This one may look like a stretch, but it’s not really. Warner Archive has done us a huge favor by adding The Outfit (1973) to its roster. This tough crime picture, based on a Richard Stark novel (as was the mighty Point Blank) and starring Robert Duvall, boasts a cast full of 50s Western (and film noir) veterans.
Marie Windsor (my all-time favorite actress) from Little Big Horn (1951), Bounty Hunter (1954) and others.
Timothy Carey of The Last Wagon (1956) and One-Eyed Jacks (1961).
Elisha Cook, Jr. from Shane (1953) and The Lonely Man (1957).
Those three were all in Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing (1956). Then, for good measure, there’s Robert Ryan from The Naked Spur (1953). That’s quite a supporting cast, folks.
It was directed by John Flynn, who also gave us the disturbing, excellent Rolling Thunder (1977, which is also making its way to DVD-R).
The Outfit used to turn up on TCM every once in a while, badly needing its 1.85 framing. Warner Archive seems to have taken care of that.
I love this movie–it’s my second favorite Stark picture. It’s the best Don Siegel movie that Don Siegel didn’t make, and a 1st cousin to Charley Varrick, which came out the same month, same year, and since both have Sheree North and Joe Don Baker. Sheree North in that tight sweater trying to work Joe Don Baker, and him being too cool to tumble. And you didn’t mention Jane Greer! And another perfectly tuned needy neurotic played by Karen Black! But Duval is just so fantastic–probably closer to Parker than Lee Marvin. Duval’s Parker would have made short work of Mel Gibson’s.
If I ran my own cable show or theater the first half of the ’70′s would get an inordinate amount of play.
I couldn’t think of a Western with Jane Greer aside from TV.
To me, the early 70s were the last GREAT period in American film. I love all that character-driven genre-ish stuff, from Two-Lane Blacktop to Charley Varrick to The French Connection.
Parker pictures are such a weird, varied lot. I can’t wait to see The Outfit again.
Greer made a couple of Westerns–of course I had to look it up–but she was in Station West with Dick Powell, which is pretty good, and did a B Zane Grey picture, Sunset Pass, which is probably not so pretty good, though I never saw it.
I agree about the 70′s, though I’m prejudiced, but it seemed like everything was up for grabs, and filmmakers were reveling in all kinds of new freedoms coming out of the 60′s. Plus they had all those oddball independent markets–they could sell Walking Tall in the south and Superfly in urban houses. Billy Jack and Bruce Lee and and hard core porn, Altman and Aldrich. It was a good time to live in Manhattan, even if NYC was seriously funky. At least the Deuce wasn’t Disneyland.