Lee Marvin

"I've always been attracted to things that have an element of risk. And cycling is a beautiful feeling; you and the bike become a single unit." -- Lee Marvin on motorcycling; Playboy, January 1969.

"Lee Marvin was absolutely crazy -- but I like crazy people -- otherwise it's a bore I think." -- Claudia Cardinale on working with Lee Marvin on The Professionals. From the new DVD of The Professionals's Special Feature, Memories from "The Professionals." This hot pic comes from a cover of an old Esquire, but there is no story on him inside anywhere. Click for larger version!

Lee Marvin is one of my five all-time fav actors, with Steve McQueen, Dean Martin, William Holden, and John Wayne.

Marvin PIX!

Hot interview with Marvin by Roger Ebert, form 1970!

"... Which reminds me of a time I was sitting in a bar in Mexico and this girl walked in. For some reason, I looked at her. The mood was right. My violins were going. My candle was lit and there it was. Two Mexicans noticed me looking at her and told me in Spanish, "Mariposas de amor" -- which literally means "butterflies of love." I thought to myself, "Jesus, what a straight statement for them to make." They noticed that something had fluttered inside of me. It was only later that I found out they mean that she had the crabs. But it was worth it, because she was an incredible beauty." -- Lee Marvin, Playboy, January, 1969.

Here is Phil Snyder's site on Lee Marvin, Eyewash. He's working out his new site there based on his old site.

Hot TV Guide article on Marvin's TV show, M Squad, from circa 1960. I got it at Ebay and scanned it here!

Marvin's January 1969 Playboy interview!

Neat article on Marvin from Outre, circa 1996.

John Boorman on Lee Marvin from Danny Peary's Close-Ups!

I've wanted to put something about Lee Marvin on my site ever since it's inception. I recently wrote to my sister about him, and I thought: "better to post this, than continue with nothing." So here are those thoughts I sent her...

1969 Interview: Playboy: Are you a genial drunk or a belligerent one? Lee Marvin: It depends on what I'm drinking, how much I'm drinking, why I'm drinking, and who I'm drinking with. I was working very hard once, doing a television drama called Sergeant Ryker, and one night after the shooting was completed, I was drinking in a San Fernando Valley bar with an assistant director. We were laughing and telling each other stories -- but this stranger kept barging in. He was just asking for it. In the past, guys I had never seen before would walk up to me in a bar and tell me that their wives really hated my guts. I'd just sneer. It was expected of me. But it would always end up in a very amicable conversation and I'd say, "Well, maybe your wife is right." So he'd say, "Nobody's that bad. I mean, you ought to know my wife." Before long, we would be buying each other a couple of drinks and laughing... But this guy in the Valley just kept baiting me. My thoughts were a million miles from him. He was fulfilling some need and, goddamn it, for some dumb, stupid reason, I helped him along. I just had to shut him up, so I hit him over the head with a banjo...

Lee Marvin on DVD:

The Professionals ($16.48) -- of all the DVDs I bought, this one has been most worth the money, because I've watched it a lot. Fun, action-packed western with Marvin (totally awesome and totally quotable throughout film), Burt Lancaster (fine, but a little showy), Robert Ryan (always great), Woody Strode, Claudia Cardinale (The Pink Panther, 8 1/2, Once Upon a Time in the West), Jack Palance and Ralph Bellamy (His Girl Friday, Trading Places).

The Dirty Dozen ($10.82) -- Marvin with Robert Ryan again (they made four films together, the others being Bad Day at Black Rock and The Iceman Cometh); here Ryan is the fuddy-duddy/bitch colonel with a stick up his ass with Lee Marvin's name on it. Marvin always thought he was so cold -- but really he's quite emotional, isn't he?

The Killers (Double-Disc Special Edition Criterion Collection DVD) ($34.86) -- This is 1964. A Don Siegel film. Siegel directed Dirty Harry, Charley Varrick, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (original '50s version). This movie is shot in wild gaudy colors filled with suspense, and skewed camera angles. It's also low-budge (see stock race car footage, stolen bits of score from Mancini's Touch of Evil), and was originally shot for TV, but deemed too violent, and released theatrically. The cast is HOT: Marvin, John Cassavetes, Angie Dickinson (who made three films with Marvin -- two of which, this and Point Blank, being two of the best films either made [the other is 1981's Death Hunt, which co-starred Charlie Bronson]), Clu Gulager (totally awesome, didn't do much other important work), Ronald Reagan (in his last film -- two years later he was governor of California), Burt Mustin (Gus the fireman on Leave It to Beaver, the guy who tells Bobby Brady that Jesse James shot his Pa in the back), Norman Fell (Ocean's 11, The Graduate, Bullitt, Three's Company), Claude Akins (Rio Bravo, BJ and the Bear, Lobo). This is a version of a Hemingway short story, shot previously, as film noir in 1946 with Burt Lancaster. That version and a short Russian film version come on this awesome Criterion Collection DVD set.

Donovan's Reef ($10.16) -- 1963 comedy, Marvin's third of three films with John Wayne. Directed by John Ford. Hawaii!

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance ($11.00) -- John Ford's last great film, moody, dark, disillusioned western, Marvin's second film with Wayne. This movie also has the greatest movie scene ever, where Valance and Tom Doniphon square off over a steak that was knocked on to the floor. The cast is resplendent: James Stewart (Rear Window, Vertigo), Vera Miles (Psycho, The Searchers), Edmond O'Brien (DOA, The Wild Bunch), Andy Devine (Stagecoach, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World), John Carradine (Stagecoach, The Hound of the Baskervilles), John Qualen (The Searchers, Anatomy of a Murder), Willis Bouchey (Perry Mason, Suddenly), Woody Strode (Once Upon a Time in the West, The Professionals), Denver Pyle (Bonnie & Clyde, The Dukes of Hazzard), Strother Martin (Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, The Wild Bunch), Lee Van Cleef (High Noon, The Good the Bad and the Ugly).

The Big Heat ($22.46) -- Glenn Ford is a cop, Marvin is a heavy, Gloria Grahame is his moll. Marvin throws a pot of hot coffee in her face, scalding her. Famous. This is a Fritz Lang cop movie from 1954. Marvin's in support (but Glenn Ford is always awesome, so is Grahame), but this role was iconic.

Hell In the Pacific ($13.46) -- Point Blank is not on DVD yet, this film was the second of those two that Marvin made with director John Boorman (Deliverance). WWII: American soldier and Japanese soldier (Toshiro Mifune) stranded on some deserted Pacific island alone together. Wild.

The Comancheros ($12.73) -- 1961 western. Marvin's first film with Wayne, a western, Marvin's part is small, but he is hilarious as Tully Crow, a fellow who was nearly scalped by Indians, or partially scalped. Marvin is outrageous and a drunken maniac in this. He had just come off his star-making TV series success of M Squad. Marvin's chemistry with the Duke is notable, which may be why they were paired again the next year, and the year after that.

Director, and huge Lee Marvin fan, Jim Jarmusch, manages to find a small part for the very late actor in his most recent film, Coffee & Cigarettes.

Cat Ballou ($12.35) -- Haven't seen this movie in a while. Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye are good as the balladeers, and singers, and Marvin is awesome and hilarious in a dual role, for which he won the 1965 Best Actor Oscar, but the rest of the cast, esp. Jane Fonda, aren't that good (Fonda has no sense of comedy, if you ask me), and the script is so-so.

Attack ($12.11) -- Gritty WWII film from director Robert Aldrich (The Dirty Dozen, Flight of the Phoenix). Jack Palance stars as in intense soldier dealing with cowardly commanding officer, Eddie Albert. Albert, Marvin and Buddy Ebsen are all playing against their usual type here, and all are awesome. This and Breakfast at Tiffany's are Ebsen's best performances. Marvin made four films with Palance. Palance was on Dave Letterman once, and they were talking about Lee Marvin (who had appeared on Late Night, before his death), and Palance said that Lee was probably his best friend.

The Iceman Cometh ($25.61) -- from the Eugene O'Neill play; directed by John Frankenheimer, 1973. Dope cast: Fredric March (Inherit the Wind, Seven Days in May), Robert Ryan (The Wild Bunch, The Naked Spur), Jeff Bridges (Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Fearless), Bradford Dillman (Sudden Impact, Piranha), Sorrell Booke (Boss Hogg in the Dukes of Hazzard, Booke also played the same character in the 1960 TV version of Iceman -- which is also available on DVD and stars Jason Robards), Clifton James (Experiment in Terror, the southern sheriff in Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun), George Voskovec (12 Angry Men).

Ship of Fools ($24.71) -- the same year as Cat Ballou (1965), this film helped Marvin with the Oscar that year. Takes place during 30s. Marvin is an obtuse, rude, oblivious American on an ocean liner with international passengers: Vivien Leigh (Gone with the Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire), Simone Signoret (The Deadly Affair, Les Diaboliques), Jose Ferrer (Lawrence of Arabia, The Caine Mutiny), Oskar Werner (Fahrenheit 451, Jules et Jim, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold), Elizabeth Ashley (Happiness, The Carpetbaggers), George Segal (Just Shoot Me, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), Michael Dunn (No Way to Treat a Lady, Madigan), Alf Kjellin (Ice Station Zebra, Assault on a Queen), Werner Klemperer (Col. Klink on Hogan's Heroes, Houseboat -- we once saw him at Book Soup), Kaaren Verne (All Through the Night, King's Row -- Peter Lorre's wife from 1945 - 1950).

The Wild One ($10.46) -- This is a Brando movie, straight up, Marvin plays the head of an opposing biker gang, Chino. Marvin's good, but small part.

The Big Red One ($20.24) -- 1980, WWII film by insane cult/B-movie director Sam Fuller. This is The Big Red One - The Reconstruction (Two-Disc Special Edition). This is the recent redux, it played at the Castro for a little while in 2004 or 2005; I saw it with Pete. Pretty good.

Paint Your Wagon ($12.29) -- 1969, odd western/musical which, while overlong, and just plain NOT GREAT, on the plus side has Lee co-starring with beautiful suicide case, Jean Seberg and a young Clint Eastwood. Marvin's only solo, Wand'rin Star does well on the singles charts, and is a quite touching song, really.

The Caine Mutiny ($15.26) -- 1954, this semi-classic suffers from being overlong, and, as I believe co-star Humphrey Bogart put it, crapped up by a sappy love story -- featuring two dull actors. Meanwhile all of the character work is super: Bogart, Jose Ferrer, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Lee (as a character named "Meatball"), Tom Tully (Oscar-nominated here), E.G. Marshall, Claude Akins, Jerry Paris, Steve Brodie, Herbert Anderson, James Best, Whit Bissel, James Edwards, Todd Karns.

The Hangman's Knot ($17.96) -- 1952, Randolph Scott stars in this western, something of a precursor to the Scott/Boetticher westerns to come.

Dog Day ($14.95) -- 1984, aka Canicule; I have not been able to sit through more than ten minutes of this film. Now, to be fair, the only copies of this movie I've come across contain borderline unwatchable film print quality. But the movie is known for being weak, and from what I've seen, I believe it... despite an interesting cast featuring mostly French actors, but also co-stars Miou-Miou, Tina Louise, and Juliette Mills. Directed by Yves Boisset.

The Klansman ($7.99) -- a well-known bad movie starring alcoholics and murderers (Lee Marvin, Richard Burton, OJ Simpson).

The Delta Force ($12.11) -- one of Lee Marvin's worst films, yet one of Chuck Norris' best (simply by the presence of Marvin, and an oddball assortment of character players -- including Shelley Winters, Joey Bishop, Martin Balsam, Robert Forster, Lainie Kazan, George Kennedy, Hanna Schygulla, Susan Strasberg, Bo Svenson, Robert Vaughn and Kim Delaney).

The Meanest Men In the West (from $2.86 used) -- this western "film" has been on video ever since the birth of the VCR, it seems. But not due to anything to do with it's quality. It's actually two separate episodes of the TV show The Virginian, one featuring Lee, one featuring Charlie Bronson. It would seem one episode was originally directed by Sam Fuller, which may be a draw for some. Here's a plot synopsis from imdb: A compilation of two episodes of The Virginian TV western series. Season 1 episode "It Tolls For Thee" (1962) guest star Lee Marvin, and season 6 episode "Reckoning" (1967) guest star Charles Bronson. This "film" appears to have been "fashioned" rather than made, in 1967, the same year that the Marvin/Bronson WWII film, The Dirty Dozen was a monster hit.

The Duel at Silver Creek ($9.99) -- 1952; Audie Murphy B-western elevated by Marvin's presence, as well as that of director Don Siegel.

Bad Day at Black Rock ($15.98) -- totally hot movie, shot in gorgeous color widescreen... Amazon.com essential video's Tom Keogh writes: "One of the first Hollywood films to deal openly with white racism toward Japanese Americans during World War II, this drama directed by 1950s action maestro John Sturges (The Great Escape) stars Spencer Tracy as a one-armed stranger named MacReedy, who arrives in the tiny town of Black Rock on a hot day in 1945. Seeking a hotel room and the whereabouts of an ethnic Japanese farmer named Komoko, MacReedy runs smack into a wall of hostility that escalates into serious threats. In time it becomes apparent that Komoko has been murdered by a local, racist chieftain, Reno Smith (Robert Ryan), who also plans on dispensing with MacReedy. Tracy's hero is forced to fight his way past Smith's goons (among them Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin) and sundry allies (Anne Francis) to keep alive, setting the stage for memorable suspense crisply orchestrated by Sturges. Casting is the film's principal strength, however: Tracy, the indispensable icon of integrity, and Ryan, the indispensable noir image of spiritual blight, are as creatively unlikely a pairing as Sturges's shotgun marriage of Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen in The Magnificent Seven." Keep an eye out for Marvin's Hector David -- at one point he suggests to the visiting, one-armed Tracy that he looks like he "could use a hand." Besides those already mentioned, this film also features Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Russell Collins, and Walter Sande...

Point Blank ($14.98) -- this is the movie we were all waiting for. Arguably Marvin's greatest film, directed by John Boorman. Existential, neo-noir, based on the pulp crime novel, The Hunter, by Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake). Tagline: There are two kinds of people in his up-tight world: his victims and his women. And sometimes you can't tell them apart. (And that is true -- I own the poster and have it framed and hanging on my apartment wall!) Angie Dickinson (The Killers [also with Marvin], The Chase, Rio Bravo), Keenan Wynn (The Great Race, Dr. Strangelove), Carroll O'Connor (outstanding as "Brewster"), Lloyd Bochner (The Detective [1968], Tony Rome), Michael Strong (no relation to me!), John Vernon (Animal House, The Outlaw Josey Wales), Sharon Acker (Lucky Jim [1957], Happy Birthday to Me), James Sikking (The Carpetbaggers [1964], Von Ryan's Express [1965], Chandler [1971], The Electric Horseman [1979], Ordinary People [1980], as Howard on "Hill Street Blues" [1981-1987], Outland [1981], The Star Chamber [1983], Up the Creek [1984], Star Trek III: The Search for Spock [1984], Soul Man [1986], as Doogie Howser's dad on "Doogie Howser, M.D." [1989-1993], Narrow Margin [1990], The Pelican Brief [1993]. I once saw James B. Sikking in Lake Tahoe, when I was a kid -- my dad pointed him out to me), Kathleen Freeman (The Bad and the Beautiful [1952], The Prisoner of Zenda [1952], O. Henry's Full House [1952], Monkey Business [1952], Singin' in the Rain [1952], The Greatest Show on Earth [1952], The Affairs of Dobie Gillis [1953], 3 Ring Circus [1954], Artists and Models [1955], Kiss Them for Me [1957], The Midnight Story [1957], Houseboat [1958], The Fly [1958], The Missouri Traveler [1958], North to Alaska [1960], Who's Minding the Store? [1963], The Nutty Professor [1963], The Disorderly Orderly [1964], The Patsy [1964], Mail Order Bride [1964], Marriage on the Rocks [1965], The Rounders [1965], Three on a Couch [1966], Support Your Local Sheriff! [1969], Myra Breckinridge [1970], The Ballad of Cable Hogue [1970], Support Your Local Gunfighter [1971], The Blues Brothers [1980], The Best of Times [1986], In the Mood [1987], Innerspace [1987], Dragnet [1987], Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis [1988] [TV], Gremlins 2: The New Batch [1990], Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult [1994], Blues Brothers 2000 [1998], Nutty Professor II: The Klumps [2000], Ready to Rumble [2000], Shrek [2001], Joe Dirt [2001]). Directed by John Boorman. Written by Alexander Jacobs and David Newhouse & Rafe Newhouse; based on Stark's novel. Produced by Judd Bernard & Robert Chartoff. Original Music by Johnny Mandel; Stu Gardner (song "Mighty Good Times"). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; 92 min; Metrocolor.

Prime Cut ($11.24) -- I just saw this film again with my friend Pete. But Pete talked through most of it, so don't recall. Director Michael Ritchie did some good 70s work like Bad News Bears and Downhill Racer (60s actually). But Marvin stars with Gene Hackman, and this is Sissy Spacek's first film. Violent action about midwest gangsters, with slight touch of humor.

Gorky Park ($14.13) -- the last definitely worthwhile film Marvin made (although, he only made a TV Movie sequel to Dirty Dozen, Dog Day, and Delta Force, after this). This is a tight, exciting, adult, thriller, taking place in Russia, and based on the novel by Martin Cruz Smith. Marvin is a standout as formidable villain, American businessman/murderer Jack Osborne. Michael Apted's top-notch thriller's strong cast also features William Hurt, Brian Dennehy, Ian Bannen, Joanna Pacula, Richard Griffiths, Alexander Knox, Ian McDiarmid.

The Stranger Wore a Gun ($11.20) -- From Amazon.com's (Richard T. Jameson) Editorial Reviews: "Andre De Toth directed seven of producer-star Randolph Scott's Westerns; The Stranger Wore a Gun is the most disappointing, especially since its original 3-D is now moot. That gimmicky process obliged the one-eyed director to concentrate on framing every shot with foreground clutter (and matte eerily mobile 'rocks' onto the chase scenes), as well as dream up reasons for people to shove torches and hurl water pitchers at the camera. Scott's trajectory takes him from Confederate officer in league with Quantrill's Raiders to riverboat gambler to undercover detective. On the upside, Claire Trevor is always welcome as a Western leading lady, and George Macready as chief villain. Macready's henchmen are the prestellar Lee Marvin--who grossed out '50s audiences with his 3-D spitting of tobacco juice while lolling in a chair--and Ernest Borgnine, who gets into a laughing duel with Alfonso Bedoya over which one is really 'The Face That Kills.'" From Hal Erickson at the All Movie Guide: "Randolph Scott makes his 3-D debut in the stereoscopic western Stranger Wore a Gun. This time, Scott plays Jeff Travis, a former spy for Quantrill's Raiders. When he heads to Arizona to start life anew, Travis finds that his reputation has preceded him: crooked Jules Mourret (George Macready) hires him to monitor a series of gold shipments, in preparation for a major robbery. Eventually, Travis falls in love with Shelby Conroy (Joan Weldon), daughter of freight-line operator Jason Conroy (Pierre Watkin), and decides to turn honest. That won't be easy: in addition to the surly Mourret, Travis must deal with such formidable movie heavies as Alfonso Bedoya, Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine. Also on hand is Claire Trevor, in a soft-pedalled variation of her role in John Ford's Stagecoach. Stranger Wore a Gun was directed by Andre DeToth, whose previous foray into 3D had been the box-office smash House of Wax." Cast: Randolph Scott, Claire Trevor, Joan Weldon, George Macready, Alfonso Bedoya, Ernest Borgnine, Clem Bevans, Roscoe Ates, Franklyn Farnum, James Millican. Produced by Harry Joe Brown.

Death Hunt ($11.68) -- I have actually not yet seen this film, in its entirety, anyway. Despite Marvin's reuniting with Charlie Bronson (Dirty Dozen) and Angie Dickinson (Point Blank, The Killers), it's supposed to be pretty mediocre. Amazon says: "On December 31, 1931, lone trapper Albert Johnson (Charles Bronson) shot and killed a man in self-defense at his remote Yukon cabin. A few days later, hard-living lawman Sgt. Edgar Millen (Lee Marvin) reluctantly brought a heavily armed posse to arrest Johnson for murder. In the brutal siege that followed, Johnson would kill four more men before escaping into the frozen mountains. As a nation watched, Millen was forced to pursue Johnson by foot, dogsled and plane in a desperate chase that would take both men from the brink of survival to the very edge of vengeance. Fifteen years after THE DIRTY DOZEN, Bronson and Marvin re-teamed for this explosive action hit directed by Peter Hunt (ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, ASSASSINATION). Andrew Stevens, Carl Weathers and Angie Dickinson co-star in this real-life story of the fugitive called 'The Mad Trapper' and the manhunt that shocked the world. Based On The Incredible True Story Of'The Deadliest Manhunt In History.'"

Seven Men From Now ($??.??) -- Coming soon we hope... I finally saw this film a few years ago at a special presentation, where late director Budd Boetticher spoke (he was, of course, not late at the time). It's never been on DVD or VHS, but Amazon has just the other day reserved a URL for it. Here's what I wrote after seeing it and Boetticher: On Saturday the 17th of March, 2001 -- St. Patrick's Day -- I rode into Berkeley and met my buddy Pete at the Top Dog just up the street from Tower Records. It's a little Hot Dog stand, a restaurant, just an inch bigger than a stand. Very popular. Pete talks about it often, I hadn't been there. It was good. I don't eat dogs too often, but I do like them. I had two dogs and a bowl of chili and a root beer. Why is all this info in the movies section? Getting to that. I had reserved two tickets to the sold out event, An Evening with Budd Boetticher. Two of his films would be screened and then Mr. Boetticher would speak. The films were The Bullfighter and the Lady with Robert Stack and the great Gilbert ("that bastard") Roland, and one of the classic and influential Randolph Scott westerns he did, Seven Men From Now. Both films were recently restored. Seven Men From Now was assumed lost until recently, and over a half hour of Bullfighter that had been cut on original release had finally been put back. Bullfighter was good, but a bit ho-hum. Seven Men From Now was awesome. I have seen most of the Scott-Boetticher westerns: Seven Men from Now (1956), The Tall T (1957), Buchanan Rides Alone (1958), Ride Lonesome (1959), Comanche Station (1960), Decision at Sundown (1957), Westbound (1958). All but the last two were scripted by Boetticher pal, and future director, the recently deceased Burt Kennedy. These westerns, like the James Stewart-Anthony Mann ones of the 50s, are highly regarded and very influential on Peckinpah and later, grittier westerns.