Paint Your Wagon

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Joshua Logan directs. William A. Fraker behind the camera. Nelson Riddle scores. Robert C. Jones cuts. A long sit — settle in. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, German.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Clocks in at 164 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
• 257 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
• 3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, German.
• 4Directed by Joshua Logan, shot by William A. Fraker. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Original score by Nelson Riddle. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 6Editor Robert C. Jones shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 7Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood and Jean Seberg carry the top of the cast.
• 8Marketing tagline: "Stake Your Claim To The Musical Goldmine of '69!".
• 9IMDB entry: tt0064782 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography

William A. Fraker

Original score

Nelson Riddle

Editing

Robert C. Jones

Production design

John Truscott

Costume design

John Truscott

Makeup / hair

Vivienne Walker

Runtime

164 min · 2h 44m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$20,000,000

Box office

$31,678,778

Return

158% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

PG-13

IMDB

Paint Your Wagon (1969) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

45% 🥫 Rotten

Metacritic

50/100

IMDB rating

6.6/10 · 15,580 votes

MPAA

PG-13

Also by

Joshua Logan

• 
  Sayonara

  1957 · ★ 6.7
• 
  Fanny

  1961 · ★ 6.7
• 
  Ensign Pulver

  1964 · ★ 6.5
• 
  Picnic

  1955 · ★ 6.4
• 
  Camelot

  1967 · ★ 6.2
• 
  Bus Stop

  1956 · ★ 6.1

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  "Paint Your Wagon" Trailer

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• PoodleDaddy2018-07-15

  Paint Your Wagon is a classic musical set in the mountains of California. A Great cast and pure entertainment. Despite the generally silly plot, the movie provides fun spirited viewing. Besides who knew that Clint Eastwood could sing (well sort of).

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• r96sk2022-01-13
  ★ 5/10

  2hrs 40mins... 160 whole minutes... Why? What an absolute bore, and a waste, <em>'Paint Your Wagon'</em> turns into. Why did they make this so long? The plot needn't be that extended, the music doesn't carry it either. It has a few decent parts, but they are surrounded by excess fat. Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood and Jean Seberg stopped me from hating this, I will say, because that trio are all solid despite the aforementioned. It's amusing, at first anyway, to see Marvin and Eastwood sing, as they aren't the types you'd expect to do so. I'm not saying they can sing per se, but it's comically positive - which is the film's intentional, after all. I wish it was shorter, you could easily take an hour off this and not lose anything. It's a right drag, unfortunately.

  Read full review ↓
• CinemaSerf2023-06-03
  ★ 6/10

  This is a fine adaptation of Lerner & Loewe's tale of the escapades of two prospectors on the hunt for gold, whisky and a wife... Clint Eastwood, the slightly more sophisticated tea-totaller, is actually quite a revelation as "Pardner"; yep - he can actually hold a tune alongside the wonderfully curmudgeonly Lee Marvin "Ben Rumson". When a Mormon gent arrives in "No Name City" he decides to auction one of his wives; Marvin makes a purchase and soon there is an uniquely amicable little ménage à trois going on with "their" wife Jean Seberg - the no-nonsense "Elizabeth". The story does take quite a while to get going, but the three principals with the help of some wonderful orchestrations (Nelson Riddle at the helm) of "Wandrin' Star"; "They Call the Wind Maria" & "I Talk to the Trees" all deliver really rather well (if, perhaps not quite so tunefully by Marvin). The actors are having great fun amongst the rain, mud and poverty - and that fun can at times be quite contagious; there are some really enjoyable ensemble scenes/numbers too. The story is, however, strung out far too thinly over what seemed like an age and though there are some quite pithy one liners, the comedy is equally sparsely distributed throughout this all but three hour film. The last ten minutes are quite an achievement for the scenery/props folks as we almost end up where we started... It's entertaining fun....

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Paramount Pictures

  US

• AL

  Alan Jay Lerner Productions

• 

  Malpaso Productions

  US

Key crew

• ProducerAlan Jay Lerner
• EditorRobert C. Jones
• MusicalAlan Jay Lerner
• AdaptationPaddy Chayefsky
• Production DesignJohn Truscott
• CateringDominic Santarone
• OrchestratorWillard Jones
• Transportation CoordinatorAlfred Schultz
• CateringRuth Santarone
• SongsFrederick Loewe
• StuntsDar Robinson
• StuntsBob Herron
• PropsRobert Eaton
• Costume CoordinatorAnne Laune
• Special EffectsMaurice Ayers
• Costume DesignJohn Truscott
• GafferJoe Smith
• HairdresserVivienne Walker
• Art DirectionCarl Braunger
• Set DecorationJames L. Berkey
• Costume SupervisorBill Jobe
• Sound MixerWilliam Randall Jr.
• Recording SupervisionFred Hynes
• Makeup ArtistFrank McCoy

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• mining
• polyamory
• prospector

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical1969-10-15PG-13

Also known as

International titles

• Fesd át a kocsid!HU
• La leyenda de la ciudad sin nombreES
• ペンチャーワゴンJP