Had to really coerce my GF to watch it with me. I initially kinda “lied” there was romance in it (just by looking at the images) and she looked at me “yeah right”. After the movie. she was choked up and mentioned John Wayne gave up the woman of his dreams bec. he knew she had a better future with Stoddard.
and one last thing I noticed. It was a young Lee Van Cleef as one of Liberty (Lee Marvin’s) henchmen.
Yes, the cast was great. It is a classic. Has a genuine moral.
How many kids today need a moral to carry a movie. They see so many villains get away with their theft or heist, they have no clue they are bad guys anymore.
Back in the day, an audience would have stormed the screen rather than see a bad guy profit from his crimes. It was right around 1970 when the anti-hero arose (thanks again Commies!) and the bad guys could profit from their crimes.
Old Italian Job — bad guys look like their spoils will elude them.
New Italian Job — they recover their spoils and live like Kinds.
Old Ocean’s 11 — their money burns up in the crematorium.
New Ocean’s 11 — they profit and live like Kings.
No audience before 1970 would tolerate bad guys profiting from their ill gotten gains. Even in 1968’s Thomas Crown Affair, Steve McQueen returns the priceless painting because he is doing it just for the thrill, not for the money.
And people under 30 try to tell me America has exprienced no moral decay and that you don’t need to be Christian to be moral.