This all came about because in one of Q's groups she was told a story that Lee Marvin came to the shoot drunk every day and Burt Lancaster had had enough and held him over a cliff edge and said 'if you come on set drunk again I'm gonna drop you over the edge' and Marvin (though himself a former marine and tough guy) was thereafter sober every day. In fact I can't corroborate this story - indeed in IMDB's trivia there's one report that the only day Marvin was drunk on set was the very opening shot where he's demonstrating the machine gun; another story that he and pal Woody Strode (they met on The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance) would hellraise in Las Vegas where they were staying every night but would always be line perfect by the time they reached location.
So all this proves is - check your source.
Anyway, the good thing is it encouraged us to watch the film for the first time, and it was very good.
1917. Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin (who have a past fighting for the Mexican Revolution), Woody Strode and Robert Ryan are hired by Ralph Bellamy to rescue his kidnapped wife Claudia Cardinale from Mexican bandit Jack Palance. Which proves to be a difficult and dangerous journey, not without betrayals and confusion.
It's written by Brooks from Frank O'Rourke's novel 'A Mule for the Marquesa'.
And I'd always wanted to see it because it's an early film from Conrad Hall, almost a trial run for Butch Cassidy in its long shots and zoom lenses. It was already his second Oscar nomination. The operator was William A Fraker.
The team display a good camaraderie and there are welcome touches of humour throughout. Should also mention female bandit Marie Gomez.
The music was composed by Maurice Jarre and it's well edited by Peter Zinner (The Godfather I & II, The Deer Hunter, A Star Is Born, In Cold Blood).
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