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The Professionals Overview:

The Professionals (1966) was a Action - Western Film directed by Richard Brooks and produced by Richard Brooks.

Academy Awards 1966 --- Ceremony Number 39 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best CinematographyConrad HallNominated
Best DirectorRichard BrooksNominated
Best WritingRichard BrooksNominated
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The Professionals BlogHub Articles:

Richard Brooks' The Professionals

By Rick29 on Nov 7, 2019 From Classic Film & TV Cafe

Lee Marvin as the group's leader. It was a commercial and critical success. It earned three Academy Award nominations. It starred two of the biggest stars of the 1960s. And yet, The Professionals (1966) rarely gets the attention it deserves these days. When it was shown on TCM last June, it got a l... Read full article

The Professionals (1966)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Oct 21, 2015 From 4 Star Films

Who wouldn’t be enticed by a film entitled The Professionals? It feels a little like an amalgamation of The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, with a  little sprinkling of Mission Impossible, and dare I say The Wild Bunch? We have a band of four big time pros who are brought together to resc... Read full article

The Professionals (1966)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Oct 21, 2015 From 4 Star Films

Who wouldn’t be enticed by a film entitled The Professionals? It feels a little like an amalgamation of The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, with a  little sprinkling of Mission Impossible, and dare I say The Wild Bunch? We have a band of four big-time pros who are brought together to resc... Read full article

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The Professionals Quotes:

Jesus Raza: You know, of course, one of us must die.
Bill Dolworth: Maybe both of us.
Jesus Raza: To die for money... is foolish.
Bill Dolworth: To die for a woman is *more* foolish. Any woman. Even her.
Hans Ehrengard: God almighty, I've known heat before, but this is... I hate the desert. It's got no... pity.
[passes out]
Bill Dolworth: Men on that train are Colorados. Expert marksmen. Also expert at torture. Couple o' years ago they burned and looted a town of three thousand people. When they finished, forty were left. Fardan's wife was one o' the lucky forty. "Why're you a revolutionary?" they asked her. "To rid the world of scum like you," she said. They stripped her naked, ran 'er through the cactus 'til her flesh was - The other thirty-nine rebels watched her die, and - did nothing. Just watched.
Jake Sharp: Mr. D, whatever got a loving man like you in the dynamite business?
Bill Dolworth: Well, I'll tell you. I was born with a powerful passion to create. I can't write, can't paint, can't make up a song...
Hans Ehrengard: So you explode things.
Bill Dolworth: Well that's how the world was born. Biggest damn explosion you ever saw.
Hans Ehrengard: Could be anybody. Even friendly.
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The Professionals Facts
Lee Marvin was drunk throughout a lot of the filming, and was in fact so drunk during a scene atop a giant rock that assistant director Tom Shaw intervened out of fear that Burt Lancaster would "take Lee Marvin by the ass and throw him off that mountain".
The "French 75" mentioned in the dialog refers to the 75mm field gun artillery piece, Model 1897, issued by France to America's National Guard during World War I and also used by the Mexican army.
The cast and crew stayed in Las Vegas while working on this project. Actor Woody Strode wrote in his memoirs that he and Lee Marvin pulled several pranks, including shooting an arrow at the famous smiling cowboy neon sign damaging it briefly.
After Burt Lancaster ambushes Jack Palance's men and shoots Jack Palance. Palance shouts out for "Francisco". The following shot of a dead Francisco also shows a horse having a bowel movement in the background.
During the filming of the scene where Maria attempts to escape through a canyon wired with dynamite, Claudia Cardinale's stunt double was badly injured during the explosion. Cardinale, who had never ridden a horse before, performed the stunt herself for the final cut, and escaped uninjured.
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