Paint Your Wagon

Paint Your Wagon is a 1969 American Western musical film starring Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, and Jean Seberg. The film was adapted by Paddy Chayefsky from the 1951 musical Paint Your Wagon by Lerner and Loewe. It is set in a mining camp in Gold Rush-era California. It was directed by Joshua Logan. Plot When a wagon crashes into a ravine, prospector Ben Rumson finds two adult occupants, brothers, one of whom is dead and the other of whom has a broken arm and leg. During the dead man's burial, gold dust is discovered at the grave site. Ben stakes a claim on the land and adopts the surviving brother as his "Pardner" while he recuperates. Pardner hopes to make enough in the gold rush to buy some land and is suspicious of the fast-living Ben. Ben claims that while he is willing to fight, steal, and cheat at cards, he will never betray a partner. Ben will share the spoils of prospecting on the condition that Pardner takes care of him in his moments of drunkenness and melancholy. After the discovery of gold, "No Name City" springs up as a tent city, with the miners alternating between wild parties and bouts of loneliness. The men become frustrated with the lack of female companionship, and the arrival of Jacob Woodling, a Mormon with two wives, is enough to catch everyone's attention. The miners persuade Woodling to sell one of his wives to the highest bidder. Elizabeth, Jacob's younger wife, agrees to be sold, as she is unsatisfied with her current husband.