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)

Day 3- A film that makes you happy

Only selecting one film this time, because while there are lots of films that make me happy, there's really only one film that I'd answer for this question instantly, where the others I'd have to think about. That would be The Dirty Dozen (1967).

This is a film that I can watch at any time of day, any day of the week, heck, every day of the week. If I'm in a less than stellar mood, it'll have me smiling again in just a few seconds. It's impossible for me to watch this film and stay in a bad mood. Just thinking about it makes me happy.

Now, you may be thinking, is she kidding? It's a war movie, nearly everyone dies including my favorite character, for goodness sake, how can this film make her happy? Well, a big part is that it's tied up with my sister and family, and many, many happy times spent watching it together over the years. And the rest of it is because it's simply a really good movie with non-stop great, quotable dialogue, acted by a whole lot of actors I love: Lee Marvin, Ralph Meeker, John Cassavetes, Charles Bronson, Clint Walker, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, Robert Ryan, George Kennedy, etc. And it's funny. The exchanges between characters just crack us up. Honestly, I don't think a single day goes by that a line or two of dialogue from this film isn't quoted between my sister and me. It's that much a part of our daily lives. Even normal stuff, like "Come on," or "Yeah," we usually say with the character's inflections, just to make each other grin.

I don't think there's any other film ever made, not even among my favorites, that puts me in the same Happy Realm ballpark as The Dirty Dozen.

The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Vol. 3

Yes, I did skip Vol. 2 by accident. Will come back to it. I liked this third disc. Talk about a lot of story crammed into a very short time. The first three episodes on this disc were the most interesting (and the most melodramatic). My favorite had to be the second ep, called "Confession," with Lee Marvin as Barbara's guest star du jour. Loved it! Sort of a Double Indemnity murder type story, (Barbara even compares it in her opening statements), with a spouse the wife wants to escape, a sap who proposes a way to do it... but then it twists the expectations around to paint the story in different colors. Plus, Lee Marvin's ambulance-chasing lawyer character lives over a merry-go-round, how crazy and cool (fictionally speaking) is that? Naturally, the merry-go-round plays into the story. Fun, solid entertainment.


I also really enjoyed "The Sisters," if for no other reason than they managed to portray a lot of the possible complexities of a sibling relationship, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

"Big Career" was my other favorite ep, mostly because I didn't anticipate where it was going. This is a slightly confused episode, though, with a bunch of rather mixed messages (do capable women belong in the work force, or minding the home as a housewife?). Has more useless, sponging men, strong women running businesses, and a tough old mother-in-law, this time played by Elizabeth Patterson (aka Mrs. Trumbull on I Love Lucy, among a jillion other things).

The other two eps were also enjoyable, but not as complex as the first three.

"You said no rules, Colonel."

Hollywood Dreamland just posted a marvelous series of posts detailing his ten favorite actors, all amazing actors with great films under their belts. He had a little segment in each where he listed the first movie he saw for each actor, and his favorite movies for each of those actors. Made me really curious which was the first movie I'd seen my own favorite actors in. So, I thought I'd jog my memory and record it for myself here. I'm woefully behind in posting movie reviews and other things, so I'll ease myself back into posting this way. Favorites are always interesting to me because they're so subjective, and sometimes quite fickle. It's always intriguing to see how lists change over time.

Writing these out also made me realize that with the exception of William Holden and Dana Andrews, the movies I love my favorite actors for are all made in the 1950's on. Which then naturally led me to contemplating which 1930's and 1940's stars would be my favorites, without considering any of their films made after 1949. I'm still thinking about that, actually, and will post a list of those later.

• William Holden

First Movie I saw him in: The Horse Soldiers when I was a kid. Really, if I'd never seen him in another movie, it wouldn't have mattered. This is the William Holden movie for me, the one that imprinted on me and gave me the cynical, charming, smirky William Holden I love above all his other characters.

Three Favorite Movies: The Horse Soldiers, Sunset Blvd., Alvarez Kelly
Honorable Mention: Texas

• Lee Marvin

First Movie I saw him in: No idea. This could be any one of a dozen when I was a kid. It was probably a Western like The Comancheros or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, or possibly Donovan's Reef. There's no moment where Lee Marvin's movies aren't in my memories, where his name wasn't known and his face and voice and swaggering walk not instantly recognizable. He always stood out from the crowd for me.

Three Favorite Movies: The Dirty Dozen, The Professionals, Paint Your Wagon
Honorable Mention: Cat Ballou

• Dana Andrews

First Movie I saw him in: No idea here either. Probably Battle of the Bulge or In Harm's Way or Airport 1975 when I was young... but he was just a guy with a name I really liked back then. The first movie I saw him in where I sat up and paid attention was Best Years of Our Lives in Sept 2005.

Three Favorite Movies: Fallen Angel, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Swamp Water
Honorable Mention: Best Years of Our Lives

• Ralph Meeker

First Movie I saw him in: The Dirty Dozen when I was a kid. But I never saw him as more than the guy with the funniest, most-quotable lines in one of my favorite movies until I saw Kiss Me Deadly in April 2008. Then he leaped from the just plain cool balcony, to the oh wow, where have you been all my life center stage.

Three Favorite Movies: The Dirty Dozen, Kiss Me Deadly, The Naked Spur
Honorable Mention: Jeopardy

• Sam Neill

First Movie I saw him in: The Hunt for Red October, 1990, which launched the biggest (and still unrivaled) movie actor crush of my life.

Three Favorite Movies: The Hunt for Red October, Dead Calm, Jurassic Park
Honorable Mention: Reilly: Ace of Spies

• Ewan McGregor

First Movie I saw him in: The Phantom Menace, 1999

Three Favorite Movies: A Life Less Ordinary, Brassed Off, Revenge of the Sith
Honorable Mention: Young Adam

• Joel McCrea

First Movie I saw him in: Sullivan's Travels, Sept 2008

Three Favorite Movies: Ride the High Country, Ride the High Country, and Ride the High Country. Really, I should drop McCrea off my favorite actors list, because despite the fact that I've been hunting down all his movies (a requirement to make my favorite actor list), really, no other movie of his has yet come close to matching his performance in Ride the High Country. In his early days, he made a ton of romantic comedy movies, and those just aren't my thing. They're fun for a one-time viewing, but they won't make a repeat viewing list for me, and favorite movies are ones you watch over and over.
Honorable Mention: Dead End - There I named something else!

• Aldo Ray

First Movie I saw him in: The Green Berets, sometime in childhood, but David Janssen was the guy who stood out at the time. First movie I paid attention to Aldo in was God's Little Acre, Dec 2005

Three Favorite Movies: Battlecry, We're No Angels, What Did You do in the War, Daddy?
Honorable Mention: Nightfall

• Richard Boone

First Movie I saw him in: It was either The Alamo or Big Jake, sometime in childhood. I remember waiting through The Alamo just to get to his big scene towards the end, cuz I liked him so much.

Three Favorite Movies: Big Jake, Have Gun-Will Travel series, The Alamo
Honorable Mention: The Tall T

• Vic Morrow

First Movie I saw him in: Combat! back in the early 90's. Not a movie, but that's okay. I knew his name because of his tragic death long before I actually saw him in anything. I didn't sit up and take notice until I started re-watching Combat! in 2004.

Three Favorite Movies: Combat!, Men in War, Cimarron
Honorable Mention: King Creole

20... er 10 Favorite Actors

So a 20 favorite actor meme is now making the rounds, and since I'm about to head out on a business trip, I thought this would be a good way to cheer myself up.

As I did for the 20 fave actresses meme, I'm actually only listing 10. Not that there's a shortage of actors I adore. Quite the contrary, I could ramble on for hours on all my favorite men, but I'd rather keep it focused on the ones at the top, the ones who are little more special than the others. Of course, the word "favorite" can mean so many things, so what I did for this particular meme was list thirty or so actors that I really really loved, then I ranked them accordingly to how loudly I'd whoop and how widely I'd grin if they turned up unexpectedly as a guest star in a "Route 66" ep, then I picked the ten at the top. Seemed a fair enough way to figure out who was important to me. The results surprised me a little, as some I thought for sure would be on this list, when I put 'em to this particular test, I found I didn't care quite as much as I thought I would. And vice versa.

So...

1. William Holden -- said it all already :-D

2. Lee Marvin - Yep, Lee Marvin beats out everyone else for second place. Like William Holden, I've loved him for as long as I can remember. Nobody, but nobody can play mean quite like he can, or play a good guy, or do comedy, or sing -- all while keeping that wonderful sexy swagger, and with that wonderful voice. He elevates every movie he's in, and if he's around, he always has my full attention.

3. Dana Andrews - Ah, Dana. It's hard to articulate what he means to me. There are some people who change your life, even if you haven't met them, and he's one of them. He conveys so much with those handsome eyes of his, and he has that smooth voice that never fails to melt me. He gets my full admiration and respect like no one else. More than anything in the world, I wish I could have heard him sing opera. I don't even know which opera roles he studied and sang, which opera was his favorite. His daughter told me that at the end, when he was suffering Alzheimer's and couldn't remember anything else, he was still singing opera in Italian. That makes me cry from both sadness and a strange sort of joy, that he still had that. Because love of opera is something I understand with every fiber of my being.

4. Ralph Meeker - Yeah, he's way higher on the list than I thought he might be, but man oh man, do I love him. I've seen him play pretty much all types of roles, and I like him best when he's playing morally ambivalent characters. He does Grey oh so very well, and as we well know, I'm a huge fan of Grey!

5. Sam Neill - Sam Neill was actually my first true actor crush as an adult. The first time I saw The Hunt for Red October, he completely stole my heart. There's very few movies he's made I haven't seen.

6. Ewan McGregor - He simply can play any role and make you believe in him. I can't think of any current actor I love quite as much as him.

7. Joel McCrea - four things I've learned to appreciate from watching McCrea: 1 - How well some men can wear clothes. I used to think Dana Andrews was the best dressed man in a suit. Nope, I'm afraid McCrea cleanly stole that award away. I almost never pay attention to clothes, or how well a suit or tux actually fits a guy... until McCrea made me notice without even trying. 2 - How good a guy looks after getting dunked in a river. 3 - How important romance is. 4 - And how there's nothing quite as attractive as a truly good man.

8. Aldo Ray - I think he's my all-time physical ideal. If I was ranking actors solely by how lustworthy they were, he gets top slot. Love his brawny build, love his raspy voice, love how easily he laughs, love how often filmmakers get him out of his shirt...

9. Richard Boone - I was a little surprised at first to see him beat out so many of the others to make this list, but really, it's no surprise. I've adored him since the first time I saw Big Jake. Paladin is one of the coolest characters ever put on television, but he'd be nothing if he wasn't played to perfection by Boone. Richard Boone is a great combo of intelligence, honor, swagger, and meanness (when he wants to be). He intimidates the hell out of me, but there's nobody I'd rather have at my side in a confrontation. Like all the guys on this list, I think a movie is better if he's in it.

10. Vic Morrow - A good-looking, fine actor, but more than that... from watching him in films and on television, I've learned so much about how to write a story. That sounds odd, but it's true. There's a lot of acting in writing (at least for me), and Vic Morrow is one of those actors who, for whatever reason, I feel on a visceral level, and the things I've learned about acting from studying how he says his dialog, how he physically carries himself in different roles... he taught me, more than anyone else, how to completely become (and believe in) something I'm not, and that carries into my fiction writing every single day.

"M Squad"

I've been watching the first disc of the 1957 - 1960 "M Squad" series and, I have to admit, despite the awesomeness of Lee Marvin, it's not keeping my interest. It also made me realize something else about what I need in my entertainment, because why doesn't this show work for me? Very simply: it's too straightforward.

How's that for an odd criticism? Those who know me well, who know my writing, who know my likes and dislikes are probably just nodding and going, "yeah, wanna tell us something new there?" Cop gets case, solves case. Sure there's some twists, people aren't what they seem, people lie and try to lead Frank Ballinger on a merry chase, there's action and shoot outs and some nice fisticuffs... but it hasn't yet engaged me.

I couldn't help comparing "M Squad" to "Peter Gunn," both half hour shows, both made late 50's, both dealing with crime. But "Peter Gunn" sucked me in immediately, particularly the first half of the first season. It wasn't straightforward at all, though on the surface, it's no different from "M Squad": detective takes on case, detective solves case. So what's the difference? "Peter Gunn" swings right away into noir territory and the Land of Grey, where "M Squad" is very black/white so far. It also gives me characters I care about, emotion, and the most important: things at stake for the leads. Peter Gunn, Edie, Mother, and my favorite Lt. Jacoby - they lead lives outside the case that draw me in. They make promises to each other that they can't always keep, or that get interrupted, that make me worry. They make me invest in what happens to them.

And that's what's missing from "M Squad" so far... something at stake. Something that makes me care whether Ballinger succeeds or fails. Something personal. There's nothing that takes it beyond a cop doing his job. Now, really, that's an unfair desire by me for a show like this, because I doubt it was created to be anything other than what it is: a nice straightforward cop show. But that doesn't stop me from being a little disappointed anyway.

On the other hand... Lee Marvin. Watching him brings a grin on my face a mile wide, and really, if he wanted to swagger around reading the phone book, I'm in. So I'll happily keep watching, even if the eps don't quite glue me to the set and maybe, just maybe, it'll develop into something more down the line.

Miscellaneous movie roundup

So, I've watched a whole bunch of movies lately, but none have stood out enough to warrant their own review, but I still wanted to keep track of the more interesting ones.

"Brannigan" -- seen this one before, of course, cuz it's John Wayne. I remember liking it, and sure enough, it was still a lot of fun popcorn action. John Wayne can kick ass at any age and watching him and Richard Attenborough together is fabulously enjoyable. I also wanted to see Ralph Meeker, even in a tiny little cameo, playing John Wayne's boss, just because the thought of him ordering John Wayne around cracks me up. (And yes, I did rent it to get that whole two-minutes of RM screen time... hey, when I fall, I fall hard.)

"The Street with No Name" - Man oh man, Richard Widmark... never cross a character of his when he's on the wrong side of the law. He is so bloody intimidating. This was an okay movie, had that sort of documentary narrated style going on that doesn't really do much for me. It was good when it was in the nitty gritty of it. It was good whenever Richard Widmark was around. And it was even better when John McIntire was around. McIntire's one of those guys who shows up everywhere in older films. I mostly know him as a bad guy from westerns, but he was a good guy here, one that I was really really really rooting for. No, I wasn't particularly worried about the hero, but I sure was on the edge of my seat when McIntire was nosing around Widmark's lair.

"The Stranger Wore a Gun" - Randolph Scott western. Boring and the plot felt cobbled together, despite the great people in the cast, like Claire Trevor, Lee Marvin, and Ernest Borngine. Lee Marvin was the reason I had netflixed it, and he never does disappoint. He is just way too cool. This was also one of the many movies filmed in Lone Pine, and I've been systematically checking those out. They actually not only went up the Whitney Portal road, but into Whitney Portal itself for one of the shoot outs. It was quite cool to see what the pond looked like fifty years ago. Not much different, really! LOL!

"The Night Heaven Fell" -- Mmmmmm, Stephen Boyd. They dubbed over his lovely voice, so I had to listen to someone else speaking French, even though he was clearly saying his lines. Maybe they didn't like his Irish accent? So, quite disappointing from an audio standpoint, but ye gods the man is smolderingly sexy and brooding in this movie and... yeah. I've always found him attractive, but I've never seen him playing up the sexy angle in a role quite like this. He does it extremely well, and I have to admit, it caught me off guard. Didn't realize just how much he could turn on the sex appeal when he wanted to. He was downright mesmerizing. It was worth it just to watch him reduce every female in the film (and the audience, ahem) to melted goo. A young Brigitte Bardot's in it for the guys to drool over. She sure does show a LOT more skin than Boyd does. Hmph, but I think it says a lot that he doesn't have to. All he has to do is look at you.

"Duck, You Sucker" -- HAH! This movie amused me greatly. Sergio Leone spaghetti western, starring Rod Steiger and James Coburn, who make a surprisingly good pairing. "Duck, you sucker" is Coburn's signature line, and he uses it to great comedic effect when he first meets Steiger and they engage in a little tit for tat destruction of each other's property. Had to watch that part three times, it was so danged funny. I've always loved Coburn, but it surprised me just how much I loved Steiger here. Movie's a rather odd mix of humor and nasty deadly seriousness, but I thought it worked. Of course, it also explores friendship and betrayal, two of my favorite things, so that helped. And the bridge explosion.... holy moly. Now THAT is an explosion. That might just be the most jaw-droppingly spectucular explosion I have EVER seen on film. Wow.

"The Blue Bird" -- watched this Shirley Temple movie for sentimental reasons. I remember this movie from my youth because the cat and dog turned into people, because of the place of unborn children that freaked me out when I was little, with the ship that sailed in the sky carrying them down to earth, and the giant forest fire. Yep, those were all there, and still somewhat freaky and bizarre. But Gale Sondergaard was the cat and she rocked, even if they did make her a stereotypical, conniving feline out for her own good.

The Professionals (1966)

I've always listed this film as one of my top ten Westerns. So, the question I keep asking myself today is why don't I own it and why haven't I seen it in the last fifteen-twenty years? The answer is because I'm stupid. It's still in my top ten, easily, and I love love love this movie more than ever. It was even better than I remembered it, because I don't think I paid all that much attention to the cool dialogue back in the day, whereas now, it just made me grin and grin. Perfect combo of actors: Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, and Jack Palance. This was one of the first movies I saw Robert Ryan in, and now I remember why I always thought he was a solid, dependable, and rather sweet guy. I love him and his horses in this movie. The story is cool and slightly twisty, the action is fabulous - trains, dynamite, mine cars, horses, can't ask for more than that!, and the desert and canyon scenery is beautiful and beautifully filmed.

My sister and I were watching the beginning of "The Cassandra Crossing" the other night and she asked me if Burt Lancaster was ever happy in a movie. I said are you kidding? He's so much fun in this movie, flashing that patented grin and blowing things up and losing his pants and doing his own stunts as he almost always did.

"You're going to have to get over this nasty habit of always losing your pants. It's not dignified." - Rico (Lee Marvin)
"It's drafty too." - Bill (Burt)

Hee.

And then there's Lee Marvin, who is never less than awesome and gets the single best line in the movie:

"You bastard." - Mr. Grant (Ralph Bellamy)
"Yes sir. In my case, an accident of birth. But you, sir -- you're a self-made man." - Rico (Lee Marvin)

I watched it twice in a row, making up for lost viewings. Must pick up on DVD asap.

...we don't drink with another man unless we respect him

Interesting, how there are just some movies that compel me to start talking to the screen. Mostly, I'm a quiet peaceful viewer. But every now and then, I just have to start shouting at the characters. This happens very occasionally in books, too, where the frustration level just rises to a point where you want to jump in the story and take over. I'm trying to think of the last book I was muttering through... I know there were a couple submarine novels awhile back, but I don't remember which ones. Probably George R.R. Martin's Ice and Fire series, LOL!

Talking back to the material -- is this a good thing? Is this something you want to evoke in readers? It indicates a nice involvement in the story, but for me, the need to start yelling at them also almost always stems from frustrations with characters not doing what I want them to do. What's right, what's fair, what will save their lives.... There has to be the proper balance, so that you don't stay too frustrated too long and give up on them.

(Reminds me: my sister is slowly reading through my current novel. She just announced to me yesterday that she couldn't discuss the book any more with me until she was done (she's about two-thirds through). Why? She explained: because things are happening that she doesn't like, and she is afraid her conceptions of how things should go and what is actually happening on paper are not going to reconcile, and so she told me she doesn't know what to think anymore. That she's afraid to think ahead, and that she just has to keep reading to see how it turns out. Seems like a fair indication that I've done my job as writer on this particular work.)

The movie that prompted this is "Attack" from 1956. Shockingly brutal WWII movie for the middle of the '50's. (I was completely wide-eyed at the gruesome fate one of the leads met. Just didn't expect that at all.) I liked the film a lot, but the pacing was off a little to make it truly effective. It slowed down in a few places where it shouldn't have, and people talked to much. Again. Why do they insist on making characters chatter like jaybirds while they're under enemy fire? This is driving me nuts. The rest of the dialog was top-notch, it just got to be disproportionate in the wrong places. The movie played like an overly-long Combat! episode with the wrong cast. Trim out the excess, and it would have been awesome. As is, it's merely the high end of good.

The cast made the film. Jack Palance, Lee Marvin, Eddie Albert, William Smithers. I've always loved William Smithers, and he was absolutely great in this. WS was in one of my favorite Star Trek episodes, "Bread and Circuses," as one of my all-time favorite Star Trek characters. Looking back on it, of course, Capt. Merik would rank highly: he follows my classic attraction pattern: essentially good but flawed man has to redeem himself. Guess I started liking those types VERY early in my life, very early indeed. This was his first feature film, and watching him and Lee Marvin go at it... yes. WS truly carried this movie, even with the other big names chewing up the scenery around him.

And, yes, I talked a lot to the screen the whole time. The story was one of those that sort of demanded it. Incompetent infantry captain screwing up left and right, getting men killed, not acting when he needs to. I wanted to shoot him in the first scene, because I just knew he was going to get a lot of good people killed with his cowardice before the end of the movie, which he did. But it wasn't all frustrations and "get back to your post!" and "Shut up!" and "Shoot him already!" kind of comments. There was also a fair amount of genuine cheering when people did things right and said some very cool things. And the ending -- ah, the ending was just exactly right! Dig it.