I have not seen a lot of Lee Marvin's movies ("Dirty Dozen" and a few tv shows), but he seems so dull and "John Wayne-ish", except for his wonderful character in this movie!
shareCheck out his Oscar-winning dual role in the western comedy Cat Ballou, it's great!
I've been married to one Marxist and one Fascist, and neither one would take the garbage out.
uuuuhhhhhh, lee marvin. sure, he's a little woodedn when he is portryaing wooden and stiff army officers, but he's a fine, fine comic actor, and his drama stuff is good, too.
for comedy, try 'donovan's reef', with john wayne, or try 'cat ballou', with jane fonda
and for drama, try 'emperor of the north pole', with ernest borgnine.
he was constrained and confined in many of his earlier roles (his work in 'the commancheros' and 'the man who shot liberty valence' is almost caricature-like), but he was really good when he got the right movie.
42
He was magnificent in Point Blank. Unlike todays actors, through no fault of their own, he lived through real hardship and saw combat and death in the South Pacific. His toughness is genuine and he can laugh at himself.
What does John Waynish mean?
John Waynish---an actor who seems to portray the same rigid, emotionaless character in everything he does.
shareHe ha a Lee had a beatuiful baritone voice.....
shareAt the time he made "Paint Your Wagon," Lee Marvin was possibly(I'm guessing)one of the top five male movie stars in the world.
It had been a long climb, with supporting roles in the fifties(The Big Heat) and the sixties(The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) and a TV series ("M Squad.")
1965 put him over the top. He had a key role in "Ship of Fools" and, the same year, played two characters(one a hilarious drunken gunfighter) in the comedy Western "Cat Ballou". He won the Best Actor Oscar and became a full-fledged star.
He then had a run of macho-man hits that made the most of his baritone voice and his legitimately tough persona. And he could ACT. Here were the hits, one after another:
Cat Ballou
The Professionals
The Dirty Dozen
Point Blank
It was quite a run, and he squeezed the dramatic art film "Hell in the Pacific" into his schedule, too.
In 1968, Marvin was huge as a star. And two projects were pitched to him: The Wild Bunch and Paint Your Wagon.
He couldn't do both. He chose The Wild Bunch first -- it was greenlighted on his being the star -- but his agent and $1 million persuaded him to do Paint Your Wagon instead. The idea was that The Wild Bunch was another violent action movie and too close to The Professionals in setting, and that Marvin should "branch out" to the comedy and SINGING and nice guy-ness of the Paint Your Wagon branch.
So Marvin quit The Wild Bunch(the much more sadly appropriate and aged William Holden got Marvin's role ) and made Paint Your Wagon.
Personally, I see "Paint Your Wagon" as the Final Movie in Lee Marvin's superstar run of the 60's. It starts with "Cat Ballou" peaks with "The Dirty Dozen" ...and ends with "Paint Your Wagon."
"Paint Your Wagon" is a big movie and Lee Marvin gives a great big star performance in it(excessive? perhaps? But also melancholy and nuanced and often very funny.) I think it made a lot of money...but not enough to earn back costs.
"Paint Your Wagon" played in a city I lived in for the same single "road show" theater for one entire year, it was that popular. But it is seen now as a flop...and was, I guess, seen that way then. (It made money, but not nearly enough.)
Nobody noticed at the time, but "Paint Your Wagon" killed Lee Marvin's superstar career. From 1970 on, the movies he made got smaller, less big-budgeted, less important, sometimes downright shabby(he made two for AMERICAN-INTERNATIONAL!) There was a artful Western called "Monte Walsh," but no one went to see it. Movies like "Prime Cut" were below par and "The Klansman" with Richard Burton(visibly drunk on screen) was one of the worst movies ever made.
Crucially, Lee Marvin turned down the role of Quint in Jaws when he really could have used it for a career comeback.
But the word is he didn't much care. He'd made his money, he found an old high school sweetheart, married her, moved to Arizona for the last years of his life.
---
Anyway, I think what Lee Marvin did in "Paint Your Wagon" was his last big starry turn...he was the lead of that movie (Eastwood and Seberg are kinda off to the side a lot), he's very funny, it IS (as Eastwood called it) "Cat Ballou II" and Marvin's performance in "Paint Your Wagon" honorably caps off one of the great star careers in motion picture history.
Yeah, it is really a shame he didn't do more comedies. I wonder if that was his decision or what. It is hard to believe he wasn't offered more comedies after winning an Oscar for Cat Ballou and his awesome performance in Paint Your Wagon.
share