THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962)

Lee Marvin Week (Day 4)

(The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 1962) The last of the John Ford 1001 film entries

This is the West. When the legend becomes the fact, print the legend.

Education is the basis of law and order.

John Ford has certainly done his share of building the legend of the West in his films, so it’s interesting that he seems to want to show the man behind the curtain in his final great Western. (Hint: It’s not the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain, it’s actually John Wayne). This film reminds me a bit of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven as a Western myth buster. I’m just glad our civilization has evolved to destroying people’s lives with law books and red tape instead of six-shooters. Note: I’m not sure if I’m being sarcastic or not.

All that aside, I think the film holds up quite it holds well.

Jimmy Stewart is perfect in his role as a man who’d rather wave a law book than a gun (He’s really too old for his role, but I’m not complaining). John Wayne usually plays John Wayne and luckily his role of Tom Donavan calls for…John Wayne (Also too old, and I’m still not complaining) And I’d put the supporting cast of this film up against most any other: Andy Devine (as the wonderfully bumbling lawman), Edmond O’Brien, Lee Van Cleef, Strother Martin, Woody Strode, John Carradine, Denver Pyle and Vera Miles.

Seems like I’m forgetting someone. Oh, yeah. That would be Lee Marvin who plays Liberty Valance.

Liberty Valance is a psychopath. Just the name puts fear in the eyes of all who here it. He uses his whip on Jimmy Stewart during a holdup. (If you beat on Jimmy Stewart, you got to be a hell of a bad guy!) There is also a memorable scene when Lee and his gang destroy a newspaper office and nearly kill newspaperman Edmond O’Brien.

You could see why Marvin was cast as nasty villains because he’s so damn good at it! In fact, he’s so good in these type of roles that it’s somewhat surprising that he ever got cast in later lead roles. (Even his later good guys weren’t completely good.) Out of all the prominent cast members that I’ve mentioned above, Lee Marvin is the one you’ll probably most remember from this movie and certainly the one you’ll least like to see in your nightmares.

Quotable Lee Marvin

“Stand and deliver!”

“Why don’t you get yourself a fresh steak on me.”

“I live where I hang my hat.”

“You gotta choice dishwasher, either you get out of town or tonight you be out on that street alone…you be there…and don’t make us come and get you.”

“All right dude. This time, right between the eyes.”

“You got two hands hashslinger. Pick it up!”

Tomorrow: Day Five of Lee Marvin week!

BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (1955)

Lee Marvin Week (Day 3)

(Bad Day at Black Rock, 1955) A 1001 film entry.

The basic plot: An outsider named Macready takes a train into a Western town called Black Rock, circa 1945 to find a Japanese man named Komoko, but everyone he meets in the town is hostile and seems to be harboring a dark secret.

Bad Day at Black Rock is a very difficult film to pigeonhole. It looks like a Western. The few Black Rock residents we see are mostly dressed like cowboys. The chief power in the town is a man called Reno Smith, a Western name if I ever heard one. But its 1945, Not 1885! The town seems so slight that it reminded me of the fake town the townspeople built in Blazing Saddles to fool Slim Pickens. And Macready (played by Spencer Tracy) is wearing a suit, sort of like he jumped out of an episode of Mad Men. It also has a film noir flavor, with the mysterious town harboring a great secret But since it’s in glaring Technicolor it can’t be film noir! It’s also a talky film with a lot of action or is it an action film with a lot talk? The cast is top notch. Tracy as the one-armed hero, Robert Ryan and Ernest Borgnine as the heavies determined to do what is necessary to take care of Macready. Also look for character actor extraordinaire Walter Brennan as the good hearted doctor/mortician. Another example of the ying and yang of this movie. It can also be viewed as an existential theatrical piece (as someone else pointed out, it's sort of like Sartre’s No Exit). I mean twelve people live in this town and there’s only one girl! Overall, I like the fact that I can’t easily place this movie. It’s bugging me. But it’s well acted and well done. A good edition to the 1001 movie list.

Favorite pushed me too far moment: One armed Spencer Tracy has finally had enough of big bully Ernest Borgnine and uses martial arts on him to kick the crap out of him. As the doc Walter Brennan says afterwards, “Man, oh man.”

Second favorite pushed me too far moment: Aging doc Brennan smacks tough guy Lee Marvin across the face with a fire hose knocking him out cold.

This cast looks somewhat familiar to me: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Robert Ryan will reunite twelve years later for The Dirty Dozen.

Speaking of Lee Marvin:
Lee is sort of teamed with Ernest Borgnine here as one of Reno Smith’s subordinate accomplices. But where Borgnine is a portly bully, Marvin (as Hector) seems to be the one more likely to take a life without thinking of it for a moment. He dresses like a cowboy and acts like a cowboy. The scene where he tries to twirl his six-shooter (poorly) would be more amusing if he wasn’t such an asshole. This ranks as much more sinister heavy than Lee plays in The Wild One and foreshadows his most dastardly villain in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Quotable Lee Marvin

(To the one-armed Macready) You look like you need a hand.

You all the time guessing ain’t you boy?

(First pretending to diagnose the problem with Doc’s Hearse and then violently ripping the wiring out.) Yeah, It was the wiring.


Tomorrow: Day Four of Lee Marvin week!

THE WILD ONE (1953)

Lee Marvin Week (Day 2)

(The Wild One, 1953) Not a 1001 film entry, but a pretty iconic film

Picture Marlon Brando (as Johnny) rolling down the street in a leather motorcycle jacket. He’s the leader of a motorcycle gang who drives into a town and creates havoc-maybe not exactly havoc, but this guys are kind of disruptive and definitely annoying. His “tough guy” gang includes the future Jerry the dentist from The Dick Van Dyke Show and the future Mr. Kimball from Green Acres, not exactly ideal tough guys, but I’m willing to suspend disbelief on this one. Johnny and the gang deal with the town cop’s pretty daughter (“I don’t make no deal with cops,” Johnny says after discovering who her father is), locals who want to take justice into their own hand and a rival motorcycle gang.

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen this movie and figured it would be pretty dated.
Here’s some of Brando’s dialogue after the cop’s daughter asks him if his gang goes on picnics.

Johnny: Picnics? Man you are too square!
I have to straighten you out.
You don’t go one special place. That’s cornball style.
You just go. (Snaps fingers)
A bunch gets together after all week. It builds up.
The idea is to have a ball!
If you’re gonna stay cool, you gotta wail.
You gotta put something down. (Snaps fingers)
You gotta make some jive!
Don’t you know what I’m talking about?

A little antiquated, but I can still dig it.

Of course the most famous quote of the movie is his response to the question of what he is rebelling against.

Johnny: What have you got?

Should it be in the 1001 movie book? It’s a true relic of the era and certainly an interesting role for Brando. Yeah, put it in the damn book, it seemed a little better than I remembered it. One personal problem though: The older I get the less I sympathize with these rebels. What exactly do they want? (As a character in the film asks) Why can’t they just behave themselves and act like decent citizens…My God, I’m about to grab a shotgun and start yelling at kids to get off my lawn at any moment!

One hit wonder: I was curious about Mary Murphy, who played the nice girl who at least to a degree tames Johnny. I found out that she died in 2011 year at the age of eighty. The Wild One was by far her biggest and only important film role. So it goes.

But what about Lee Marvin?

Marvin plays Chino, the leader of the rival motorcycle gang and seems to have a lot of fun with this role. He rides into town and immediately tries to pick a fight with Johnny.

He’s wearing a black and white striped shirt, cap and riding goggles and has a stogie sticking out of his mouth at all times. Did I mention he’s having fun? Even hamming it up a little. Pick a fight with Johnny? Doesn’t faze him. Cops pick him up to go to jail. Doesn’t faze him. He seems to be perfectly fine with everything-just waiting for that moment when he has the opportunity to vandalize something. This is easily the most lighthearted of the heavies he played on this list. Well, if Lee’s having a ball who am I to criticize? Storm the Bastille!

Quotable Lee Marvin

(Sarcastically) What are you doing in this miserable gully Johnny, my love?

(Even more sarcastically) Let’s go inside and have a beer and I’ll beat the living Christmas out of you.

(With the greatest amount of sarcasm that Lee Marvin can muster) Now ladies and gentlemen…this lovely young lady over here…shall hold this beautiful object signifying absolutely nothing…Watch closely… See how the timid maiden of the hill clutches the gold to her breast. . and see how she fights back a tear as her hero lies bleeds to death in the street..

Tomorrow: Day Three of Lee Marvin week!

THE BIG HEAT (1953)

Day one of Lee Marvin week!

At our annual library book sale, I found myself looking around for DVDs to purchase for the purpose of viewing for this 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die blog. I found The Dirty Dozen (not on the 1001 list, but I wanted to see it anyway) and then I found Point Blank (on the list) and then I found The Big Red One (also on the list). I realized by an odd coincidence, the movies I found all had Lee Marvin in them. Later that week, I was watching the 1946 version of The Killers. The bonus disc contained the 1963 version that starred none other than Lee Marvin.

So I decided to track down other Lee appearances on the 1001 list (The Big Heat, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) and some that aren’t (The Professionals, The Wild One) and just blog on Lee movies this week.

And bring along any of today’s action heroes or any of yesterday, for that matter. Feel free to stack ‘em up against Lee. My money’s on Marvin.


Lee Marvin Week (Day 1)

(The Big Heat, 1953) A 1001 film entry

When I first got the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book, I went down the list and noticed there were an awful lot of black and white film noirs. Well, it’s a good thing I like the genre. A commentator on one DVD stated something to the effect that there really aren’t any bad film noirs, as even the lesser ones are still interesting in some way. I’m not sure I’d go quite that far, but it is a genre that I’ve enjoyed visiting and re-visiting...

Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat features Glenn Ford as an honest cop who tries to blow the lid off a crime organization and the get the goods on the crime boss that is running the unnamed town in the film because a) Glenn’s a good cop and b) he’s out for revenge.

And I would certainly rank this higher than just “the interesting” category of the genre. Glenn (Jonathan Kent) Ford is really a better leading man than I gave him credit for and Gloria (Violet Bick) Grahame is a plus in any film.

But this week it’s all about Lee Marvin. So lets look at Lee.

You can’t miss it when you first see that lanky but tough amble, that deep voice, those penetrating eyes and that black hair. Wait a minute. Black hair? I thought Lee Marvin was born with gray hair! Guess not. Well, the hair hue doesn’t feel quite right, but I guess I’ll get used to it.

But he’s a tough guy right? The toughest, right? And the meanest, right?

But in his first scene, his girlfriend Gloria Grahame actually makes fun of the way he sucks up to his boss and does every thing to please the boss man. And she’s right! He really is quite the suck up. Hmmmm. This isn’t the “I don’t give a shit about anything or what anybody thinks” Lee Marvin I’m used to. But since he is an underling to the big crime boss, I’ll let it pass. But that’s not Lee Marvin.

His next big scene is in a bar where he is getting rough with a lady who he accuses of cheating him. Now, that’s more like it! Then he confronts cop Glenn Ford and….apologizes to him? And makes nice with the girl? Okay dark haired man, what have you done with the real Lee Marvin? That’s just not Lee Marvin!

Just as I am about to give up on Lee for this picture, we see Lee accusing his girl of going off with Ford the cop. Then he…(SPOILER ALERT FOR THE FILM’S DEFINING MOMENT) throws hot coffee in her face and disfigures her. Now THAT’s Lee Marvin!

And I love the character name: Vince Stone. How badass is that?
Lee Marvin as Vince Stone! Badass. Very badass.

Quotable Lee Marvin

(Before throwing the coffee) Oh you pig! YOU LYIN’ PIG!

(After throwing the coffee) I’ll fix you and your pretty face!

(With Glenn Ford’s gun pointing at Lee’s face) Go on, shoot! Shoot! SHOOT!

Tomorrow: Day Two of Lee Marvin week!