A Fistful of Dollars
In the mid-1960s, historical epics fell out of favor with audiences, but Leone had shifted his attention to a subgenre which came to be known as the "Spaghetti Western", owing its origin to the American Western. His film "A Fistful of Dollars" ("Per un pugno di dollari", 1964) was based upon Akira Kurosawa's Edo-era samurai adventure "Yojimbo" (1961). Leone's film elicited a legal challenge from the Japanese director, though Kurosawa's film was in turn probably based on the 1929 Dashiell Hammett novel, "Red Harvest." "A Fistful of Dollars" is also notable for establishing Clint Eastwood as a star. Until that time Eastwood had been an American television actor with few credited film roles.