Something Big (1971)

One of my all time favorites.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Outlaw Joe Baker (Dean Martin) wants to do something momentous in his life. To further this end, he agrees to acquire a Gatling gun from a fellow outlaw, Johnny Cobb (Albert Salmi), in exchange for any woman Joe can find. (Johnny is starved for female companionship.) Johnny starts "holding up" stagecoaches, looking for women, and one day he snatches Mary Anna Morgan (Honor "Pussy Galore" Blackman). The catch is that she turns out to be the never before seen wife of Joes' longtime nemesis, Cavalry colonel Morgan (Brian Keith).Amiable Western comedy never really does deliver "something big" itself, but it's easy enough to take for an hour and 49 minutes. The script by James Lee Barrett isn't really that funny, or that witty, but it does have its moments. Director Andrew V. McLaglen has some fun with the material, as does the well chosen cast, who provide the main reason to watch this romp. Critics have excoriated it over the years, but in truth it's not all that tasteless. By and large, the people who perish are lowlife bad guys, and the violence is never particularly gory. Everything is gorgeously photographed by Harry Stradling Jr. The music score by Marvin Hamlish is so ridiculously peppy that it's quite amusing.Dino is good in the lead, and Keith is a solid straight man in the face of some real buffoonery from the people around him. Lovely ladies Blackman, and Carol White as Joes' would-be fiancée Dover, add to the attractiveness of the scenery. Lots of familiar faces fill out the supporting cast: Ben Johnson, Don Knight, Joyce Van Patten, Denver Pyle, football star Merlin Olsen, Robert Donner, Harry Carey Jr., Judi Meredith, Edward Faulkner, Paul Fix, David Huddleston, and Bob Steele. There's also an endearing canine co-star for Dino who rides in a pouch strapped to his horse."Something Big" offers nothing special, but it's reasonably entertaining for the duration.Six out of 10.

A comedic western, in which slapstick is held to a minimum. That is, it's not intended to be a total farce. It's a fun experience, now available at YouTube, as well as on DVD and Blue-ray.One Joe Baker(Dean Martin)is anticipating the arrival of his girlfriend, Dover(Carol White), from Pittsburg. Before she arrives, he wants to do 'something big' to impress her, and provide funds for their trip east and wedding. Baker is a bandit, heading a sizable gang of Mexicans, along with Dover's Scottish brother, Tommy. Thus, Baker's idea is to steal a rumored fortune stashed by infamous Mexican bandit Emilio Estevez somewhere in the Mexican village he and his numerous gang members have taken over. Baker figures he needs a Gatling machine gun to even the odds that his gang can outshoot Emilio's gang. Hence, most of the screen play relates to efforts to procure such a gun. This takes an indirect route, beginning with trader Morton, who steals the gun from a federal arsenal. Morton is supposed to sell this to the pair of Cobb and Moon, who will trade it to Baker for a woman he finds(Women are very scarce in this region). Well, Morton ups the price for the gun when he delivers it to Cobb and Moon. Hence, Moon flings his knife at Morton, killing him with a chest strike. Meanwhile, Baker and gang have been holding up various stage coaches, looking for a good woman for Cobb. They find a buxom floozy in one, but Tommy rejects her as not refined enough for Cobb. Finally, they find a refined beautiful lady,(Honor Blackman, as Mary Anna)) and abduct her. Later, they discover she is the wife of Colonel Morgan(Brian Keith), commander of the nearby army post, who has come to accompany the Colonel home upon his imminent retirement. She says she has liked the arrangement where she and the Colonel are together for only one month per year. It's like a new romance each year. Baker and Tommy later decide that she's too refined for Cobb, thus they take the Gatling gun, without giving Cobb a woman. However, they direct him to a pair of man-hungry women out in the boonies, who seem poised to satisfy him.Meanwhile, the Colonel has learned of the abduction of his wife, and goes looking for her and Baker. He eventually finds them, and initially wants to charge Baker with abduction, as well as possession of a stolen firearm. However, Mary Anna has formed a favorable impression of Baker, and argues against charging him with either offense. Baker and gang then go to bandit Emilio's village, which seems deserted at first, but soon opens up with gunfire from everywhere. Miraculously, Baker and gang are not harmed by this hail of bullets, and finally get the Gatling gun in position to mow down the defenders to the last man. They then have to guess where the treasure might be. I leave the rest of the story for you to find out what happens.Both Tommy and Dover have endearing thick Scottish accents. Tommy occasionally plays his bagpipes. Much of the humor relates to the women: primarily Mary Anna Morgan, and the pair of hard rock gold diggers who try to grab anything in pants. This includes the Colonel and his sidekick Bookbinder(Ben Johnson), who are looking for Baker, who has been there recently. The scene where Polly(Joyce Van Patten) and Carrie(Judi Meredith) are vigorously trying to seduce the Colonel and Bookbinder is especially funny. Apparently, the girls succeeded, to the Colonel's embarrassment....Also, Baker's small dog rates a few chuckles here and there. It's small enough to fit in Baker's saddlebag, with front end sticking out.

This film was Dean's followup to "Airport". It's not a great film, but it is a decent Western, and better than I remembered it being...perhaps because I sometimes confuse it with another of Dean's films from that era -- "Texas Across The River".Perhaps it's my age that has led to a great appreciation of this film. When it came out I was a 22 year old fan of Dean's. Now, seeing it again, I'm a 63 year old fan of Dean's. And Dean is...well, cool in this movie. But the appreciation comes with the story -- the realization as one gets older that if he never has done "something big" (fortunately I have), then there may be that desire to do "something big" before one dies. And Dean plays it pretty well here. He's the right age and has the right attitude. And, before I forget to mention it, does most of his own horse riding in it (Dean actually owned show horses and was quite good). That's not to say that Dean's character is totally likable -- after all, he is kidnapping a woman to trade her for a Gatling gun! Although, they keep it in bounds by Dean's realization that what he's doing is bothering his conscience.I've never been much of a fan of Brain Keith, but he does fine as the army colonel who wants to know what Dean is going to do that is "something big", only to find out that part of it is kidnapping his (Keith's) wife! Honor Blackman played her part as Brian Keith's wife quite well here...she gave it he gravitas needed. Ben Johnson was fun as the Army scout. Albert Salmi appropriately disgusting as a dirty character desperately in need of a woman. Joyce Van Patten good as a man-hungry woman. Denver Pyle is a totally meaningless role; why did he even take it? And Harry Carey Jr as a peg-legged cowboy was entertaining.Very watchable and a bit tongue in cheek.

I think the only thing that prevents Something Big from being a classic comic western is the awful let down at the end when Dean Martin decides to really do that Something Big he came west from Pennsylvania to do. The shootout at the end if anything is an anti-climax to the wild goings-on that preceded it throughout the movie.Dean Martin after coming west to seek fame and fortune or at least enough to marry Carol White and support her is the leader of a group of outlaws with Carol's brother Don Knight as his number two. He wants to really make a score, do Something Big before returning to the east and another outlaw Albert Salmi has an interesting proposition for him.Salmi's been without a woman for way too long now and his sidekick Robert Donner is not one to bring out the love that dare not speak its name. There just ain't too many folks of the female persuasion out in the territory. So if Martin will get him a woman, Salmi can lay his hands on a Gatling Gun to be used in whatever that Something Big scheme will be.So what does Dino do? He holds up a few stagecoaches and then gets what he considers a proper woman, Honor Blackman famous as Pussy Galore of James Bond fame. The problem there is Dino didn't check her hand for a wedding ring, she's the wife of Brian Keith the commander of the local army post.Ironically enough this silliness actually works as Brian Keith and chief scout Ben Johnson go searching the territory for Martin and Blackman. The various misadventures of the players goes for most of the film and when Martin does put his big scheme into operation in the last 20 minutes or so of the film, it is so anti-climatic, it's actually a let down.Something Big is a very funny film for some reason not often shown. All the players do well, but my absolute favorites are Joyce Van Patten, and Judi Meredith the Standish sisters. A pair of frontier widows who really know how to be hospitable to a passing stranger, especially if the stranger is in pants.Hopefully TCM will get this film and run it and soon.