Edith Head Tribute

 

 

 

Preface: Much of the information I used in this piece came courtesy of a phenomenal book: Edith Head: The Fifty-Year Career of Hollywood's Greatest Costume Designer by Jay Jorgensen.

 

Edith and the "men" in her life

In the mid-90's I was going to a church, and the Sunday School class I was involved with at that church had a get together often, where we would eat and fellowship and play games.  I remember on one occasion we split up into two groups to play Trivial Pursuit.  One of the categories which my team came up with on one of our turns during that game was Entertainment.  The opposing team pulled the card and immediately concurred that our team would "never guess" the answer.  Even my team was for the most part in a spirit of resignation (before the question was even read, by the way...) 

But being the avid optimist when it came to the subject of movies and TV, I was, like, "oh, we'll get it..."  The question, as I remember, was "Who has won the most Academy Awards for Costume Design?"  Without even a pause to confer with my teammates, I blurted out "Edith Head!"  The whole room was astounded that I got it right and thought I was some sort of genius... 

However, truth be told, I had no idea at the time it would be the right answer.  I was never much for paying attention to what I would refer to as "lower tier awards" during the yearly Oscars ceremonies, so I had never even noticed who won many of those awards.  It was simply the fact that the only name I knew in the realm of costume design was Edith Head.

The artist in action

The reason why I knew her name was due to the fact that I had been (and still AM) an avid reader of the credits during movies I watch, and remembered that Edith was noted in the credits to Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. The film was her last, and it was dedicated to her memory.  

The fact that Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid was a parody/homage to thereat film noir movies of the 50's, and Ms. Head had been the costume designer for quite a few of the better original film noir movies led me to note more of her credits during the opening sequences.  Some of  her credits include such great classics of the film noir genre as Double Indemnity, The Blue Dahlia, Notorious and Sunset Boulevard.  

 

Double Indemnity

Not only does Edith hold the record for Oscar wins in the category; a total of 8, but those 8 Oscars are also a record for most wins by a female in any category. (Katherine Hepburn's 4 wins as an actress is a distant second). She also holds the record for most nominations for an Oscar in the costume design category; a total of 35, which is also a record for nominations for any female in any category. (Again, Meryl Streep, with 21 nominations as an actress is a distant second in that regard). 

She even holds the record for most consecutive years in getting nominations for Oscars. Between 1948, which was the first year the award was given for the category, and 1966, Edith was either nominated for, or in some cases, actually won Oscars in Best Costume Design -Color and/or Best Costume Design - Black and White, an astounding run of 19 years. (AI incorrectly lists Walt Disney as the record holder with a paltry 8 year run, but in his defense he was the sole name as the nominee, and Ms. Head shared credits in some of those years in which she was named as a candidate for her contributions).  

She was also nominated five more times in the 70's, winning her 8th and final Oscar for The Sting. At 432 credits over her career, she is also holds the record for having the most credits in film in the costume design category.

 

The designs for The Sting

In 1950 Edith managed to win the Oscar in both categories. For Best Costume Design- Color she was given a statuette for Samson and Delilah, and for Best Costume Design - Black and White, she got it for her work on All About Eve. 

Samson and Delilah

All About Eve

She appeared on screen a handful of times too, almost always as herself.  She was a guest contestant on the TV version of Groucho Marx's game show You Bet Your Life. She had a cameo in the film The Oscar, a movie for which she was also the costume designer. That film, by the way, was also one for which she received one of her Oscar nominations (for costume design, not for acting...) One of my favorite TV shows is Columbo and, in one episode of that series, "Requiem for A Falling Star", she meets the titular Columbo. And no, she isn't the murderer (or the victim), she just has a brief cameo, as Columbo comes to the studio of his suspect (whom we already know is the murderer. if you are familiar with the format of that show.)

Edith in "Columbo"

Edith Head began her career in the late 20's a studio sketch artist. She admits that, when she was first hired, her only experience was doing landscapes. She took some drawings from fellow students in her university class to the interview, which she said was with their permission, by the way. She owned up to the ruse pretty much right away after her hire, but they decided to keep her anyway. One of her first jobs was doing some uncredited work on the Academy Award winning movie Wings. Her first credited work was on the dresses worn by Mae West in She Done Him Wrong.

 

She Done Him Wrong

She started getting recognition for her work, and indeed, she was nominated for the first ever Academy Award Oscar for Costume Design, created in 1948, for The Emperor Waltz. She lost that award to her only competitor that year, Dorothy Jeakins, who won it for her work on Joan of Arc, but Ms. Head came back in spades the next year, winning the award for The Heiress in 1949, and as stated above, in 1950 for both categories.

 

The Emperor Waltz

 

Although she had a great eye for contemporary style, I think Ms. Head's best stuff was when she was involved in period dramas. Whether it was ancient Egypt (The Ten Commandments), early American colonial times (The Buccaneer), the American Old West (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) or the Jazz Age mid-west (The Sting), Edith's eye for period pieces usually shined through. But in the case of three of the previously noted four movies, the Oscar that she was nominated for ended up in other hands. (The sole statuette in that quartet being for The Sting, by the way, which was well deserved...) 

I would like to point out that quite often the competition that Edith faced in her quest for Oscar recognition was often pretty stiff.  Take for instance the year of 1956-57, another year in which she was in the running for both categories.  I will concede the Oscar for Best Costume Design - Black and White to the winner, The Solid Gold Cadillac, since of the five nominated films in the category (The Proud and Profane {the one for which she was nominated}, along with the winner, The Solid Gold Cadillac, The Power and the Prize, Teenage Rebel and Seven Samurai), the only one I have seen was Seven Samurai. But look at the roster for Best Costume Design - Color that year: 

Ms. Head was nominated for her work on the set of The Ten Commandments.

 

Among her competitors that year were Maria de Matteis for War and Peace. 

 

Moss Mabry and Marjorie Best for Giant.

Irene Sharaff for The King and I.

And the ultimate winner of the award, Miles White for Around the World in 80 Days.

It's easy to see, just from those stills, that the Academy had their work cut out for them. On more than one occasion I have stated that I wish the voting tally was public knowledge. I am surely not the only one to wish to know how the rest of the movies fared in a particular tally at times. In this case, personally, I would have had an extremely hard time choosing between ATWI80D, The King and I and The Ten Commandments...

In 1975 not only did Ms. Head get a nomination of The Man Who Would Be King at that year's Oscars, she also got a nomination for the film in the same category with the British Acadamy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) . She lost both, however; the Oscar to Barry Lyndon and the BAFTA to The Day of the Locust. I can't say I begrudge the Academy for picking Barry Lyndon as that movie was a feast for the eyes, visually. But The Day of the Locust? Call me  an unsophisticated lout, but most films that depict the 1930's in retrospect don't really impress me, fashion wise. (I should note that as much as I love The Sting, it's the story and the acting and the music that draw me, not the costumes, although as stated above, I thought they were good).  One of these days I'm going to have to post a review of The Day Of The Locust...

The first on screen credit that Ms. Head received was for her work on the Mae West film She Done Him Wrong. Ms. West's instructions to Ms. Head in designing her clothes was "make the clothes loose enough to prove that I'm a lady, but tight enough to show 'em I'm a woman". And Ms. Head must've done a good enough job on the outfits. Just shortly after the film's release a Paris fashion designer, Elsa Schiaparelli, introduced new designs on the fashion industry based on those outfits.

She Done Him Wrong

 

Over her early years in the wardrobe department, Edith would develop a rapport with many current and soon-to-be female stars, some who would use their influence to demand that Edith would be the preferred designer of their outfits. Barbara Stanwyck in particular, after an encounter where she was mistaken for just an overly aggressive fan by security guards while accompanying her Stella Dallas co-star at a premiere, while wearing her usual clothes, decided that Ms. Head had a better eye for what women should wear, and began to request her regular wardrobe be designed by her. On the same note, there were a few actresses who weren't all that impressed with her, but maybe just a little of that animosity was due to a preference for her mentor. Claudette Colbert has been quoted as saying that she considered Ms. Head as nothing more than an "art student."

In 1938, when her mentor Travis Banton was fired from Paramount because of his unreliability due to his drinking, she was in line to be made the studio head of the design department. Even though the studio considered bringing in a big name, they eventually made her the studio head because she was cheaper than the alternative. 

The onset of World War II had some impact on the costume production for films made during the war years. The U.S. War Board issued what was called "Limitation Order l-85" which was designed to limit the use of fabric, materials and labor for non-essential apparel, both in public and in costumes for film. This caused the costume design departments of the studios to find ways to be creative without being too excessive on the demands of the material. But one only needs to see some of Dorothy Lamour's outfits in the Bob Hope / Bing Crosby Road pictures, or Barbara Stanwyck's dresses in Double Indemnity to know that Ms. Head knew how to make do.

 

The Road to Morocco

Double Indemnity

 

 

The post-war years saw Ms. Head becoming more prominent in the industry. She continued to be a requested designer. sometimes even having actresses who were on loan to other studios requesting that she also be loaned out to design for them. One in particular was Ingrid Bergman, who often would put in demands that such bonuses be added when she went to another studio to make a picture.

Beginning in 1947, because her designs. as well as some other designers' fashions were garnering such attention, Photoplay Magazine began offering patterns for sale. The top seller for that first year happened to be a Head design worn by Lizabeth Scott in Desert Fury.  It was also in 1947 that the first Oscar was ever presented for Costume Design. Despite being instrumental in getting the award initiated, she did not win, and it is reported she was very disappointed. She only had one competitor that year, Dorothy Jeakins, who won it for Joan of Arc. Fortunately the Academy did show it's admiration during the next year's ceremony, however. 

The 1950's proved to be one of the most memorable in terms of Ms. Head's output. Along with The Ten Commandments, she was also the designer of note in such films as All About Eve, where she made Bette Davis look stunning, A Place in the Sun, where both Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters showed off their charms, Roman Holiday and Sabrina, both of which had Audrey Hepburn lighting up the screen and To Catch a Thief, from which Grace Kelly benefited from her designs, all of which films were either nominated for or actually received Oscars for Ms. Head.

 

All About Eve

 

 

 

A Place in the Sun - Taylor

 

A Place in the sun- Winters

 

Roman Holiday

 

 

 

Sabrina

To Catch A Thief

 

 

One of the more interesting contributions of Edith involved her work with the production of The War of the Worlds. Not only did she design the look of Anne Robinson, but she also contributed to what the Martians would be wearing.   

 

The War of the Worlds-Anne Robinson

 

The War of the Worlds -Martian

 

One of the more interesting tidbits I came across while researching this entry involved the dress that Edith made for Bette Davis in All About Eve. Ms. Davis tried on the dress she was to use and it slipped down over her shoulders. Edith, thinking there was a problem with the fitting was all set to inform the producers that production would have to be delayed while she fixed the problem was told by Bette that it might be a good thing for her character if her shoulders were exposed in the scene.  

Even when Ms. Head's focal contributions were for men she had a good eye, especially when it came to period pieces. She got a nomination for her work on John Wayne in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. (Side note: I think it's a shame that that was the only Oscar nomination for that movie, but that's for another entry in this blog some day...)  She would follow up over the next few years by doing Wayne's outfits in Hatari!, The Sons of Katie Elder, Hellfighters  El Dorado, too.

 

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

El Dorado

She was also instrumental in making Elvis stand out in 9 of his films, including the iconic red and white cowboy suit that he wore when he sang "Teddy Bear" in Loving You.  

 

Elvis in Loving You

Ms. Head was a favorite of director Alfred Hitchcock. In 1946 she did her first film with him, Notorious, and although it would be another 8 years before she worked with him again, she came on board, beginning with Rear Window and was his go-to costume designer for much of the rest of his career. Of the last 14 movies he made during that time, Edith was the costume designer of note for 11 of them, with the exceptions being North by Northwest, Frenzy and Psycho.

 

Edith and Alfred

1963 was a banner year for Edith in the running for Oscars. Not only was she nominated for as an Oscar in the Best Costume Design - Color for A New Kind of Love (which lost to Cleopatra), she was nominated twice for Best Costume Design - Black and White, for Love With a Proper Stranger and Wives and Lovers, both of which lost to 8 ½.  

The 70's saw Ms. Head slowing down a bit. In previous decades she had averaged more than 70 movies a year, but through the 70's, her last decade in the industry, she only worked on 12. One of those was her work on The Sting, for which she received the 8th of her Oscars, but she was also designing for old friends, like Mae West, who used her services for what ended up being Mae's last two films, Myra Breckenridge and Sextette. (And there are two movies that have to be seen to be believed...) Also benefiting from her services during that decade were a couple of other old friends, Elizabeth Taylor (Ash Wednesday) and Katherine Hepburn (Rooster Cogburn). 

Besides The Sting, she also got recognized with a handful of Oscar nominations (none of which she won, but were well done nonetheless..) Those films were Sweet Charity, The Man Who Would Be King and both Airport and Airport '77. The competition for those was pretty stiff each time, however. As previously mentioned The Man Who Would Be King lost to Barry Lyndon and I don't begrudge that one. Nor do I have anything bad to say about Airport '77 losing to Star Wars.  (What can I say? I LOVE Star Wars...) The other two lost to Anne of a Thousand Days and Cromwell.

Her last film was Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid,  and, as noted above, was the inspiration for writing up this blog entry. She was responsible for making Steve Martin look authentic while he "interacted" with some of the iconic men and women who made those earlier films. Credit, of course, is owed to the director, Carl Reiner, and Martin himself, but without a good costume designer to make it seem real, this one would have been seriously lacking.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

 Edith passed away only a few short weeks after completing her work on this one. (I don't think she was lived long enough to see the final cut.) Her loss was felt throughout the industry.

Note: Ms. Head was not without her detractors. I read an article that was very disparaging about her talent and her contributions, but I avoided anything negative when writing this tribute. If you side with the detractors that's fine, but I choose to remember her in a more sympathetic light.

It was very insightful for me to delve into one of the more iconic people in the industry that was not in front  of the camera (actors and actresses) or behind it (directors). Hope you enjoyed this reminiscence. 

Drive safely folks.

Quiggy

 

 

Semiquincentennial Movie Project #18: Southern Comfort

 

 

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

Week #18: Louisiana -

 

 

 

The state of Louisiana was established on April 30, 1812. 

Details about Louisiana:

State bird: eastern brown pelican

State flower: magnolia    

State tree: bald cypress

Additional historical trivia:

The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway holds the record for being the longest bridge in the U.S., at 24 miles. (Note: Your blogger has crossed that bridge... it seems even longer... there are telephone stations every mile or two in case you break down).

The Battle of New Orleans, the last battle fought in the Civil War, actually occurred after the South had surrendered.

The nation's tallest state capitol building is located in Louisiana.

It's illegal to send a pizza to someone without their consent in Louisiana. (You can send it to me, if I happen to be there... I won't press charges...)

St. Joseph's Cemetery in Rayne is the only cemetery where the graves are aligned north to south instead of east to west.

The first opera every performed in the U.S. happened in Louisiana.

Famous people born in Louisiana: Reese Witherspoon, Ellen DeGeneres, Louis Armstrong, Terry Bradshaw, Peyton and Eli Manning and Jimmy Swaggart,  

 

Southern Comfort (1981): 

John Carpenter and Walter Hill rank #1 and #2, respectively, as my favorite directors. Both Carpenter's and Hill's films occupy several several of the top movies in my list of all time favorites. as well as being the focus of a number of reviews here on The Midnite Drive-In. Carpenter is my go-to guy for horror and Hill is the same for taut action and character driven movies.

As far as Walter Hill is concerned, The Warriors, Streets of Fire and Crossroads have previously been addressed, and with today's feature, Southern Comfort, I am including one that I think sometimes may be neglected in his oeuvre. Most people will recognize such titles as the two Eddie Murphy / Nick Nolte films, 48 Hours and Another 48 Hours. I would hope that a lot of people would know about The Warriors, too, but that's just because it is the one that got my attention. Possibly some of you may even remember the Richard Pryor comedy from 1985, Brewster's Millions, which was not an action movie, but was still entertaining.

Southern Comfort comes off as something like the Burt Reynolds film Deliverance on steroids. The parallels between the two films is interesting. Both involve characters who are "strangers in a strange land" of sorts. Both have our central characters struggling to survive in the wilderness as natives to the area try to hunt them down. In both cases the main characters have engendered an enmity with the locals through some faux pas and are now being summarily hunted down.

In Southern Comfort what we have is a squad of Louisiana National Guard soldiers on maneuvers in the backwoods swamps of Louisiana. The setting is 1973. There are many reviews of the film that make this film out to be an allegory for America's involvement in Vietnam, but the director himself insists that was not the case. One reviewer I read said that Hill has a point. The negative egotism that Americans had about the "less civilized" Vietcong during that war was not unique to just Vietnam.

I personally think that Southern Comfort was just a natural progression of the same theme that Hill had used in his previous film, The Warriors, which involved a band of gang members caught behind enemy lines and just trying to survive long enough to make it to safety. There is the added feature that not all of the members of this squad of soldiers are all on the same page. This may or may not be related to the fact that these soldiers are basically just "weekend warriors". Admittedly that's a rather negative and derogatory term for National Guard troops, but one that I come by honestly, since I have personally known a few Guard  soldiers, and many of them viewed themselves as such.

Anyway, what happens is that the leader of the troop, Sgt. Poole (Peter Coyote), gets the troop lost because the map he has is not entirely accurate, due to the changing nature of the swamps. 

 

When they find themselves facing a path that is now underwater, even though the map says the land is clear, a decision is made to commandeer a few canoes (shades of Deliverance!) that belong to the locals. They leave a note saying they will be returned, since those locals are not present at the moment.

 The situation becomes a bit more dire when the soldiers see the natives and one of the soldiers, obviously not very sympathetic to these backwoods hillbillies, fires off a few shots at them. They are only equipped with blanks, not real bullets, so no damage was going to happen to them, but the natives take issue anyway. One of them fires a real bullet and takes out Poole.

Sgt. Casper (Les Lannom) takes charge, but his command is something similar to some of the in charge characters in those Vietnam movies; everything strictly by the book, including hauling the dead body of their comrade. 

 

But infighting is bound to naturally occur. Hence the character driven portion of which I spoke earlier. Among the fellow soldiers is Corporal Reece (Fred Ward), who has smuggled in some live rounds into the maneuvers. Casper, upon finding out about this, orders that Reece split the rounds between all of the soldiers, much to Reece's dismay.

 

Private Spencer (Keith Carradine) and Corporal Hardin (Powers Boothe) and the remaining squad then begin the trek to find their way out of the swamp. 

 

Meanwhile the vindictive natives have begun a quest to take out the squad. Being that they know the lay of the land quite a bit better than the interlopers, this comes off  as pretty much a foregone conclusion. Booby traps (and in one case, quicksand) one by one eliminate many of the soldiers.

 

The whole thing comes to a head when Spencer and Hardin, now the only remaining survivors, find themselves supposedly rescued and taken to "safety" of a nearby village. But the hillbillies find them, and the whole thing comes to a head. While the townspeople seem somewhat oblivious to what is happening, both Spencer and Hardin find themselves facing off against the remainder of their enemies. 

 

Among the recognizable faces in the band of soldiers is T.K. Carter, who played Nauls in The Thing and had a part in one segment of Amazon Women on the Moon. Lewis Smith played Perfect Tommy in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, as well as the guardian angel of the main character in The Heavenly Kid (which is still waiting for a screening on The Midnite Drive-In...)  Franklyn Seales might also be memorable; he was Dexter on the TV series Silver Spoons.

The film was a failure at the box office. It had a budget of $7.5 million, but only pulled in a little under $3 million in ticket sales. (My movie $$ were not a part of it... I first saw it when it came to Showtime in 1982.) However, it was fairly well received by the critics. It holds a 79% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Roger Ebert gave it 3 stars, although that was primarily for the plotting and direction. He criticized the characters as being not much more than "stick-figure" characters.

It seems, on retrospect, that I am not the only person to note the similarities to Deliverance. According to the wikipedia article on the film (which I read AFTER having written the opening to this review), "[a]t the time critics regularly made reference to the film's plot similarities to John Boorman's 1972 thriller Deliverance".

I personally think the Burt Reynolds movie is much better, but I still like this film. It has enough action to hold interest, even if the characters are a bit cardboard. None of them really stand out as memorable, although I can really empathize with the Boothe  character; a man after my own heart, not very receptive to any BS, just wanting to get the job done and go back home to his wife and family. (One scene has him reacting negatively to a fellow soldier's plan to have a bevy of "female companions" waiting for them at the end of the maneuvers...)

Well, folks, that wraps up this trip down to Bayou Country. Drive safely.

Quiggy

 

Rebel WITH a Cause

 

 

It came as a great surprise to me, upon browsing the archives of movies I have covered in the last 10 years since the start of this blog,  that I had only delved into Clint Eastwood's output once.  (Only once?) And to boot, it was City Heat. Not that I don't like City Heat, but I list Eastwood as my second favorite western actor, behind John Wayne. That's almost sacrilege that I never covered even one of his westerns. 

I recently acquired a 10 Film Western Collection, and only one of those movies on that set has even made it to the screen of The Midnite Drive-In. (That movie, by the way, is Rio Bravo. Not one of my favorites of John Wayne's output, but it also brings up another neglected film in my output of reviews, The Searchers. Gotta remedy that soon, too.)

 

 

Anyway, I missed out on The Outlaw Josey Wales when it hit the theater, since I was still in my childhood days, and not allowed to go see PG or R rated movies. But I did see Pale Rider in the theater. It's been quite a few years since I watched it, but I remember enjoying it quite immensely.  I saw The Outlaw Josey Wales on TV prior to that, and was ready for another western from Eastwood by that time.

The Outlaw Josey Wales is my second favorite western of all time, close behind El Dorado and just slightly in front of Silverado. This entry will correct the faux pas that I have not reviewed this movie before.  And in the next few weeks I'll get another correction by getting up a review of Pale Rider.

Eastwood, of course, got his start in the western genre. Not right away, of course. His first appearance was in the sequel to Creature from the Black Lagoon, titled Revenge of the Creature, and among those early roles he was cast in such features as Francis in the Navy and Tarantula!, almost all of them as uncredited bit parts, but he started moving into the western genre fairly early. He got a big role as the third credited  star in a 1958 film Ambush at Cimarron Pass, behind the star, Scott Brady. And, that role, probably more than anything, led to his defining early role as Rowdy Yates in the TV series Rawhide in 1959.

Of course any Eastwood aficionado will know that that Rawhide role was what led to one of Eastwood's more iconic roles, that of the "Man with No Name", the center of Sergio Leone's trilogy of "spaghetti westerns"; A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Unlike my other actor/western hero, John Wayne, however, Eastwood did not make the western his go-to genre. Most people would probably think of the Dirty Harry series of films first when Eastwood's name is mentioned. More modern viewers might be more apt to think of his recent successes as a director rather than an actor.

The Outlaw Josey Wales started out as a novel by "Forrest Carter". There is some background to the author, which I will only briefly write about, but the gist of the story is that the character of "Forrest Carter" was a fiction. He wasn't who he really claimed to be, but was instead a former Ku Klux Klan member and speechwriter for George Wallace, the segregationist Alabama governor.  (Just to point it out, not to discredit him...)

The first printing of the novel, which eventually was published under the title Gone to Texas, only had 75 copies made, one of which eventually ended up in Eastwood's hands. He liked the novel and acquired it for production. 

Initially he had hired on Philip Kaufman only to help out on the screenplay, but eventually asked him to direct. However, differences between the two, both in how the movie was being directed and (it is rumored) their attraction to co-star Sandra Locke, caused Eastwood to engineer having Kaufman dismissed as director and taking the reins himself.

There are many standout performances of note in the film. In particular, several of the actors playing Native Americans in the film were actually of Native American descent, making it a rarity in those days, as well as portraying the Native American in a sympathetic light. Chief Dan George, Will Sampson and Geraldine Keams were all of Native American descent. 

Other roles that stand out are: Bill McKinney as Captain Terrill, John Vernon as Fletcher and one of my favorite characters, Paula Trueman as Granny. Sam Bottoms altogether too brief role as Jamie is also good.

 

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976):

Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood) is just a farmer trying to get his field plowed in preparation for the planting, with his son, Little Josey (played by Eastwood's real son, Kyle). The action doesn't take long to get underway, as a band of marauders led by Captain "Redlegs" Terrill (Bill McKinney) raids his farm, burns his house to the ground and kills his wife and son. When a contingent of Confederate soldiers ride up to the destroyed farm, Wales joins up to take the battle to his tormentors.

 

After the Civil War is over, apparently there were stragglers (renegades) who refused to give up the fight, and Wales' group was one. This makes some sense of what happens afterwards, because otherwise the actions of the Union soldiers against the surrendering Confederates would seem a bit over the top. Instead of just a normal peaceful surrender the Confederate renegades are slaughtered by the Union troops. The background premise, although not overtly stated, is that the Confederate group were considered outlaws, not legitimate soldiers, and therefore not deserving of any treatment usually given to surrendering "soldiers".

 

Wales enters the camp and wreaks havoc on the Union soldiers, and eventually escapes with fellow Confederate, Jamie (Sam Bottoms). Captain Terrill is given a commission to hunt down Wales, along with Wales' former commanding officer, Fletcher (John Vernon). 

 

 

Senator Lane: "Fletcher, there is an old saying; To the victor belong the spoils"

Fletcher: "There's another old saying, Senator: Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining..." 

Wales and Jamie set out for the Indian Nation, en route to Texas. Wales, who has no desire to have another family, seems destined to garner one despite his reluctance. First he has the younger, hanger-on, and almost surrogate son of Jamie. Jamie was injured during the battle and, reluctant though he is, Wales has to be the father figure and nurse to help Jamie survive. Jamie does his part to help out, but eventually succumbs to his wounds.

 

Now, Wales finally alone, continues on his trek. But this "lone wolf" role is continually disrupted. In the Indian Nation Wales meets Lone Watie (Chief Dan George), a hold out who has determined to not go with the rest of his tribe to the reservation that the government has determined to send him.  

 

Oh, well, Wales gets a companion his trek. In addition, at a trading post, he rescues a young Navajo girl, Moonlight (Geradine Keams), who views herself as being indebted to Wales and joins the band.

 

Wales constantly finds himself in situations where he has to prove that he is not about to go gentle into that good night. As Lone Watie observes when Wales says "When I get around to liking someone, they ain't around for very long", Watie says "I notice when you get around to DISliking someone, they ain't around for very long either."

The film has some very memorable scenes with some of the best lines coming whenever Wales has to have a showdown with people who are determined to take Wales out of the picture. In one town he is outed as Wales and faces of a quartet of Union soldiers.

 

"You gonna draw those pistols, or whistle Dixie?"

In another scene, a bounty hunter faces off Wales. 

 

Bounty Hunter: "A man's gotta do something to make a living."

Wales: "Dying ain't much of a living, boy."

 

The best part of the movie comes in the second half of the film. Wales rescues a bunch of Kansas people who are on their way to make a new life for themselves. They had been assaulted by a bunch of Comancheros who are determined to make a profit by selling off their booty and captives to the leader of the local Comanche tribe, led by Ten Bears (Will Sampson). Among this ragtag group of settlers is the opinionated and not afraid to express it Granny (Paula Trueman) and her granddaughter, Laura Lee (Sondra Locke). 

 

 

When Ten Bears and his tribe threaten the safety of the settlers Wales makes a pact with him and declares that they can both live in peace.

 

Wales: "I'm just giving you life and you're giving me life. And I'm saying that men can live together without butchering one another."   

Ten Bears: "It's sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues. There is iron in your words of death for all Comanche to see and so there is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. The words of Ten Bears carries the same iron of life and death. It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life... or death. It shall be life."

 

So the settlers are safe, but Wales is not quite safe yet. He still has to deal with those pesky pursuers led by Terrill. The final battle involves Wales and his new family facing off against the horde of Union soldiers, which has grown from the 5 men that the Senator sent him off with to about a dozen or more...  

 

The Outlaw Josey Wales was  a pretty good success at the box office, this despite the fact that many people at the beginning of the production tried to dissuade Eastwood from taking on the project because westerns had become pretty much passe.  It cleaned up with about a $30 million profit. 

The summer of 1976 was not filled with a bunch of big competitors, however. The big draws for that year, Rocky, King Kong and A Star is Born all came out at the end of the year, and the other big movie, All the President's Men had been released in April. The only movie that was around to really give the film a run for it's money was The Omen.

Rotten Tomatoes has the film rated at 91% Fresh. It got a lot of acclaim by the reviewers of the time. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3 stars. Many praised the cinematography, and the musical score went toe to toe with Jerry Goldsmith's score for The Omen (the eventual winner), as well as Bernard Hermann who was nominated for both Obsession and Taxi Driver. 

I watch this film at least once every few years, just to remind myself that the 70's version of Eastwood is probably his best version. From 1970 to 1979 we got some really good Eastwood films, beginning with Kelly's Heroes, and going through the decade we also got Dirty Harry (and two other Harry Callahan films), High Plains Drifter, and, of course, Play Misty for Me.

Well, folks, that wraps up this feature. Drive safely.

Quiggy