The Magnificent Seven !

Magnificent Seven Art Print
Casaro, Renato
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One of the greatest of the greats, The Magnificent Seven, is on AMC today (3:15PM | 2:15C ). Check your listings for the time in your area.

The Magnificent Seven Art Print
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Did you know that The Magnificent Seven was inspired by Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai (1954)? Is that fascinating or what? The Magnificent Seven were, of course: Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, and Brad Dexter. What a line-up. The amazing thing is, the film was cast very quickly to beat an actor’s strike.

The Magnificent Seven Poster
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Did You Know? (Courtesy of IMDB)

Mexican censors required the peasants to wear clean clothes.

Yul Brynner was married on the set. The celebration used many set props.

James Coburn (Britt) and Robert Vaughn (Lee) were close friends for almost 50 years but this is their only film together.

Yul Brynner made sure he always appeared taller than Steve McQueen in the film. He even made a little mound of dirt and stood on it for their shots together! McQueen casually kicked at the mound every time he passed by it.

According to Eli Wallach’s autobiography, Yul Brynner had a major problem with what he considered to be Steve McQueen trying to upstage him. According to Wallach, McQueen would do things when on screen with Brynner to draw attention to his character. Examples: Shaking the shotgun shells, taking off his hat to check the sun during the hearse scene, and leaning off his horse to dip his hat in the river when the Seven cross into Mexico.

Brynner was supposedly so worried about McQueen stealing his thunder that he hired an assistant to count the number of times McQueen touched his own hat when he (Brynner) was speaking!

Priceless. I’m going to watch for that next time I watch the movie.

The Magnificent Seven Poster
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By the way, AMC’s website has a completely cool tool. You can search through the guide of movies and shows for the month, find the ones you want to watch, and sign up for e-mail reminders. They, then, will let you know when the show you want to see is coming up. If you’re like me, you’re tired of great movies passing by - this way, they’ll never get past us again!