Paint Your Wagon (1969)

Set during the California gold rush, a prospector (Lee Marvin) finds an unconscious man (Clint Eastwood) who has survived his wagon crashing down a ravine. They become partners in gold prospecting but when a woman (Jean Seberg) arrives in town, it causes complications when they both want her. Based on the Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner and directed by Joshua Logan (PICNIC). The movie jettisons almost all of the plot of the 1951 musical as well as almost half of the stage musical's songs (as well as Agnes DeMille's choreography) and replaces them with a few new songs with Andre Previn composing the music (although still living, Loewe had nothing to do with the movie) to Lerner's lyrics. Musically, the film is weak. Lerner & Loewe wrote MY FAIR LADY, GIGI, BRIGADOON and CAMELOT, all wonderful scores but outside of the haunting They Call The Wind Maria, the songs are aren't particularly memorable (my favorite song from the show, How Can I Wait was cut). The screenplay is a hot mess! Ghastly about describes it. As for the actors: Lee Marvin overacts abominably, Eastwood is wooden and only the lovely Jean Seberg is able to provide anything resembling an actual human being. The film actually did well at the box office (in London, it played for over a year in one theatre) but its massive budget precluded it turning a profit. With Harve Presnell and Ray Walston.