My Favorite Westerns

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance / Lee Marvin

Written by

jcalberta

in

,

Looking back on posts I made in 2013.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Lee MarvinFebruary 19, 1924 – August 29, 1987

Between The Comancheros  and Cat Ballou (Oscar), Marvin continued his meteoric climb to the Hollywood heights with perhaps his most famous role as Liberty Valence in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Many will agree that Lees viscous performance easily upstages Hollywood greats John Wayne and James Stewart – and perhaps establishing an iconic benchmark for Western villainy. YET, on the official poster (below) we still see Marvin billed a distant 4th behind Stewart (billed first over Wayne?), Wayne, and Vera Miles – with no notable image of Marvin – even though his character (Valance) is in the movies title !!! I’ll never figure out Hollywood marketing.
Look for another future Western Badguy superstar (yet to emerge)
Lee (Van Cleef) as one of Marvin’s henchmen.

Liberty Valence poster
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Valance – Official Poster
Liberty Valence poster 2
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

(Above) That’s Lee at the bottom … I guess

Liberty Valence poster 3
The stage to Hollywood?
Lee
Lee
Marvin - making a point
Making a point …
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - Where's my breakfast?
Making a stronger point
Marvin - Demanding a recount
I demand a recount
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - Bad ... I tell ya.
Bad I tell ya.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - Breakfast at Badguys
Badguys at Breakfast – Van Cleef, Strother Martin, Marvin
THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALENCE - John Wayne 3
THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE – John Wayne

Love him or hate him, you’d really have to search for a long time to find a lousy picture of John Wayne. This guy was charisma personified.

James Stewart
James Stewart
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - Woody Strode and Wayne
Woody Strode and Wayne
3 Western Icons
Three great Western Film icons- Stewart, Ford, Wayne

No lack of Star Power.

Discover more from My Favorite Westerns

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Comments

4 responses to “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance / Lee Marvin”

  1. Rick Avatar
    Rick

    This movie has more layers of meaning than any western I can think of.

    1. jcalberta Avatar
      jcalberta

      You know RIck, I haven’t seen this now for a while. They don’t show it that much on TV. ?? So I better pull it out and have another look. At least they haven’t colorized it.

  2. Teepee12 Avatar
    Teepee12

    This is one of our (mutual) favorites. Garry says originally Stewart got top billing because he has the bigger role, more lines in the movie. But after the PR guys did their analysis, it appeared the audience wasn’t buying Stewart above Wayne, so after that first PR release, they were on the same line. It’s all contractual agreements about who gets what billing … and of course the bottom line — who’s selling at the box office.

    1. jcalberta Avatar
      jcalberta

      I see. Thank you.
      It’s always interesting to watch how some of the posters change over the years (for the same movie) as some actors become more popular – and others maybe less.

Leave a Reply

Discover more from My Favorite Westerns

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading