Paint Your Wagon (1969)

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:

Gold | Mining | 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

Colour:

Colour (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:

Lee Marvin was set to star in The Wild Bunch (1969), a project that he helped put together with stuntman Roy N. Sickner, when Paramount offered him $1 million plus a percentage to star in this picture.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: While working in the "mine", Ben Rumson can clearly be seen wearing a carbide lamp. Carbide lamps were not developed until 1892, but the movie is set in 1849.

Quotes:

Ben: You was down at the rapids just now, bare beam and buck naked?
Elizabeth: Well, I'm not like to take a bath with my clothes on, Mr. Rumson.
Ben: Are you trying to tell me that you was taking a *bath*?
Elizabeth: That's right. I was taking a bath.
Ben: In the middle of the night?
Elizabeth: Mr. Rumson, in a community of 400 men, would you rather I took my bath "bare beam and buck naked" in the middle of the day?

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The O'Reilly Factor: (2008-09-09)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

I Talk To The Trees

A Nicely Naturalistic Musical

Joshua Logan's screen version of "Paint your wagon" works a treat, perhaps because the original stage version is so little known and apparently has been given something of a make-over by screen writer Paddy Chayefsky. The fact that the leads (Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood and Jean Seberg) can't sing matters not a jot; they perform with charisma, (even Seberg is less wan than usual) and bring a touch of realism to the proceedings, their songs seeming to evolve naturally from the action. Other singing duties are performed by the splendid Harve Presnell and a rousing, mostly male, chorus for this is a musical western of a more robust kind than "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". It's plot, which concerns mining for gold, polygamy and the building of a town, fairly races along. Logan handles the whole thing with great aplomb and brings to it some nice, naturalistic touches sadly lacking from his earlier musicals, "South Pacific" and "Camelot". Most critics didn't warm to it, though and it remains largely under-valued.