In Poor Taste
Regardless of how funny Mongo’s knockout punch scene was considered to be, many viewers saw it as inappropriate. And there’s no surprise there. Animal rights activists were more than outraged with the way the horse was treated, despite the fact that in reality the horse wasn’t injured. Nevertheless, it was argued that the scene was unnecessary and a less violent scene could have been made instead. The good news is that the filmmakers didn’t harm any horses to film that scene. They had the horses trained to fall on command.
Source: YouTube
At the beginning of the production, the Waco Kid was played by actor Gig Young. There’s an early scene when Waco Kid was hanging from his bunk, drunk, and telling off Bart. You might recall how Young is doing an amazing job at acting drunk. But truth be told, he actually was drunk, even to the point that the production had to be stopped. Gig was fired, and Gene Wilder ended up replacing him. Years later, Young sued the studio for breach of contract.
See, next, how some actors took their roles really seriously…