Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Listy things -- Lee Marvin

My favorite Lee Marvin movies:

1. The Dirty Dozen (1967)
2. The Professionals (1966)
3. Paint Your Wagon (1969)
4. Cat Ballou (1965)
5. Donovan's Reef (1963)
6. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
7. The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday (1976)
8. Attack (1956)
9. The Comancheros (1961)
10. Seven Men from Now (1956)

Lee Marvin never turns in a bad performance. I've liked him in everything I've ever seen him in, and that includes some very fine television roles as well as his film roles. His guest star appearances on Bonanza and Combat! are particular favorites of mine. This was a hard list to narrow down. I love his voice (and yes, I even like his singing!), his swaggering stroll, the way he could play the meanest guy ever and turn around and play comedy (or both in the same movie: Cat Ballou).

The Great Scout & Cathouse Thursday should probably be considered a guilty pleasure. I didn't expect to like the movie when I first saw it, but I couldn't resist the lure of seeing Lee Marvin and Oliver Reed in the same film. Two of my favorite hard-drinking, hard-hitting men together? In a comedy Western? Where Oliver Reed is playing, of all things, a Native American?? I started out watching the movie sort of open mouthed, a bit shocked, and then the movie got a little farther along, and I started laughing... and laughing. By the end, I found I'd thoroughly and unexpectedly enjoyed it, irreverent as it is. And it is very irreverent. Ahem. I've known how funny Lee Marvin can be, but I didn't know Reed could be just as funny. The combination is rather brilliant. (The IMDb trivia notes on the film say the two got into a drinking contest. Of course. If they hadn't, I'd have been shocked. Apparently lasted ten hours, and Reed won, which also does not surprise me in the least.)


(Tomorrow, since I've just been talking about him... Oliver Reed)

3 comments:

Patti said...

I wanted to let you know that your blog is one of about a dozen that I am having troubles keeping in my Dashboard. Not sure what is going on with Blogger, but about a dozen blogs I follow keep getting eliminated from my dashboard, so I don't always get your updates. (Not only has it eliminated a bunch of blogs, but it has added my own 2 blogs to the blogs I follow...I actually get updates on my own blogs! Stupid!!! I never signed up to follow my own blogs.) So, you might be there one hour, then the next you're gone again. So, if I'm not stopping by, it's not because I don't like your blog, it's because I'm not knowing that you updated...unless I just visit your blog without knowing if you've updated.

Anyhow, I don't know much about Lee Marvin, mostly because I haven't watched that many 60's movies. I think he was in The Big Heat (am I right?)...he was the guy that through the hot coffee all over Gloria Grahame's face.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving your thoughts about Robert Ryan.

Hamlette (Rachel) said...

Finally, a list I've seen almost all of! Okay, 6 of them... I haven't seen #s 5, 7, 8, or 10. The others I enjoy to varying degrees, with my favorite being any of the westerns and my least being Paint Your Wagon...

DKoren said...

Hamlette - it still surprises me when you say you haven't seen Donovan's Reef, particularly because it's John Wayne. One of these days we'll have to watch that one! It's one of the earliest John Wayne memories I have, besides the Westerns. Of course, my two earliest memories of this movie were always of Lee Marvin and John Wayne having their traditional birthday fight, and Lee Marvin and his model train.