Paint Your Wagon (1969)

Two unlikely prospector partners share the same wife in a California gold rush mining town.

Director:

Joshua Logan

Writers:

Alan Jay Lerner (book), Alan Jay Lerner (screenplay)

Stars:

Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, Jean Seberg

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

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lee Marvin	...	Ben Rumson
Clint Eastwood	...	Pardner
Jean Seberg	...	Elizabeth
Harve Presnell	...	Rotten Luck Willie
Ray Walston	...	Mad Jack Duncan
Tom Ligon	...	Horton Fenty
Alan Dexter	...	Parson
William O'Connell	...	Horace Tabor
Benny Baker	...	Haywood Holbrook (as Ben Baker)
Alan Baxter	...	Mr. Fenty
Paula Trueman	...	Mrs. Fenty
Robert Easton	...	Atwell
Geoffrey Norman	...	Foster
H.B. Haggerty	...	Steve Bull
Terry Jenkins	...	Joe Mooney

Storyline

A Michigan farmer and a prospector form a partnership in the California gold country. Their adventures include buying and sharing a wife, hijacking a stage, kidnaping six prostitutes, and turning their mining camp into a boomtown. Along the way there is plenty of drinking, gambling, and singing. They even find time to do some creative gold mining.

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Plot Keywords:

polyamory | mining | gold | california | prospector | 

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Taglines:

Ben and Pardner shared everything -- even their wife!

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Musical | Romance | Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for thematic material

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 October 1969 (USA)

Also Known As:

La leyenda de la ciudad sin nombre

Filming Locations:

Baker, Oregon, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$31,678,778

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alan Jay Lerner Productions,The Malpaso Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

164 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm prints) 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The character Horace Tabor is perhaps named for the well known 19th-century prospector Horace (Haw) Tabor (1830-1899), although the real-life Tabor was known primarily for silver prospecting.

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Goofs

When the town is falling apart in the end, we see the wires used hold up a falling bathtub.

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Quotes

Ben Rumson: Grace, I give you the boy. Give me back the man.

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Connections

Referenced in Perfect Strangers: Nightmare Vacation (1990)

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Soundtracks

I Still See Elisa
Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Music by Frederick Loewe
Sung by Clint Eastwood

User Reviews

Unfairly reviled

Much has been written about how terrible this film is, how it marked the end of both the Western and Musical genres, but to those of us who like both musicals and westerns this movie is a real treat. Clint's vocal stylings do indeed leave something to be desired, but Lee Marvin's talky singing is reminiscent not only of Robert Preston in the Music Man, but to Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady.

But the reason I recommend this movie is that it is dashed funny. Clever, one might say, and not a bit bawdy, in a chaste-by-today's-standards sort of way. I agree that people who don't like musicals--and it's not unreasonable to assume that many Eastwood fans fall into that category--wouldn't enjoy this movie any more than they would enjoy any other movie in which people wander in and out of songs at random. But I do argue that it shouldn't be avoided on reputation. It's divinely amusing.