Friday, June 5, 2015

Seven Things You Didn't Know About The Magnificent Seven


                                           
                                                   One of the seven....

Ok so before you read this, I want to you to hum the theme for The Magnificent Seven.  Have you just hummed the theme for The Big Country?
No?  There's a link to check at the end.

I have an deadline creeping ( well it is sprinting!) very close so  I asked my pal to blog for me. He has just published this...


                                             

He wrote  The Making of Lawrence of Arabia, The Making of The Guns of Navarone, Hitchcock’s Hollywood Hell and Darkness Visible: Hitchcock’s Greatest Film.  But now he has landed a huge deal with an American publisher about this...

The Making of The Magnificent Seven: Behind the Scenes of the Pivotal Western.

It is a huge book, I confess about a film I don't think I  have ever seen but I think there is some galloping, some shooting and lots of very good looking men in  hats. Are you all now trying to remember who the seven were?

Here's what Brian has to say. I will try not to be too caustic about men on  horses in the desert keeping their trousers very clean!

                                            
                      

                                              
                            When there's mockery like this, it's well in the cultural consciousness

So here's            Seven Things You Didn’t Know About The Magnificent Seven (1960)

                                                          By Brian Hannan

                             
                                    Was he one of them? Some bloke with a Death Wish?


1) It was a flop. 
United Artists had a bust-up with the film-makers and refused to give the movie a big premiere. Instead of a glitzy launch in New York or Los Angeles it was turned loose in the southwest in what was called a “saturation” release which at the time was primarily reserved for exploitation pictures that died the death once word got round. In major cities films you’ve never heard of thumped it at the box office  – Freckles topped it in St Louis and The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come in Louisville. When the figures were tallied up for first year of release, it was beaten in the annual box office stakes by a host of less expensive films lacking proper stars. These included British stiff-upper-lip war picture Sink the Bismarck starring Kenneth More, Italian sword-and-sandals epic Hercules Unchained starring Steve Reeves, an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s  The Lost World starring Michael Rennie and a young Jill St John, the special effects relying on photographically enlarged lizards, Richard Burton drama The Bramble Bush and anaemic Disney true-life adventure Jungle Cat

                                         
                                                         Etc etc etc....

 2)  John Sturges was third choice to direct the film. 
Initially, star Yul Brynner was going to direct.

                                           
                                               The King Of Siam and some other guy (hats on)
                                        He also wore a hat while putting out fires in NY while 
                                       DR Kildare came to a sticky end.

3)  Composer Elmer Bernstein was fourth choice. John Sturges wanted Dmitri Tiomkin (High Noon) to write the score but they fell out when Tiomkin insisted of having a song over the opening credits.  Classical composer Aaron Copland, one of Bernstein’s influences, was next in line and Alex North (Exodus) got as far as seeing the completed film before Sturges turned to Bernstein. Despite the music making an impact, the original soundtrack was not released for many years. Initially, guitarist Al Caiola was more associated with the music than Bernstein, having released a single that sold well while Bernstein, signed to a competitor to the UA label, was originally refused permission. Bernstein was nominated for an Oscar for the sequel Return of the Seven even though there was little original about the music since it was mostly lifted from the first picture.

                                                   
                                                          Not a bit of horse drool on him.

4) Among those reported to be in the running for a role were Swedish world heavyweight boxing champion Ingemar Johansson, who had won the title in 1959 after beating the American Floyd Paterson, and singer Sammy Davis Jr., a member of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack.



Was he one?


                                            
                                                             And him?

5) The famous tagline “They were seven…but they fought like seven hundred” was virtually a direct copy of the tagline for a Gregory Peck western Only the Valiant nearly a decade before which ran “They were six…but they fought like six hundred.” Curiously, the Peck film also concerned seven men faced insuperable odds.  
  
                                          
                                                              Yip,  that's three!!

6 ) Sturges received a critical drubbing in one of the most influential books ever written about film.  Andrew Sarris in his landmark study American Cinema, published in 1968, which assessed every notable director, commented: “It is hard to remember why John Sturges career was ever considered meaningful.”
                                       
                                                    Is he a  goodie or a baddie?

7) Local cinemas did not feel obliged to stick to the advertising text supplied by United Artists. The Baker theater in Lockhart must have confused The Magnificent Seven with some other movie to dream up the following advertisement: “A message picture (and) handsomely mounted social drama.” Cinema owners could choose what picture to play it with though I wonder how many people were attracted to a double bill of The Magnificent Seven and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
                                                 
                                                 
Brian ( Get him on your team in a pub quiz!!)

YEEEEE HAAAAAA, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iteRKvRKFA   for the theme tune. Did you get it right?


Brian Hannan on behalf of Caro Ramsay,  05 06 2015

19 comments:

  1. A great movie and well adapted version of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. I usually watch it every couple of years when I need a classic western fix.

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    1. Hey Jono, glad to meet a fellow fan. In writing the book I watched it over 20 times and each time I saw something new.

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    2. Hey Jono, glad to meet a fellow fan. In writing the book I watched it over 20 times and each time I saw something new.

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  2. I happen to love that film. My father did too. But we're from Pittsburgh.

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    1. Hey Jeffrey, this may be too late for you but I was on WATR Radio today being interviewed by Larry Rifkin on the Talk of the Town show. Larry was very well informed and gave me a good 15 minutes. The book was also reviewed very positively in the Wall Street Journal. If you ever hear of any big screen showings in your area, please let me know as I've been able to provide notes for screenings.

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    2. Hey Jeffrey, this may be too late for you but I was on WATR Radio today being interviewed by Larry Rifkin on the Talk of the Town show. Larry was very well informed and gave me a good 15 minutes. The book was also reviewed very positively in the Wall Street Journal. If you ever hear of any big screen showings in your area, please let me know as I've been able to provide notes for screenings.

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  3. I've come to the conclusion, maybe wrongly, that this is a 'man thing.' Wilderness and horses, guns, baddies, hats, morality and lots of galloping about to the theme tune.

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  4. I haven't seen it in years. I do watch the Seven Samurai at least once a year, as I do all of Kurosawa's movies. I'm with Caro, this Western thing is about guy bonding. Nothing wrong with that, but having grown up with three brothers and their many friends, I've been an eyewitness to enough of that, thanks very much.

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    Replies
    1. I'm with you, Annamaria - I love Seven Samurai and Kurasawa, any Kurasawa.

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    2. Come on over. As it happens, I have the Netflix disc of Red Beard, which arrived just yesterday!!!

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    3. Hi Annamaria, here's quite a curious thing I discovered in my research - The Magnificent Seven is quite a favourite of a lot of women. When I've pressed as to why this might they just give me a stare as though it's obvious. I'm with you on Kurosawa though. He is the master.

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    4. Hi Annamaria, here's quite a curious thing I discovered in my research - The Magnificent Seven is quite a favourite of a lot of women. When I've pressed as to why this might they just give me a stare as though it's obvious. I'm with you on Kurosawa though. He is the master.

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  5. Yes, Annamarie. Three brothers!!
    I get the feeling from the film ( that I haven't seen) that the women are all round the corner, dusting the desert from the men's hats, washing their trousers and feeding them beans. Maybe with dark eyes that are glinting with passion. All that stuff men would like.:)

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    Replies
    1. Well, none of that lot of actors would make my eyes glint, not even in the guise of movie stars.

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  6. You and AA just keep on tossing out the bait, hoping for a bite. If you watched more John Wayne films you'd realize schoolmarms don't always get their way. :)

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  7. Ok AA, Steve McQueen looks a cabbage and the rest of them look well dodgy but the horses are nice.
    And Mr Siger, are you thinking of The Quiet Man, (was it the Quiet Man??) where Mr Wayne picks up a lady and puts her in a puddle?

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    Replies
    1. To paraphrase from another classic movie moment, "That was no lady, that was his soon-to-be wife."

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