Photo Opportunity #56 on location Two Mules for Sister Sara

Photo Opportunity #56 on location Two Mules for Sister Sara 

I can’t believe it’s December already? Our 1st of the month Photo Opportunity for December features a nice, rare shot of Clint on location in Mexico for the film Two Mules for Sister Sara. The 1970 western marked the second collaboration in the Eastwood / Don Siegel partnership. The pair had first worked together in Coogan’s Bluff (1968), then Clint made a couple of epic movies in Where Eagles Dare and the western musical Paint Your Wagon (1969). Two Mules saw Clint back in the saddle in a more conventional role.

Clint is pictured here with Budd Boetticher, a long term-resident of Mexico who was renowned for his series of Randolph Scott westerns. Boetticher wrote the original 1967 screenplay that was bought with the provision that he would direct. Boetticher had planned the film for Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr, who had played a man of action and a nun in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison. Kerr's character was a member of the Mexican aristocracy escaping the vengeance of the Mexican Revolution, with Mitchum's cowboy protecting her as he led her to safety to the United States. 

Carrol Case sold the screenplay to Martin Rackin, who had Albert Maltz, also living in Mexico, rewrite the story. Maltz's version had Clint Eastwood playing a soldier of fortune for the Juaristas and Shirley MacLaine playing a revolutionary prostitute now set during the French intervention in Mexico. The film saw Eastwood embody the tall mysterious stranger once more, unshaven, wearing a serape-like vest and smoking a cigar and the film score was composed by Ennio Morricone. Although the film had Leonesque Hispanic villains, the film was considerably less crude and more sardonic than those of Leone.

Boetticher expressed disgust that MacLaine's bawdy character obviously did not resemble a nun, as opposed to his idea of a genteel lady whose final revelation would have been more of a surprise to the audience. Though Boetticher was friends with both Eastwood and director Don Siegel, Siegel understood Boetticher's dislike of the final film. Boetticher asked Siegel how he could make an awful film like that; Siegel replied that it was a great feeling to wake up in the morning and know there was a check in the mail, and Boetticher responded that it was a better feeling to wake up in the morning and be able to look at yourself in the mirror. The film was shot over 65 days in Mexico and cost around $4 million. Despite Boetticher’s thoughts on the film, Two Mules for Sister Sara still remains a favourite among fans.