Clint Eastwood regrets his unconventional westerns

In 1967, Clint Eastwood’s career took off overnight with… American theatrical releases of “A Fistful of Dollars” “For a Few Dollars More” and “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” This trilogy of new spaghetti westerns directed by the brilliant Sergio Leone transformed Eastwood from a TV cowboy (As Rudy Yates on CBS’ Rawhide.) for the gunslinger hero. The genre was reborn, and Eastwood suddenly became the John Wayne of the Baby Boomer generation. He expanded his scope and cemented his popularity the following year by moving from the western genre “Hang ‘Em High” to the cop thriller “Coogan’s Bluff” to the World War II spy thriller “Where Eagles Dare.” By 1969, he could do almost anything, and he did the unexpected.

Despite the decline in popularity of traditional Western musicals and movies, Paramount thought they could give them a boost by producing a big-screen adaptation of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s popular 1951 musical “Paint Your Wagon.” It’s a fun show set during California gold rush period and full of unforgettable tunes and colorful characters. With veteran music director Joshua Logan (“South Pacific,” “Camelot”) at the helm, it seemed like a safe bet to at least break even commercially; At most, it could turn out to be a box office smash and a major Oscar contender.

Choice will be key, and here Logan turns a safe bet into a bizarre gamble. Instead of casting musically inclined actors to play the lead roles, he cast non-singing actors such as Clint Eastwood, Jean Seberg, and Lee Marvin. The result wasn’t a disaster per se, but Eastwood regretted it nonetheless.

In a 2017 interview with EmpireEastwood probably credits his newfound abundance of confidence as the reason he chose to play the gold-digger Pardner opposite Ben Rumson’s hell-bent Lee Marvin. “I was crazy enough to try anything,” Eastwood said. “I’ve always been interested in music, my father was a singer and I had some knowledge of it, although what I was doing in that picture wasn’t singing.”

Technically, it was. Aesthetically, it wasn’t exactly pleasing. While Logan’s strings weren’t quite able to carry the tune (Marvin is much worse), Jean Seberg was named by veteran Anita Gordon to keep moviegoers from bleeding from their ears.

Eastwood saw trouble coming and tried to stop production before filming began, but Lerner and Logan traveled to the set of Where Eagles Dare to convince him to stay. Eastwood relented but continued to regret the decision. “Paint Your Wagon” took six months to film, which is an eternity An effective actor and director It is known for bringing in films ahead of schedule and under budget. Although “Paint Your Wagon” eventually found an audience, it is still remembered as an odd musical.