Something Big (1971)

A man kidnaps the wife of a cavalry commander in order to exchange her for a Gatling gun that's being sold by a gun runner.

Director:

Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer:

James Lee Barrett

Stars:

Dean Martin, Brian Keith, Carol White

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dean Martin	...	Joe Baker
Brian Keith	...	Col. Morgan
Carol White	...	Dover McBride
Honor Blackman	...	Mary Anna Morgan
Ben Johnson	...	Jesse Bookbinder
Albert Salmi	...	Jonny Cobb
Don Knight	...	Tommy McBride
Joyce Van Patten	...	Polly Standall
Denver Pyle	...	Junior Frisbee
Merlin Olsen	...	Sgt. Fitzsimmons
Robert Donner	...	Angel Moon
Harry Carey Jr.	...	Joe Pickins
Judi Meredith	...	Carrie Standall
Edward Faulkner	...	Capt. Tyler (as Ed Faulkner)
Paul Fix	...	Chief Yellow Sun

Storyline

Joe Baker has a dream. He wants to do 'something big.' When he needs a Gatling gun to accomplish this, he seeks out a black marketeer. The price he wants for the gun? A woman! So Baker kidnaps a woman off of the stagecoach, only to find that she is the wife of the commandant of the local Cavalry detachment. Things get further complicated when a girl named Dover McBride shows up. She has come to force Baker to marry her and return east, as he promised to do four years earlier.

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Plot Keywords:

gatling gun | stagecoach | cavalry | drinking | drink | 

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Taglines:

Everybody wants to do something big once in his life. It's just that most people don't have to hold up a stagecoach, steal a girl, and swap her for a gun to do it.

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Genres:

Comedy | Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some suggestive content and western violence

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

November 1971 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ceva măreţ

Filming Locations:

Durango, Mexico

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinema Center Films, Penbar Productions, Stanmore Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

James Lee Barrett apparently wrote this for Peter O'Toole.

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Quotes

[examining corpse]
Colonel Morgan: Well, I'd say he looks healthier than the last time I saw him.
Junior Frisbee: How can he look healthier when he's dead?
Colonel Morgan: It must agree with him.

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Crazy Credits

Paradoxically--considering its definition--the film's title is presented in all lower case letters, as can be seen in the poster.

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Connections

Referenced in My Husband, the Producer (1974)

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Soundtracks

Scotland the Brave
(uncredited)
Traditional

User Reviews

This Could Be The Start Of Something Big

I think the only thing that prevents Something Big from being a classic comic western is the awful let down at the end when Dean Martin decides to really do that Something Big he came west from Pennsylvania to do. The shootout at the end if anything is an anti-climax to the wild goings-on that preceded it throughout the movie.

Dean Martin after coming west to seek fame and fortune or at least enough to marry Carol White and support her is the leader of a group of outlaws with Carol's brother Don Knight as his number two. He wants to really make a score, do Something Big before returning to the east and another outlaw Albert Salmi has an interesting proposition for him.

Salmi's been without a woman for way too long now and his sidekick Robert Donner is not one to bring out the love that dare not speak its name. There just ain't too many folks of the female persuasion out in the territory. So if Martin will get him a woman, Salmi can lay his hands on a Gatling Gun to be used in whatever that Something Big scheme will be.

So what does Dino do? He holds up a few stagecoaches and then gets what he considers a proper woman, Honor Blackman famous as Pussy Galore of James Bond fame. The problem there is Dino didn't check her hand for a wedding ring, she's the wife of Brian Keith the commander of the local army post.

Ironically enough this silliness actually works as Brian Keith and chief scout Ben Johnson go searching the territory for Martin and Blackman. The various misadventures of the players goes for most of the film and when Martin does put his big scheme into operation in the last 20 minutes or so of the film, it is so anti-climatic, it's actually a let down.

Something Big is a very funny film for some reason not often shown. All the players do well, but my absolute favorites are Joyce Van Patten, and Judi Meredith the Standish sisters. A pair of frontier widows who really know how to be hospitable to a passing stranger, especially if the stranger is in pants.

Hopefully TCM will get this film and run it and soon.