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TCM Schedule for Saturday, August 28, 2021 -- Summer Under the Stars: Lee Marvin
Today's star is Lee Marvin, who has played everything from terrifying villian to straight-laced hero to comic drunk. From his TCM entry:Having started out portraying sadistic bad guys in a number of notable film noirs, actor Lee Marvin was propelled to stardom and leading man status following his Oscar-winning performance as two characters in the classic Western comedy Cat Ballou (1965). Prior to that particular triumph, Marvin began making a name for himself with supporting roles in The Wild One (1953) and The Big Heat (1953), with the latter showcasing a famed scene where his menacing character threw scalding coffee in Gloria Grahame's face. Later in the decade, he had a stint as an investigator of organized crime on the briefly popular M Squad (NBC, 1957-1960), which helped turn the actor into star. Following turns as a sadistic cowboy in Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), the titular murderer in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (1962), and a methodical assassin in The Killers (1964), Marvin changed the course of his career with his Academy Award-worthy performance in Cat Ballou. From there, Marvin portrayed characters whose inescapable use of violence was nonetheless heroic: he was an avenging member of a Western posse in The Professionals (1966), the leader of a squad of soldier-convicts sent on a suicide mission in The Dirty Dozen (1967), and a cold, vengeance-mind thief in the unrelenting crime thriller Point Blank (1967). His career crested with a co-starring role in the notorious Western musical Paint Your Wagon (1969), in which he displayed one of the worst singing voices in cinema history, before hitting a slow, downward slope throughout the 1970s with underwhelming films like The Klansman (1974), Shout at the Devil (1976) and Avalanche Express (1978). Marvin rebounded late in his career with two excellent movies - the gruesome World War II epic The Big Red One (1980) and the methodical crime thriller set in Soviet Russia, Gorky Park (1984), both of which helped put an exclamation point on a sterling career.
Born on Feb. 19, 1924 in New York City, Marvin was raised by his father, Lamont, an advertising executive who was the head of New York and New England Apple Institute, and his mother, Courtenay, a fashion and beauty magazine editor. Though he studied violin at a young age, Marvin did not harbor any artistic ambitions until later in life. Meanwhile, he found himself being kicked out of one boarding school after another; at one time because he threw a roommate from a second-floor window, until finally landing at Lakewood High School in Florida. He moved on to St. Leo's Prep School in Dade County, only to drop out in 1942. Marvin went back to graduate in order to join the U.S. Marines against his father's wishes. Serving as a sniper scout in the 4th Marine Division, Marvin saw action in the South Pacific, only to get wounded in action during the Battle of Saipan, where most of his platoon was wiped out. His wound severed a nerve below the spine and required 13 months of hospitalization, which ultimately invalidated him for further service.
After receiving a Purple Heart and his medical discharge, Marvin began working as a plumber's assistant at a local community theater in upstate New York, where he was asked to fill in for a sick actor during rehearsals. Enjoying his taste of acting, he went on to study the craft at the American Theatre Wing in New York City on the G.I. Bill, and soon began appearing off-Broadway and in summer stock. In 1950, Marvin moved to Hollywood and made his film debut with a bit part in director Fred Zinnemann's Teresa (1950). He followed with a more substantial role in the Gary Cooper comedy You're in the Navy Now (1951), directed by Henry Hathaway, before heading back to New York for a Broadway appearance in Billy Budd (1951). Following tours in productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and The Hasty Heart, Marvin signed a contract with Columbia, which led to roles in The Wild One (1953) and The Big Heat (1953), in which he played an out-of-control thug who famously throws hot coffee in Gloria Grahame's face. He next portrayed a dimwitted and sadistic cowboy who menaces Spencer Tracy in Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), before landing supporting roles in the crime drama Violent Saturday (1955) and the Western Seven Men from Now (1956).
Turning to television, Marvin starred on the series M Squad (NBC, 1957-1960), which cast him as a plainclothes detective who is a member of a special squad with the Chicago Police Department that takes on organized crime. Though only lasting three seasons, the show turned Marvin into a star and helped propel his feature career. He landed a couple of amiable parts in the John Wayne pictures Comancheros (1961) and Donovan's Reef (1963) before playing the titular killer in John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (1962). Settling comfortably into villainous roles, Marvin shined as a methodical assassin in Don Siegel's excellent film noir, The Killers (1964), which was based on an Ernest Hemingway short story. In the Western-comedy Cat Ballou (1965), Marvin played the dual roles of a ruthless assassin and a hopeless alcoholic hired by the titular schoolmarm-turned-posse leader (Jane Fonda) tracking down her father's killer (Marvin). The two performances earned Marvin widespread critical kudos, as well as an Academy Award for Best Actor.
By the late 1960s, Marvin had become a major star that headlined important box office vehicles like the Richard Brooks Western, The Professionals (1966), in which he joined an all-star team of Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan and Jack Palance to track down a businessman's wife (Claudia Cardinale) kidnapped by a renegade band of Mexican thugs. He next led a crew of soldiers from a military prison on a suicide mission to storm a French chateau housing top Nazi officers in the World War II-set thriller The Dirty Dozen (1967), a great action yarn that became one of the highest-grossing movies of the decade. Marvin followed up with an incendiary performance as a professional thief out to get revenge against a fellow mobster who double-crossed him in the classic crime thriller, Point Blank (1967), directed by John Boorman. The role epitomized the actor's onscreen shift from unprincipled villainy to stoic self-defense regardless of what side of the law he found himself. Meanwhile, he had starring roles in Hell in the Pacific (1968) and Sergeant Ryker (1968) before displaying an embarrassing singing voice for the critically maligned musical Western, Paint Your Wagon (1969), which became notorious at the time for its runaway budget and delayed production.
Entering the next decade, Marvin embarked on a series of underwhelming movies with a few that managed to stand apart from the failures of that era. He delivered the goods as an over-the-hill cowboy unwilling to give up his ways in Monte Walsh (1972) and as an ill-tempered agent in the Don Siegel-like crime thriller Prime Cut (1972). Following a turn as the King of the Hoboes in The Emperor of the North Pole (1973), Marvin was a small town sheriff trying to keep the peace during an impending racial war in the rather silly melodrama The Klansman (1974). He next played a boozy Irishman in the clumsy World War I comedy Shout at the Devil (1976) before joining British icon Oliver Reed as a pair of con men in the forgotten broad comedy The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday (1976). Following the cold war thriller Avalanche Express (1978), Marvin saw his career take a back seat when he became involved in a landmark legal case that made headlines in 1979. Former live-in girlfriend, Michelle Triola, who legally changed her last name to Marvin, sued the actor, claiming he had promised to support her for the rest of her life, stemming from their cohabitation from 1965-1970. Although Triola wanted half of the $3.8 million Marvin had earned while they were together, a judge ruled there was no contract, establishing the California courts' palimony doctrine. The judge did order Marvin to pay $104,000 - $1000 a week for two years - in assistance, only to have the order nullified on appeal in 1981.
Marvin had his last significant role in director Samuel Fuller's violent war epic, The Big Red One (1980), in which he played an army sergeant who leads a young infantry platoon through tours across North Africa and Europe, culminating in the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp. Exceedingly violent and deeply moving, The Big Red One was ranked as one of the best war movies ever made and gave Marvin a huge boost in a career that had been lagging for well over a decade. After co-starring with Charles Bronson and Angie Dickinson in the historically based action thriller Death Hunt (1981), Marvin played a devious fur dealer in Michael Apted's adaptation of Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park (1983). Going back to the well, he reprised his role from two decades prior for The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission (NBC, 1985), a made-for-TV movie that revolved around a plot to assassinate Hitler. Marvin's final role proved to be a teaming with Chuck Norris to take on bad guys comic-book style in the action flick The Delta Force (1986). Health issues began to crop up when Marvin complained of abdominal pains in December 1986, leading to intestinal surgery. A mere nine months later, in August 1987, he was hospitalized for two weeks with flu-like symptoms. Marvin suffered a fatal heart attack on Aug. 29, 1987 in Tucson, AZ and was interred in Arlington National Cemetery as a war veteran. He was 63 years old.
Born on Feb. 19, 1924 in New York City, Marvin was raised by his father, Lamont, an advertising executive who was the head of New York and New England Apple Institute, and his mother, Courtenay, a fashion and beauty magazine editor. Though he studied violin at a young age, Marvin did not harbor any artistic ambitions until later in life. Meanwhile, he found himself being kicked out of one boarding school after another; at one time because he threw a roommate from a second-floor window, until finally landing at Lakewood High School in Florida. He moved on to St. Leo's Prep School in Dade County, only to drop out in 1942. Marvin went back to graduate in order to join the U.S. Marines against his father's wishes. Serving as a sniper scout in the 4th Marine Division, Marvin saw action in the South Pacific, only to get wounded in action during the Battle of Saipan, where most of his platoon was wiped out. His wound severed a nerve below the spine and required 13 months of hospitalization, which ultimately invalidated him for further service.
After receiving a Purple Heart and his medical discharge, Marvin began working as a plumber's assistant at a local community theater in upstate New York, where he was asked to fill in for a sick actor during rehearsals. Enjoying his taste of acting, he went on to study the craft at the American Theatre Wing in New York City on the G.I. Bill, and soon began appearing off-Broadway and in summer stock. In 1950, Marvin moved to Hollywood and made his film debut with a bit part in director Fred Zinnemann's Teresa (1950). He followed with a more substantial role in the Gary Cooper comedy You're in the Navy Now (1951), directed by Henry Hathaway, before heading back to New York for a Broadway appearance in Billy Budd (1951). Following tours in productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and The Hasty Heart, Marvin signed a contract with Columbia, which led to roles in The Wild One (1953) and The Big Heat (1953), in which he played an out-of-control thug who famously throws hot coffee in Gloria Grahame's face. He next portrayed a dimwitted and sadistic cowboy who menaces Spencer Tracy in Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), before landing supporting roles in the crime drama Violent Saturday (1955) and the Western Seven Men from Now (1956).
Turning to television, Marvin starred on the series M Squad (NBC, 1957-1960), which cast him as a plainclothes detective who is a member of a special squad with the Chicago Police Department that takes on organized crime. Though only lasting three seasons, the show turned Marvin into a star and helped propel his feature career. He landed a couple of amiable parts in the John Wayne pictures Comancheros (1961) and Donovan's Reef (1963) before playing the titular killer in John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (1962). Settling comfortably into villainous roles, Marvin shined as a methodical assassin in Don Siegel's excellent film noir, The Killers (1964), which was based on an Ernest Hemingway short story. In the Western-comedy Cat Ballou (1965), Marvin played the dual roles of a ruthless assassin and a hopeless alcoholic hired by the titular schoolmarm-turned-posse leader (Jane Fonda) tracking down her father's killer (Marvin). The two performances earned Marvin widespread critical kudos, as well as an Academy Award for Best Actor.
By the late 1960s, Marvin had become a major star that headlined important box office vehicles like the Richard Brooks Western, The Professionals (1966), in which he joined an all-star team of Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan and Jack Palance to track down a businessman's wife (Claudia Cardinale) kidnapped by a renegade band of Mexican thugs. He next led a crew of soldiers from a military prison on a suicide mission to storm a French chateau housing top Nazi officers in the World War II-set thriller The Dirty Dozen (1967), a great action yarn that became one of the highest-grossing movies of the decade. Marvin followed up with an incendiary performance as a professional thief out to get revenge against a fellow mobster who double-crossed him in the classic crime thriller, Point Blank (1967), directed by John Boorman. The role epitomized the actor's onscreen shift from unprincipled villainy to stoic self-defense regardless of what side of the law he found himself. Meanwhile, he had starring roles in Hell in the Pacific (1968) and Sergeant Ryker (1968) before displaying an embarrassing singing voice for the critically maligned musical Western, Paint Your Wagon (1969), which became notorious at the time for its runaway budget and delayed production.
Entering the next decade, Marvin embarked on a series of underwhelming movies with a few that managed to stand apart from the failures of that era. He delivered the goods as an over-the-hill cowboy unwilling to give up his ways in Monte Walsh (1972) and as an ill-tempered agent in the Don Siegel-like crime thriller Prime Cut (1972). Following a turn as the King of the Hoboes in The Emperor of the North Pole (1973), Marvin was a small town sheriff trying to keep the peace during an impending racial war in the rather silly melodrama The Klansman (1974). He next played a boozy Irishman in the clumsy World War I comedy Shout at the Devil (1976) before joining British icon Oliver Reed as a pair of con men in the forgotten broad comedy The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday (1976). Following the cold war thriller Avalanche Express (1978), Marvin saw his career take a back seat when he became involved in a landmark legal case that made headlines in 1979. Former live-in girlfriend, Michelle Triola, who legally changed her last name to Marvin, sued the actor, claiming he had promised to support her for the rest of her life, stemming from their cohabitation from 1965-1970. Although Triola wanted half of the $3.8 million Marvin had earned while they were together, a judge ruled there was no contract, establishing the California courts' palimony doctrine. The judge did order Marvin to pay $104,000 - $1000 a week for two years - in assistance, only to have the order nullified on appeal in 1981.
Marvin had his last significant role in director Samuel Fuller's violent war epic, The Big Red One (1980), in which he played an army sergeant who leads a young infantry platoon through tours across North Africa and Europe, culminating in the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp. Exceedingly violent and deeply moving, The Big Red One was ranked as one of the best war movies ever made and gave Marvin a huge boost in a career that had been lagging for well over a decade. After co-starring with Charles Bronson and Angie Dickinson in the historically based action thriller Death Hunt (1981), Marvin played a devious fur dealer in Michael Apted's adaptation of Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park (1983). Going back to the well, he reprised his role from two decades prior for The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission (NBC, 1985), a made-for-TV movie that revolved around a plot to assassinate Hitler. Marvin's final role proved to be a teaming with Chuck Norris to take on bad guys comic-book style in the action flick The Delta Force (1986). Health issues began to crop up when Marvin complained of abdominal pains in December 1986, leading to intestinal surgery. A mere nine months later, in August 1987, he was hospitalized for two weeks with flu-like symptoms. Marvin suffered a fatal heart attack on Aug. 29, 1987 in Tucson, AZ and was interred in Arlington National Cemetery as a war veteran. He was 63 years old.
Enjoy!
6:00 AM -- I Died a Thousand Times (1955)
1h 49m | Crime | TV-PG
An ex-con dreaming of one last heist faces dissension within his gang.
Director: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Jack Palance, Shelley Winters, Lori Nelson
Remake of High Sierra (1941) with Jack Palance playing the Humphrey Bogart role of Roy Earle.
8:15 AM -- Raintree County (1957)
3h 7m | Drama | TV-PG
In this sumptuous Civil War story, a willful southern belle goes mad out of fear that she may be part black.
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint
Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Elizabeth Taylor, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- William A. Horning, Urie McCleary, Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt, Best Costume Design -- Walter Plunkett, and Best Music, Scoring -- Johnny Green
On the evening of May 12, 1956, during the shooting of this movie, Montgomery Clift was involved in a serious car accident on his way back home from a party at the house of Dame Elizabeth Taylor. He apparently fell asleep at the wheel of his car while driving and smashed his car into a telephone pole. His friend Kevin McCarthy witnessed the accident from his car, drove back and informed Taylor and her then husband Michael Wilding, who immediately drove to the accident location together with Rock Hudson. Taylor entered the car through the back door, crawled to the front seat and removed the two front teeth from Clift's throat that threatened to choke him. Hudson finally managed to pull Clift out of the wreck and together with Wilding and McCarthy they protected him from being photographed by reporters until the ambulance arrived. This was necessary because soon after the emergency call had come in to the local police station, reporters were already on their way and arrived at the scene when Clift was still in the car. The accident was well publicized. After nine weeks of recovery and with plastic surgery, Clift returned to the movie set and finished this movie, but with considerable difficulties. His dashing and looks, though, were gone forever. In some scenes throughout the movie, despite the cinematographer's skill, Clift's nose and chin look different, and the entire left side of his face is nearly immobile.
11:30 AM -- Attack (1956)
1h 47m | War | TV-14
A cowardly captain leads his men into danger in WWII Belgium.
Director: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Jack Palance, Eddie Albert, Lee Marvin
Although he plays a coward in this film, in real life Eddie Albert, who served in WW II, was a war hero. At the Battle of Tarawa (1943), whilst braving heavy enemy fire, he rescued over 70 wounded Marines, loading them on to his landing craft and taking them back to other ships to receive medical care. For these actions he was award the Bronze Star with "V" device for valor.
1:30 PM -- The Wild One (1953)
1h 19m | Crime | TV-14
A vicious biker gang terrorizes a small town while their leader falls for a local girl.
Director: Laslo Benedek
Cast: Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, Robert Keith
Marlon Brando and Lee Marvin didn't get along very well during filming. Many years after the movie was released, Marvin explained to writer Michael Munn how he felt rather bemused at Brando's acting style.
3:15 PM -- Cat Ballou (1965)
1h 36m | Western | TV-MA
A prim schoolteacher turns outlaw queen when the railroad steals her land.
Director: Elliot Silverstein
Cast: Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin, Michael Callan
Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Lee Marvin
Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Walter Newman and Frank Pierson, Best Film Editing -- Charles Nelson, Best Music, Original Song -- Jerry Livingston (music) and Mack David (lyrics) for the song "The Ballad of Cat Ballou", and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment -- Frank De Vol
Modern-day audiences regard Lee Marvin's Oscar win for a raucous comedy with puzzlement, especially given the heavy-hitting dramas released the same year, such as Darling (1965), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and Ship of Fools (1965). At the time, however, Marvin's over-the-top portrayal of two total-opposite brothers was a revelation following a career playing one-note heavies. The actor had never had an opportunity to show his lighter side, and audiences loved what they saw - to the point where Marvin's nomination that year was for this movie rather than the far more prestigious and dramatic aforementioned Ship of Fools.
5:15 PM -- The Dirty Dozen (1967)
2h 29m | War | TV-PG
A renegade officer trains a group of misfits for a crucial mission behind enemy lines.
Director: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson
Winner of an Oscar for Best Effects, Sound Effects -- John Poyner
Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- John Cassavetes, Best Sound -- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Best Film Editing -- Michael Luciano
Lee Marvin provided technical assistance with uniforms and weapons to create realistic portrayals of combat, yet bitterly complained about the falsity of some scenes. He thought Reisman's wrestling the bayonet from the enraged Posey to be particularly phony. Director Robert Aldrich replied that the plot was preposterous, and that by the time the audience had left the cinema, they would have been so overwhelmed by action, explosions, and killing that they would have forgotten the lapses.
WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS -- LEE MARVIN
8:00 PM -- Point Blank (1967)
1h 32m | Crime | TV-14
A gangster plots an elaborate revenge on the wife and partner who did him dirty.
Director: John Boorman
Cast: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn
The scene where Walker surprises Lynne, shoots the bed, and then gets information from her was written to have him interrogating her, but when they shot it Marvin chose to stay silent. Acker continued with her side, and Boorman realized the brilliance of Marvin's choice. "Lee never made suggestions, he would just show you." They made the alterations and shot it with Lynne providing all of the info responding to his presence rather than his questions.
10:00 PM -- The Professionals (1966)
1h 57m | Western | TV-MA
A team of soldiers-for-hire is hired by an American businessman to rescue his kidnapped wife.
Director: Richard Brooks
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan
Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Richard Brooks, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Richard Brooks, and Best Cinematography, Color -- Conrad L. Hall
Despite the principal male actors being in their 50's (except for Lee Marvin, who was only 42), all of them insisted on performing their own stunts. However, only Woody Strode performed all of his stunts as there were no black stuntmen who came close to his height and stature. Burt Lancaster, who was 52 at the time, did most of his own stunts, including being hung upside down in Coyote Pass and running across the top of the moving train car. The studio balked, however, at Lancaster climbing the side of the cliff in the pass to plant the dynamite and a stuntman was substituted. Even though Palance was as tall as Strode, he had to use a stunt double for the scenes where he was wounded and fell off his horse, because falling the wrong way off a horse could lead to serious injuries.
12:15 AM -- Pocket Money (1972)
1h 42m | Adaptation | TV-PG
The children at a small-town boy's school experience the joys and pains of growing up.
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Cast: Paul Newman, Lee Marvin, Strother Martin
The movie's publicity still with Paul Newman and Lee Marvin was photographed by British photographer Terry O'Neill and also appears on the jacket of O'Neill's 2003 compilation coffee-table book "Celebrity". In the book O'Neill recounts how when he arrived on the set to shoot his publicity stills, Lee Marvin was hungover and in a foul mood. Most of the production personnel were steering clear of him. When O'Neill gingerly approached Marvin and introduced himself, Marvin asked, "Are you English?" What O'Neill didn't know at the time was that Marvin was a lifelong Anglophile--he LOVED the British. After that brief encounter, Marvin's mood changed and, according to O'Neill, he couldn't have been more cooperative for the rest of his assignment.
2:15 AM -- Gorky Park (1983)
2h 8m | Drama
A triple murder takes place within the confines of the Soviet Union and touches off an investigation.
Director: Michael Apted
Cast: William Hurt, Lee Marvin, Brian Dennehy
Director Michael Apted said of actor Lee Marvin's casting against type as Jack Osborne whilst doing press for the film: "Yes, a lot of people are surprised. In fact, they're in blank astonishment at the casting. They think I've gone bonkers. But I talked to people about him, and everyone who knew him said what an intelligent sophisticated man Lee really is. I felt he didn't have to play the cursing, swearing, stubble-chinned ex-Marine everyone knows. It's good to go against type-casting sometimes."
4:30 AM -- Avalanche Express (1979)
1h 28m | Spy | TV-PG
During the cold war, a Soviet biological warfare expert plans to defect to the West.
Director: Mark Robson
Cast: Lee Marvin, Robert Shaw, Linda Evans
Robert Shaw was very ill during filming and died during its production. His voice was so weak and his delivery was so shaky because of his illness that his voice was dubbed by Robert Rietty, although Rich Little also dubbed three words near the end of the picture ("Harry, come on"
and six words in Shaw's own voice were deemed usable ("Too hot in that train" and "Harry" . Little insisted he not be paid, as he was a big admirer of Shaw.