"Pur un pugno di dollari" was an Italian hit in 1964, but it wasn't until director Sergio Leone had completed a sequel that the first film was released, as "A Fistful of Dollars," in the United States in early 1967, originally at drive-ins and neighborhood hardtops.

Only a few of the original viewers of the film, now remastered and included in the eight-disc "The Sergio Leone Anthology" (MGM), were likely to have realized that the story of a gunman who rides into a small town and hires himself out to families engaged in a simmering land dispute was a Westernized remake of Akira Kurosawa's samurai classic "Yojimbo."

Leone initially refused to acknowledge the obvious, even after Kurosawa wrote him to say, "It is a fine movie, but it is my movie." When this dispute was settled in Kurosawa's favor, it allowed for a release, followed quickly by the sequel "For a Few Dollars More," with which the legend of the Man With No Name was born, and Clint Eastwood, then best known for playing Rowdy Yates on the TV series "Rawhide," began his ascent to Hollywood icon.

Like "The Godfather Part 2," "For a Few Dollars More" — in which Eastwood's character, a bounty hunter, competes with a mysterious rival in black (Lee Van Cleef) to bring in a crazed bandit (Gian Maria Volante) — was one of those rare sequels that is better than the first movie.

By the time "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly," the third film in what was by then considered a trilogy, was released in the United States in December 1967, Leone was being called a serious director with a distinct personal style. The film's unforgettable theme music, by Ennio Morricone, was on its way to becoming a pop hit, recorded by Booker T. and the MGs.

The last film was remastered and released as a two-disc set in 5.1 Surround, in a version that restored 19 minutes of footage that was cut for the U.S. release. But the version in the box set adds more special features. It marks the debut of the remastered versions of the first two chapters; they're billed as "director's cuts" but have the same running time as the original releases. They were remixed for Surround, and look almost as good as the third film.

The set is completed by the first DVD release of Leone's terrific 1972 take on the Mexican revolution, "Duck, You Sucker," starring Rod Steiger as a peasant recruited to the cause by Irish explosives expert James Coburn. Initially issued as "A Fistful of Dynamite" and running 120 minutes, it was rediscovered and re-released under its actual title with footage added. The version here is Leone's original 157-minute cut, with most of the unseen footage given over to the film's comic aspects as opposed to violence. The restoration gave the film a great new 5.1 remix that makes Morricone's score, one of the most original, semi-psychedelic pieces he ever wrote, sound crazier.

ALSO NEW

The war and action movies released this week are Father's Day gift bait. But fine films such as Sidney Lumet's 1965 POW camp drama "The Hill" and 1945's Doolittle Raid drama "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" with Spencer Tracy are finally available on disc, along with four other titles in the "World War II Collection Vol. 2" set (Warner) or individually.

A new, upgraded "Twelve O'Clock High" (Fox) with Gregory Peck looks as good as it did in theaters in 1949. 1965's "The Sand Pebbles" (Fox), with a cast featuring Steve McQueen, gets a two-disc, extras-packed treatment.

An extras-packed upgrade of "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (Fox) is patriotically packaged as a "Global Warming Edition."

TV ON DVD

Anyone still missing the schoolgirl hipness of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" should find the British-made "Hex — The Complete First Season" (BBC) right up their supernatural alley. The first 10 episodes introduce us to boarding school misfit Cassie (Christina Cole), who discovers she's a witch.

Also boxed this week: