Zeus

The Meanest Men In The West (1974)

• Directors
  • Charles S. Dubin
  • Samuel Fuller
• Writers
  • Samuel Fuller(screenplay)
  • Ed Waters(screenplay)
• Stars
  • Charles Grodin
  • Lee Marvin
  • Charles Bronson

  Meanest Men in the West is basically a pair of episodes of The Virginian, chopped up by Universal Pictures' editing department and mashed together (with help from some voice doubles) into what could almost pass for a coherent plot. Judge Henry Garth (Lee J. Cobb), owner of Shiloh ranch, becomes the object of a revenge plot by Kalig (Lee Marvin), a criminal whom the judge sent away to prison for ten years. In the recut version of the two shows (of which the first was directed and written by Samuel Fuller), Kalig sends his half-brother (played by Charles Bronson, in footage from a completely unrelated episode of the show) to kidnap Garth's ranch foreman, the Virginian (James Drury). Not all of it makes sense, but since the two stories were never supposed to be related, that's understandable.