Sergio Leone, ‘the Man with No English’, mimed directions to spaghetti western star Clint Eastwood

The Italian film-maker overcame the language barrier with his actors by using mime, as revealed in previously unseen photographs

They made their names with A Fistful of Dollars, the first in a series of spaghetti westerns that became classics of 20th-century cinema. But the Italian director Sergio Leone had such a poor grasp of English that, between takes, he would repeatedly rely on the words “watch me” before miming whatever he wanted from his leading man, Clint Eastwood, and his other actors.

Now previously unpublished photographs show him doing just that, acting out particular scenes.