Paint Your Unsinkable Wagon Brown

Last December, actress Carrie “Princess Leia” Fisher died, followed the following day by her mother, Debbie “Molly Brown” Reynolds.  I decided to put “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” on my Netflix queue, but it seems I wasn’t the only one who did so.  Only after I returned from a recent trip to Colorado (!) did I find the DVD waiting for me, and of course I watched it.  I’d seen it before, eons ago with my parents, but I find that rewatching movies after I’ve experienced life a bit more makes them a different experience. 

The Unsinkable Molly Brown.  The true story of this remarkable woman who grew up and developed in late nineteenth century Colorado, Denver in particular.  It seems she and her husband were both of hillbilly background but struck it rich, much to the annoyance of their snobby neighbors in Denver.  She went off to Paris, learned French and other languages, got “culture”, and eventually came back to impress everyone for good.   She went back to Paris again, this time returning on a so-called unsinkable ocean liner, the Titanic.  She was one of the survivors.

The movie features Debbie Reynolds in the title role, with Harve Presnell as her husband.  It’s a musical, and it’s long.  However, it’s charming enough to be endurable, and I love the Paris scenes.  She picked the right time to go, right before WWI.   If you haven’t seen it, and you have 3 hours to spare, knock yourself out – especially if you like musicals.

Paint Your Wagon.  As it happens, I don’t know why, but I also put “Paint Your Wagon” on my queue as well.  Eventually Netflix decided to send it to me, and for some reason I decided to watch it.   Guess what, it’s another long-ass musical.   The main characters are Ben Rumson (Lee Marvin) and a character only known (his name only revealed at the very end) as “Pardner”, played by Clint Eastwood.  There are other actors as well, which I’ll get into.

Rumson and Pardner start off as gold prospectors in northern California in the mid-1800s.  A Mormon man comes to town and is forced to auction off his second wife, Elizabeth (Jean Seberg), and Rumson manages to win the auction for her – by drunkenly offering to double the last bid, which no one can match.  At this point she’s the only woman in a mining town of 300+ men (apparently all of them straight).  When they catch word that a shipment of 6 French ladies can be hijacked, Rumson goes off to head the hijacking party to capture them, leaving Pardner to guard Elizabeth.  In Rumson’s absence, the two fall in love.  When Rumson returns, she decides she loves both and the three wind up in a very unconventional lifestyle.  The town develops into a Sin City, with several brothels, saloons and casinos to cater to every vice imaginable.  Eventually it all comes crashing down – literally.  I found it highly entertaining, despite its length.  Part of the charm is hearing Eastwood sing in his own voice, a talent which didn’t come up in the Dirty Harry films.  “Make…My….Day…!”

A familiar face, Ray Walston, is here too.  But one guy, Rotten Luck Willie [ironically named, it seems], who winds up running one of the main saloons, caught my eye – and my ear, as he had a particularly strong singing voice.  Where had I seen him before?  (Slaps head):  it’s Harve Presnell, better known as Mr. Molly Brown. 

So that makes TWO musicals worth wasting time watching, with a common actor.  ENJOY.