Best Liberty Show a Quarter Bought in 1966

 

You Don't Need the Title to Signify What This Art Represents, Which is Why I Don't Include It.

Among the One Hundred: The Professionals

Where it comes to first capturing favorites, timing is all. I came to The Professionals, rather it came to me, at age twelve on verge of thirteen. Story, setting, stars, never better aligned. I’d not hope to be James Bond, but could right circumstance of adulthood see me as variant at least on Lee Marvin? He as role model grew far back as M-Squad watched since five and kindergarten. Marvin toplines these professionals more than Burt Lancaster despite latter’s top billing, Lee’s “Henry Rico Fardan” most experienced and intellectually equipped to the mission, this confirmed by “J.W. Grant” (Ralph Bellamy) who cites Fardan completion at VMI and service to follow at San Juan Hill. If ever a man was “tempered like steel” in 1966-67, it was Lee Marvin. He’d do three in succession to dazzle boys of tender age, The Professionals, The Dirty Dozen, then Point Blank. Fact these would be ideal, if final ideal platforms for Marvin, went unrealized at the time … who knew bitter tea to brew by Sergeant Ryker, Hell in the Pacific (looked promising, so why would the Liberty not play it?), final insult of Paint Your Wagon, affront to all so far invested in Marvin and co-star Clint Eastwood. Pity passing of days when others chose for leading men, at least had a voice in selections, an advantage gone with Classic Era wind. As much applied re Lancaster, my first growth of beard likelier to arrive before he’d worthily follow-up The Professionals (1968’s The Scalphunters promising on posters, then as now a letdown). Lancaster’s 60’s output in retrospect seems a willful withhold of satisfaction that could have gone hand-in-hand with The Professionals, this to show how hard it would have been for anything to meet, let alone surpass, standard set here. What better for young or older men to aspire to than Burt Lancaster at age fifty-two scaling up a sheer rock wall on a rope, doubtless in sweltering heat? I’ve not known any male not profoundly impressed for having seen that.

Whatever to Do With Weaponry, Henry Rico Fardan Knows It, So Of Course We Wanted to Be Him 

Much about their mission seems fishy (retrieving a kidnap), but these are not men to care. There are four (Marvin, Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode) dispatched by one (Bellamy, millionaire husband of abducted wife). Bellamy will pay each $10K for her return, entrusting the foursome with one hundred thousand in gold for ransom. Lancaster being all about money and getting what of it he can makes us wonder in hindsight why the ransom itself wasn’t in play, at least by him. The Professionals refreshes for its simplicity, a surprise by the cynical sixties. The Code was being ushered out with nudity and salty language on the increase, The Professionals teasing with both. Politics peep in though gringos here sell their guns rather than imperialist notions. Robert Mitchum in 1956’s Bandido similarly focused on main prize that was cash for arms he’d supply. Lee Marvin’s Fardan begins The Professionals as weapons dealer for faceless munitions manufacturing, but nothing is made of this past point of him so employed and how much it pays ($35 per week). We will learn later that Fardan lived previously in Mexico, took a wife there, and worked with/for identified-as-abductor Jesus Raza (Jack Palance). Lancaster as “Bill Dalworth” observes part way into the mission that revolutions resolve to “the good guys against the bad guys” and wonders who in the long run are the good guys, a line that made me go whoops at first seeing The Professionals and wondering if we were headed for a preachment. Would the quartet we recognize as men of individual action for profit take sides like Gary Cooper ultimately did in Vera Cruz (1954)? That was always a temptation where oppression and revolt issues were aired, result too often fun let out of tires once heroes got impulse to be too heroic.

I Knew Marvin Better Than Lancaster in 1966, So Naturally Chose Him to Identify With.

We see automobiles put to practical use in The Professionals and several years later The Wild Bunch. They were in fuller abundance for Bandido which filmed near 100% on Mexican locations. Time set for all these was 1916-17, midst of civil war in the country that lasted more/less, on-off for ten years (1910-1920). This all being complicated meant movies dealt most with specific aspects or personalities involved (Villa, Madero, Zapata) or used the background for novel spin upon westerns, autos plus other modernities to link them closer with life we knew. Why do men answer a dangerous calling if not for selfish gain? Fact they’ve done so previous, if often, assures they will be seasoned, wised up enough to stay clear of causes. None of our four appear to have criminal histories. If they’ve been militarily trained, it is not emphasized, though we assume from Fardan’s background and mode of dress that he’s spent considerable time in uniform. To strike across the desert for a stolen wife seems beneath such a crew. We sense there is plenty they are unaware of. Such a team seems better suited to a Kwai or Navarone sort of operation, but this was the mid-sixties, where to fulfill a patriotic obligation seems naïve for men wised-up as these. Soon enough to movies would come doubt as to value of even World War Two engagements. Convicted murderers work wiles upon worse butchers that are the German command in The Dirty Dozen, Lee Marvin appropriately leading them. All are in it for amnesty, provided they survive. Kelly’s “heroes” sneak across enemy lines to steal Nazi gold, personal goals a priority over Allied need. The concept off-put me enough to skip the movie when it was released in 1970.

MAD Magazine Often Flattered It's Readership With "Smartie-Pants" Verbiage Like Above

The Professionals refreshes for its humor, a “twist” end I still don’t fully get, and pleasing fact all four of principals get to live, in fact no one of the cast dies save faceless fall downs among banditry and bystanders innocent or not. To unsettle is Raza executing one after another of surrendered Federales, shock imagery checkmated by The Wild Bunch three years later. MAD magazine took a cleaver to The Professionals, page samples to show mixed results pretty much as I remember from the time. Do people much go back and read old MAD’s? I liked it in a sort-of way, though choice of where to dispose of thirty-five cents saw Castle of Frankenstein the winner rather than MAD. The Professionals would be overshadowed by the Sergio Leone westerns out of Italy and yes, The Wild Bunch. Others of US origin, save True Grit and Butch Cassidy, took back seats and stayed in them, Grit and Butch to better please a mainstream by not rocking genre boats though seeming to with off-casting (John Wayne) and/or all-in-fun revisionism (raindrops and bicycles). The Liberty tickled me pink for bringing The Professionals back one 1970 Saturday, 1975 sojourn to USC brightened when a 35mm print of The Professionals along with The Happy Ending (Richard Brooks salute) played to hard back cinema student seating. Whatever got it done. Imagine watching two such disparate features back-to-back that the same guy directed. Very scope The Professionals played CBS February 1973 primetime and died there (no letterbox). Eventually got a 16mm scope/IB Tech from a collector so dedicated to The Professionals that he blew up frames from every single shot to 8X10. Hundreds of stills fuzzy as the narrow-gauge image itself. And here I was figuring to be deep in the life. A nice Blu-Ray is out there, 4K too if you’re prepared to give Netflix $27 per month for privilege to watch. An out-of-print CD of the Maurice Jarre score goes for plenty more than when first issued in 1992. How many like me could whistle every theme without missing a note, and often do?