Paint Your Wagon (1969)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Joshua Logan

Writers:

Paddy Chayefsky (adaptation)
Alan Jay Lerner (musical play "Paint Your Wagon")

Release Date:

15 October 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance | Western

Tagline:

Stake Your Claim To The Musical Goldmine of '69!

Plot:

Two unlikely prospector partners share the same wife in a California gold rush mining town.

Plot Keywords:

Mining | Gold | Prospector | California Gold Rush | Mining Camp

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Lee Marvin	...	Ben Rumson
Clint Eastwood	...	Pardner
Jean Seberg	...	Elizabeth
Harve Presnell	...	Rotten Luck Willie
Ray Walston	...	Mad Jack Duncan
Tom Ligon	...	Horton Fenty
Alan Dexter	...	Parson
William O'Connell	...	Horace Tabor
Benny Baker	...	Haywood Holbrook (as Ben Baker)
Alan Baxter	...	Mr. Fenty
Paula Trueman	...	Mrs. Fenty
Robert Easton	...	Atwell
Geoffrey Norman	...	Foster
H.B. Haggerty	...	Steve Bull
Terry Jenkins	...	Joe Mooney

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for thematic material.

Runtime:

158 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | UK:A (original rating) | USA:TV-14 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-8 | Norway:16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:M (original rating) | USA:PG-13 (re-rated: 2001) | West Germany:16 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Baker, Oregon, USA

Company:

Malpaso Company, The

Trivia:

Paint Your Wagon opened at the Shubert Theater on November 12, 1951 and ran for 289 performances.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: At the end of the movie, the tunnel system collapses and the buildings start to topple over. In several shots the cables used to pull over various buildings are clearly apparent, even though it appears that attempts were made to camouflage them with pennants. What gives it away is that the 'pennants' (until the buildings they are attached to topple over) are clearly under far too much strain to be merely hung as decorations.

Quotes:

Horace Tabor: Is it your proposal, Mr. Rumson, that we knock out the stage driver, steal a coach, and kidnap six women?
Ben Rumson: Sounds better every time I hear it.

Movie Connections:

Version of "The Seven Lively Arts: Gold Rush" (1958)

Soundtrack:

I Talk To The Trees

Beautiful

***SPOILERS, IF ANYONE CARES****

And I HATE musicals!

This film falls in with 'Little Shop of Horrors' and 'The Blues Brothers' in the very short list of musicals I really love.

It's Lee Marvin who makes the film. You could have replaced Eastwood or Seberg with almost any other actor or actress; it's Marvin's performance as Ben Rumson that brings this movie to life. All the way through, his facial expressions communicate volumes about his character - for a quick instance, watch his eyes as he prepares to eulogize Pardner's dead brother in an early scene.

Anyone else could have played Pardner or Elizabeth and done as good a job, but Lee Marvin gave us a Ben Rumson that I don't think anyone could equal. He does more just by his looks and body comedy than could be expected.

If you disagree, please go back and watch what I think is his best scene: Rumson trying to walk nonchalantly away from No Name City as it sinks into the collapsing tunnels he built under it.

A fantastic film. It's only average, if you don't have the capacity to fast-forward through Eastwood's and Seberg's songs.