. Paint your Wagon

Paint your Wagon. Paint Your Wagon is a 1969 American musical movie adapted by Paddy Chayefsky from the 1951 stage musical by Lerner and Loewe, set in a mining camp in Gold-Rush-era California. Chayefsky provided a significantly changed storyline from the stage musical version. In the film "Rumson" is simply called "No Name City," and Ben Rumson (Lee Marvin) has no daughter. The character "Julio" is replaced by "Pardner," (Clint Eastwood) now an American and Ben's partner in the gold claim. Additionally, in the film it is Pardner who falls in love with Elizabeth (Jean Seberg), Ben's wife under mining law, rather than the stage musical character Edgar Crocker. The temporary polyamorous solution to the love triangle among Ben, Pardner and Elizabeth appears only in the film as well.

A wagon crashes into a ravine. Prospector Ben Rumson finds that of the two adult male occupants, one is dead and his brother injured with a broken arm and leg. As the man is about to be buried, gold dust is discovered at the graveside. Ben stakes a claim on the land and adopts the surviving brother as his "Pardner" while he recuperates. Pardner, is portrayed as initially innocent and romantic, illustrated by him singing a pining love song about a girl named Elisa ("I Still See Elisa"), who he later sheepishly confesses exists only in his imagination. Pardner is originally a farmer who hopes to make enough in the gold rush to buy some land, and is openly suspicious of the drunken and seemingly amoral Ben. Ben claims that while he is willing to fight, steal, and cheat at cards, his system of ethics does not allow him to betray a partner, and that he will share the spoils of Ben's prospecting on the condition that Pardner takes care of Ben in his moments of drunkenness and melancholy.

After the discovery of gold at the grave site, "No Name City" springs up as a tent city with the miners alternating between wild parties ("Hand Me Down That Can o' Beans") and bouts of melancholy ("They Call the Wind Maria"). The men become increasingly frustrated with the lack of female companionship in the mining town, and the arrival of a Mormon, Jacob Woodling, with two wives is enough to catch the attention of the entire town. The miners claim it is unfair for the Mormon to have two wives when they have no women, and persuade him to sell one of his wives to the highest bidder. Elizabeth, Jacob's younger and more rebellious wife, agrees to be sold based on the reasoning that whatever she gets, it can't be as bad as what she currently has.

A drunken Ben winds up with the highest bid for Elizabeth. Ben is readied for the wedding by the other miners ("Whoop-Ti-Yay"), and Elizabeth is married to Ben under "mining law," with Ben being granted exclusive rights to "all her mineral resources". Elizabeth, not content to be passively treated as property, threatens to shoot Ben on their wedding night if she is not treated with respect. She explains that she believes that Ben is not the type to truly settle down, and that while this is acceptable she wants him to treat her with respect while he stays and to build her a proper wooden cabin to provide her with some security for when he inevitably leaves. Ben is impressed by Elizabeth's determination, and promises to build her a cabin. He enlists the rest of the men to keep this promise, and Elizabeth rejoices in having a proper home ("A Million Miles Away Behind the Door")

Elizabeth's presence comes to be a novelty in the area, causing all the other miners to become somewhat obsessed with Elizabeth, and Ben to be consumed by jealousy and paranoia. News comes of the pending arrival of "six French tarts" to a neighboring town and a plan is hatched to kidnap the women and bring them to "No Name City" ("There's a Coach Comin' In"), thus providing the other miners with the potential for female companionship, giving Ben less reason to fear that the other men are after his wife, and providing the town with additional sources of income as other miners from outlying regions will likely be willing to spend their money in No Name City if it means a chance to visit prostitutes. Ben heads up the mission and leaves Elizabeth in the care of Pardner. While Ben is gone, the two fall in love ("I Talk to the Trees" by Pardner). Elizabeth says that she also still loves Ben, and convinces them that if a Mormon man can have two wives, a woman can have two husbands.

As the town booms, the arrangement with Ben, Pardner, and Elizabeth works well for a while until the town becomes large enough that more civilized people from the East begin to settle there. A Parson begins to make a concerted effort to persuade the people of No Name City to give up their evil ways, warning the townsfolk that they will be swallowed up by God's wrath if they do not repent ("The Ballad of No Name City"). Meanwhile, a group of new settlers is rescued from the snow, and the straight-laced family is invited to spend the winter with Elizabeth and Pardner, who is assumed to be her only husband. Ben is left to fend for himself in town. In revenge Ben introduces one of the family, young Horton Fenty, to the pleasures of Rotten Luck Willie's saloon and cat house. This leads to Elizabeth dismissing both Ben and Pardner from the log cabin Ben built for her. Pardner takes to gambling in Willie's ("Gold Fever"). As the gold begins to play out Ben and a group of miners discover that gold dust is dropping through the floor boards of many of the saloons. They hatch a plan to tunnel under all the businesses to get at the gold ("The Best Things in Life are Dirty"). This brings the story to its climax when, during a bull and bear fight, the streets collapse into the tunnels dug by Ben and the others and the town is destroyed. A reprise of "The Ballad of No Name City" plays as the town is literally swallowed by the earth. At the end of the film Ben moves on to the next gold field ("Wand'rin' Star"), and Elizabeth and Pardner are shown reconciling. As Ben departs, he comments that he's never known Pardner's real name, which Pardner then reveals: Sylvester Newl.

Eastwood and Marvin did their own singing while Seberg's songs were dubbed. The early incarnation of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band had a cameo in the song "Hand Me Down That Can o' Beans". Some songs from the original musical were dropped and some were added by Andre Previn, while others were used in different contexts.

This film was made near Baker City, Oregon. Other locations include Big Bear Lake, California and San Bernardino National Forest; the interiors were filmed at Paramount Studios with Joshua Logan directing.

The film was released at a time when movie musicals were going out of fashion, especially with younger audiences. Its overblown budget became notorious in the press. Eastwood was frustrated by the long delays in the making of the movie, later saying that the experience strengthened his resolve to become a director. According to Robert Osborne, Marvin drank heavily during the filming of the movie, which may have enhanced his screen appearance, but led to delays and many retakes.

Marvin's deep-voiced rendition of "Wand'rin' Star", accompanied by the film's choir, became a hit in the U.K. and Europe. His voice was described by Jean Seberg as "like rain gurgling down a rusty pipe". Interviewed on NPR, Marvin said that the song was a hit in Australia, and someone there described it as, "The first 33 1/3 recorded at 45."

Thanks to Wikipedia, the Internet and YouTube,

H.V. Anderz.

Zie ook: Paint your Wagon by IMDB.

Zie ook: Paint your Wagon at Wikipedia.

Zie ook: Paint your Wagon the Musical.

Zie ook: Paint your Wagon the Album.

Zie ook: Paint your Wagon on Stars of Old.

Zie ook: Beeldverhaal Anderz, Boeken Anderz, Geschiedenis Anderz, Astronomie Anderz, Personen Anderz, Muziek Anderz en Sport Anderz, Voetbal Anderz.