I no doubtly got this to write a post about Lee Marvin. It was a bit on the high end at $4.
In the era of the tough guy actor, there was no tougher actor than Lee Marvin. Born in New York City in 1924, Marvin was wounded serving the Marines in the Pacific Theater of WWII. After the war, when asked to replace an ailing actor in a local theater production, Marvin worked his way up from Off-Broadway to Broadway, and then to the big screen. He started in small supporting roles, most times as a heel, including The Big Heat and The Wild One, playing a foil to Marlon Brando’s character (as well as perhaps influencing the Beatles along the way).
He started getting bigger parts including a stint of movies where we played heel to John Wayne (Sidenote: I always stop watching The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance after Marvin is done. Eventually lead roles started coming Marvin’s way, leading to his Oscar winning performance in Cat Ballou.
I believe The Dirty Dozen is the work Marvin is best known for. This film, released in 1967 and directed by Robert Aldrich, features a big roster of talent, including Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes, Robert Ryan, and football star- turned actor, Jim Brown in his first role. I like how the army brass, for the most part are played by establishment type actors who have worked Hollywood for awhile while the Dirty Dozen are mostly newer, anti-establishment actors. That is why it so fitting for Marvin to play the groups’ leader.
The soundtrack was done by Frank DeVol (1911-1999). De Vol was an accomplished musician who became a composer and arranger as well as an occasional actor. After having much success in records and radio, De Vol took his efforts to Hollywood where he worked on soundtracks for both the small and big screen.
This album is ok. It is not like the movie was known for its music. However, the soundtrack work is quite apt for the film. I lot of the songs have the old standard “You’re In The Army Now” woven in to them. It makes for a good effect during the training scenes at the beginning for the movie. For a sample, I decided to pick a song that shows this. I chose “The Sham Battle” which played during the war-games sequence. Not only does this song reference “In The Army”, it also quote “Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree”.
Since Trini Lopez was in the movie, the album also features a full out version of his song “Bramble Bush”. This cross promotion was probably why Lopez was in the movie in the first place. I believe Lopez plays an acoustic segment of this song in one of the barrack scenes. Lopez is still alive as of this writing. Anyway, I am using his song as a sample as well.
Satisfactory record.