11/29/2023

Busted!

In Movie and TV Trivia!! posted earlier this month, I featured the first scene of a man hanging upside down beside a cliff in his union suit. Several of you answered correctly that the scene was taken from the 1966 Columbia Pictures film, The Professionals, starring Burt Lancaster as Bill Dolworth. His co-star was the great Lee Marvin who played Henry "Rico" Fardan in this classic western.

In the opening credits, Dolworth is caught in an upstairs bedroom late at night making love to a beautiful woman. This theme appears over and over in westerns (to state the obvious). Anyway, the gal's husband comes home unexpectedly and realizes what is happening. He does his best to quickly break down the door. 

The naked Dolworth barely has time to jump out of bed, pull on his union suit and escape through the open window.... 

.




He ends up out on the balcony as gunshots are fired. He escapes from the irate husband by dropping from the second story to the ground, He runs away  in the dark, barefoot in his long underwear...




 

                 Button up that rear flap!!


Apparently, Dolworth was soon caught by authorities and sent off to prison. Dolworth is eventually united with Rico. Surprisingly, he apparently was given no prison clothes to wear as Rico finds him still barefoot and only in his union suit.
As they share a bottle of whiskey, 
Rico convinces Dolworth to join him in an exploit. He tells him he'll make big money but he won't lose his pants.
His life maybe, but not his pants.














It's settled then. Through Rico's power of persuasion (or most likely after a bribe is paid to the prison staff), Dolworth is released from incarceration. His chains are cutoff. He then accompany's his new boss to the train station still in his underwear...









Rico then runs down two more men to hire. Their mission is commissioned by an American rancher whose wife has been kidnapped by Mexican revolutionaries. The quartet of specialists are enlisted and the adventure begins.

Along the way, the unfortunate Dolworth is kidnapped himself by the Mexican Banditos, stripped of his clothes, hat and boots and hung up by his heels in his union suit and socks...











After heart-stopping threats by the leader of the gang...



Dolworth is rescued by his old friend and the other two partners. 
Despite Rico's earlier guarantee, Dolworth did indeed lose his pants....



















So, are the men successful in finding and rescuing the kidnapped rancher's wife?

 Check out this classic western on a variety of streaming services purchase on-line.

                                                   The Professionals

(Special Note: Burt Lancaster did all the stunts in this film
 including hanging upside down in his union suit while
the blood rushed to his head. Great actor and stuntman!)

3 comments:

  1. Chris: back in the 1960s I went to the movie house with my dad and older brother who both wore union suits. At the time I wore the two piece variety. We all love this movie and I remember we all thought it funny to see Burt Lancaster, running around and that union suit of his. I saw the light many years ago and started wearing union suits myself. And agree with you and many of your fans that this long underwear is warm, comfortable and fun…. Paul, Castle, Rock, Colorado

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  2. A great movie! I’ve seen it 3 or 4 times over the y years…. Max

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  3. Lancaster was an accomplished acrobat and trapeze artist before going into the movies. That's why he was so agile and able to do his own stunts. The studio he was at in the early 50s even wrote a script around his abilities as a trapeze artist and that was "Trapeze" with Tony Curtis and Gina Lolobrigida.

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