Sad Hill: March 2019

Saturday, March 9, 2019

Top Lee Marvin Movies

Lee Marvin was king. I dig him since I first saw him... in what? In The Professionals? Someting else? I don't know. His cool silent appearance, his deep voice, when he appeared on screen he shined. Mostly. It's true that in some of his earlier parts where he just sat by a table and played cards or something he could have been easily missed - he had no lines or ust a single word, no close-ups, the focus was on somebody like Audie Murphy or Rock Hudson. I don't like Murphy - if he would have ever met Marvin as a co-star nobody would be paying attention to him. Randolph Scott managed to do better with Marvin having him several times as his antagonist. I still have to watch Seven Men from Now - because the other two Boetticher-Scott movies were absolutely boring... Even though they had Richard Boone, Henry Silva, Lee Van Cleef or James Coburn.

Well, when Marvin made his great in 1953 with The Big Heat where he absolutely outshone Glenn Ford, he began to get bigger and bigger parts until finally become a star with 1965's Cat Ballou. I still have to watch this one... Saying that, I unfortunately haven't watched so many Marvin movies that I would like to watch. Reasons unknown. I just know that I turned off Death Hunt with Charles Bronson twice. Perhaps it says something...
But here are my top 5 Marvin's movies:

The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Absolute classic with a cast that could make the screen explode. Almost everybody in this movie is one of the toughest Hollywood had to offer at the time - and the rest are some of the greatest actors. We get Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Robert Ryan, Robert Webber, Telly Savalas, Clint Walker, John Cassavetes, George Kennedy, Donald Sutherland and of course Marvin who is above everybody being absolutely convincing in his part, the probably best he could ever get. Love this movie.

Point Blank (1967)
The same year, something absolutely different, but the same iconic. Marvin says probably less than 50 words in the entire movie, but still remains the most interesting person on screen. I absolutely love the atmosphere, the locations, the photography, the other performances (particularly Carroll O'Connor), the style. A perfect example of 60's neo-noir.

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
This is of course a Spencer Tracy vehicle, but a great one. I saw just a few Spencer Tracy movies, but tthey were all magnificent - especially Judgment at Nuremberg. This is like a modern western and a great one. Marvin is one of Robert Ryan's thugs - the other one being Ernest Borgnine. Directed by John Sturges who later made the great The Magnificent Seven and the magnificent The Great Escape - almost a pity that Marvin, Borgnine and Ryan aren't in the western. Marvin would make great both Chris and Britt, Borgnine would make great Harry and Ryan would make great Lee. But actually the cast of The Magnificent Seven is perfect so there's really no pity for these three.

The Professionals (1966)
More of a Burt Lancaster vehicle, where Marvin and Ryan did sort of their own Magnificent Seven, but only four with Lancaster and Woody Strode. Cast includes Jack Palance as a sort of a villain who isn't really bad, and Claudia Cardinale who is hot as hell in the hot desert. I hate Lancaster's teeth, but apart from him is the movie good. The setting of the Mexican revolution is more typical for Italian westerns than American, so that makes this also interesting.

Prime Cut (1972)
An exploitation flick surprisingly starring two Oscar winners (the other being Gene Hackman), together with very young, pretty (and nude) Sissy Spacek, the huge Gregory Walcott or the foxy (and almost nude) Angel Tompkins. Not a great movie, but a very entertaining one with cool groovy Lalo Schifrin score and great leads of the coolest of the cool Marvin and the baddest of the bad Hackman.

A few other Marvin movies that are interesting or amusing:

The Big Heat (1953)
This noir starring the flat Glenn Ford isn't special except for Marvin who does a great villain.

The Big Red One (1980)
An epic war movie that had smaller budget than it deserved. Marvin is great, and his troop contain Robert Carradine and Mark Hamill too! Good movie.

Delta Force (1986)
Chuck Norris kicks ass of Arabian terrorist harming innocent Jews in this Menahem Golan Cannon flick. Lee Marvin is Chuck's commander, he unfortunately hasn't got much to do in his last part. But a fun flick.

And a few movies, that I haven't watched and I want to:

Attack (1956)
A Robert Aldrich war flick with Jack Palance and Lee Marvin must be something..

Cat Ballou (1965)
I was avoiding this, but I'll give it a chance.

The Killers (1964)
Lee Marvin plus Don Siegel. It looks rather talky, but I'll give it a watch anyway. Still don't know when.

Hell in the Pacific (1968)
A movie with only Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune? Must be great!

Emperor of the North Pole (1973)
Lee Marvin against crazy conductor Ernest Borgnine, directed by Aldrich again! Why the hell didn't I watch it yet?

Spike's gang (1974)
Lee Marvin plays in western shot in Spain! Pity he never did a spaghetti western...

Canicule (1984)
a.k.a. Dog's Day. French thriller starring Marvin instead of French regulars like Ventura or Delon! Looks really crazy... Co-starring Jean Carmet and Miou-Miou.