McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

A gambler and a prostitute become business partners in a remote Old West mining town, and their enterprise thrives until a large corporation arrives on the scene.

Director:

Robert Altman

Writers:

Edmund Naughton (novel), Robert Altman (screenplay),

Stars:

Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Warren Beatty	...	John McCabe
Julie Christie	...	Constance Miller
Rene Auberjonois	...	Sheehan
William Devane	...	The Lawyer
John Schuck	...	Smalley
Corey Fischer	...	Mr. Elliott
Bert Remsen	...	Bart Coyle
Shelley Duvall	...	Ida Coyle
Keith Carradine	...	Cowboy
Michael Murphy	...	Sears
Antony Holland	...	Hollander
Hugh Millais	...	Butler
Manfred Schulz	...	Kid
Jace Van Der Veen	...	Breed (as Jace Vander Veen)
Jackie Crossland	...	Lily

Storyline

Set in winter in the Old West. Charismatic but dumb John McCabe arrives in a young Pacific Northwest town to set up a whorehouse/tavern. The shrewd Mrs. Miller, a professional madam, arrives soon after construction begins. She offers to use her experience to help McCabe run his business, while sharing in the profits. The whorehouse thrives and McCabe and Mrs. Miller draw closer, despite their conflicting intelligences and philosophies. Soon, however, the mining deposits in the town attract the attention of a major corporation, which wants to buy out McCabe along with the rest. He refuses, and his decision has major repercussions for him, Mrs. Miller, and the town.

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Plot Keywords:

mining town | partner | pacific northwest | gambler | prostitute | 

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Taglines:

Name Your Poison.

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Genres:

Drama | Western

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 June 1971 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Presbyterian Church Wager

Filming Locations:

British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Gross:

SEK 867,412 (Sweden)

Company Credits

Production Co:

David Foster Productions, Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Editor 'Lou Lombardo' complained that the soundtrack was too "muddy" and asked Altman fix it. Altman refused and later claimed the bad soundtrack was Lombardo's fault.

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Goofs

At 1:41:38 into the film, when McCabe is hiding in the door of the hardware store, a leg and a foot of a crew-member are visible reflected in the window on the left. After the cutaway it is even clearer when the person moves.

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Quotes

[first lines]
John McCabe: [muttering to himself] I told you... Think I'm stupid?... S'exactly what I said. Six, six of 'em...

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Connections

Featured in The 78th Annual Academy Awards (2006)

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Soundtracks

"Sisters of Mercy"
Written and Performed by Leonard Cohen

User Reviews

Cold And Poetic

As a Western this film is fascinating for what it does not contain. There are no sweeping vistas of the Great Plains, no Indians, no cacti, no cowboy hats. There is no sheriff, no broiling sun, and no corny music. And unlike most Westerns, which are plot driven, "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" is less about plot than about the tone or mood of the frontier setting.

The film takes place in the Pacific Northwest. The weather is cold, cloudy, and inclement. You can hear the wind howling through tall evergreens. And Leonard Cohen's soft, poetic music accentuates the appropriately dreary visuals. In bucking cinematic tradition, therefore, this film deserves respect, because it is at least unusual, and perhaps even closer in some ways to the ambiance of life on the American frontier than our stereotyped notions, as depicted in typical John Wayne movies.

Not that the plot is unimportant. Warren Beatty plays John McCabe, a two-bit gambler who imports several prostitutes to a tiny town, in hopes of making money. Julie Christie plays Mrs. Miller, a prostitute with a head for business. She hears about McCabe's scheme, and approaches McCabe with an offer he can't refuse. Soon, the two are in business together, but complications ensue when word gets around that McCabe may be a gunslinger who has killed someone important. Mrs. Miller is clearly a symbol of the women's liberation movement, and the film's ending is interesting, in that context.

"McCabe & Mrs. Miller" is a vintage Altman film, in that you can hear background chatter, in addition to the words of the main character. It's Altman's trademark of overlapping dialogue. The film's acting is fine. Both Beatty and Christie perform credibly in their roles.

The visuals have a turn-of-the-century look, with a soft, brownish hue. Costumes and production design are elaborate, and appear to be authentic. The film is very dark, so dark in some scenes that I could barely make out the outline of human figures. In those scenes, I think they went overboard with the ultra dim lighting.

Strictly atypical for the Western genre, "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" provides a pleasant change from cinematic stereotypes, and conveys a different perspective on life in the Old West. It's a quality production, one that has Robert Altman's directorial stamp all over it. In that sense, it's more like a cinematic painting than a story. And the painting communicates to the viewer that life on the American frontier was, at least in some places, cold and dreary, and had a quietly poetic quality to it.