“Maybe there’s only one revolution, since the beginning, the good guys against the bad guys. Question is, who are the good guys?”
– Burt Lancaster / The Professionals
The Professionals …
Truly.
Lee Marvin moves into full blown stardom – becoming a legitimate box office titan – in one of the greatest Westerns ever made (My Favorite) starring along side Western Film Greats Burt Lancaster, Jack Palance, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Claudia Cardinale, Ralph Belamy … What a cast!
Following Cat Ballou (Oscar) this is one of 4 Westerns remaining in Marvin’s Western filmography: Monte Walsh / 1970 (with Jack Palance); Paint Your Wagon / 1969 (with Clint Eastwood); Emperor of the North / 1973 (with Charles Bronson).
A true Western Star.
Anything but Paint Your Wagon! That has to be the absolutely worst movie ever made with that much talent.
I know how you feel. Not everybody’s jar of whisky. It never attracted me either, but one day I gave it a look (TV) and was surprised that it actually has some good stuff in there. I do know that there are folks who just love this movie. Lee’s rendition of “Wandering Star’ is nice. The initial idea of Lee and Clint singing kinda knocked me off my horse. But somehow they pulled it off.
I have been a big fan of Lee Marvin since watching him in The Dirty Dozen. I haven’t seen this film! The cast looks great–I need to rent this. Nice review!
I think you will enjoy it – although I know most Westerns are really ‘Guy Movies’. It is a good movie. Sergio Leone thought so too – getting Woody Strode and Cardinale to appear in his great Western Classic, ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’.