Posted on 05/30/2009 6:33:49 AM PDT by ReformationFan
"Nevada Smith"-classic western starring one of my favorite movie cowboys, the legendary Steve McQueen is on Turner Classic Movies today at 12:00 PM EST. Co-starring Brian Keith as his foster father, Karl Malden, Martin Landau, Arthur Kennedy as his adversaries, Raf Vallone as a compassionate and wise priest and the late and lovely Suzanne Pleshette(in one of her best performances as the smoky voiced Cajun named Pilar), Janet Margolin and Joanna Moore(in an unbilled part) as the women in his life. Directed by Henry Hathaway("The Sons of Katie Elder") and a great score by Alfred Newman.
Definitely worth catching if you're a fan of classic cowboy films and/or McQueen. Makes a good double feature with "The Magnificent Seven" or "Tom Horn".
Alfred Newman’s epic theme
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqjSY6itpKM
Good scene with McQueen and Malden(contains possible spoilers)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPIzLoLFlo&feature=related
She was definitely a beautiful woman. RIP, Suzanne.
If you like the movie you will love the book the Carpetbaggers from which the movies Nevada Smith and the Carpetbaggers originated.
“Wasn’t this based on a character from a Harold Robbins novel - The Carpetbaggers?”
Yes. McQueen plays the same character Alan Ladd played in the 1964 film and this film is his backstory. (McQueen makes a good replacement for Ladd. Makes me think McQueen probably would’ve made a good Shane if that western had been filmed during McQueen’s time period as an actor.)
Nevada Smith is one sequel or “prequel” that is infinitely superior to the film that preceded it.
“If you like the movie you will love the book the Carpetbaggers from which the movies Nevada Smith and the Carpetbaggers originated.”
Does the novel go into detail with Max Sand a/k/a Nevada Smith’s backstory and if so, is the 1966 film pretty similar to it?
Yep, she was really a dish. I thought she was still “smoking” when she was doing the Newhart show, too.
Indeed. I also liked her in the comedy/western classic “Support Your Local Gunfighter” with James Garner where she played the feisty and appropriately misnamed Patience. She had some funny recurring line about going back to the Miss Smith’s College on the Hudson for Young Ladies of Good Family and kept repeating it while she’d shoot up the town with a shotgun or try to light a stick of dynamite.
It’s too bad McQueen and Miss Pleshette didn’t make more movies together. I thought she was one of his better leading ladies.
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