenge against Frank is revealed: When Harmonica was younger (a teenager), Frank forced him to keep his brother from men while he was hanging. After Harmonica collapsed with exhaustion, his brother was hanged.

Harmonica draws his gun first and shoots Frank, and, after Frank asks who he is (for the third time), Harmonica puts a harmonica in the dying Frank's mouth. Frank nods, finally recognizing who he is, and dies.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • Frank is one of the more famous cases of casting against type in cinema, as Henry Fonda is most famous for portraying mostly heroic characters.
    • Additionally, Sergio Leone wanted Henry Fonda for this role specifically because of that. When the shooting began, Fonda initially wore brown contact lenses and had grown a mustache and a beard, but Leone wanted Fonda to have his blue eyes and shaven face on full display. Leone explained this to imagine the shock in the audience when the camera pans and reveals Fonda's face after the massacre of McBain family.
  • Frank is a darker counterpart to The Man with No Name from The Dollars Trilogy. Namely, he embodies The Man With No Name's negative aspects (he's manipulative and kills people for money), and unlike The Man With No Name, he has no sense of honor or morality whatsoever.
    • Additionally, Frank also shares similarities with Angel Eyes from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

External Link[]

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