[Hopalong]

This is a really cool beer commercial featuring Lee Van Cleef doing some great fast draw work. One of our forum members was the cinematographer. I don't know if we wants to be identified or not, so I will leave that up to him. But please enjoy!

Bavaria commercial - Lee van Cleef - YouTube

 

[broknaxl]

Thats pretty good. I liked Lee Van Cleef as a cowboy or gunslinger. Interesting.

 

[LEO918]

Fun commercial. We'll probably will never see a commercial anything like that again.

 

[DawnPatrol6]

I plead guilty. As DP on this commercial I cringe a little to see how bad the You Tube uploads of it look compared to how it originally looked, but you get the idea. Here is a slightly better copy without the titling on the picture. In the responses to it on YT, I am the first Dawn Patrol comment. People were very interested in it because of Mr. van Cleef so I tried to tell a few stories from the shoot. This was shot two weeks before he died of a heart attack sadly but we also knew he had cancer when we did this shooting. I think he was trying for every last job for his family. As mentioned on YT, he was so fast that in the first scene wide shot of the draw, in one frame of film the gun was in the holster, the next frame, the muzzle blast. So I had to ask him to slow it down, very politely, just so you could see the draw. He was such a gentleman and had a moment for all the crew guys wanting autographs or photos with him. The SAA and holster was his that he brought with him and used in many of his movies. Another memory for me was the shot where he shoots directly into the camera as the bottle comes into frame. We had a effects marksman from Lucas Film in Marin at the end of the bar next to Lee. He kept missing the shot or was out of sync with Lee's gun. After a few fails, Lee said 'let me do it'. He had some sort of snake loads in the .45. We put a 3/4" of plexiglas up between me and the camera and Lee and he hit it the first try. My claim to fame: being on the barrel end of Lee van Cleefs Colt! For the techies, the first shot where he walks thru the bar door..the sunlight effect was a 12K HMI lamp just outside with smoke to show the rays. This bar is all authentic inside and out and belongs to a good friend in Fiddletown Ca. He owns much of the original gold rush era town. He has stage coaches, wagons, guns, horses you name it and rents out to movie companies. He also did the art direction on Back to the Future 111 and other western features. The beer cap flying off was low tech. We had a mockup cap about 10" in diameter on monofilament set up over the bar and just spun it. The director and agency were dutch from Amsterdam and are huge fans of American Westerns. The director spoke almost no English and me no Dutch so we used sign language and had a dutch translator. But we knew what we wanted to do. Create the Sergio Leone western look Lee was famous for. Thanks for posting Hopalong. Sure is a memory I will never forget. Every now and then I see Mr. van Cleef in The Rifleman or other 50s-60s TV western or his movies, so young and I remember this amazing day. Here is a slightly better link without titleing..(sorry there is an ad at the top which you can skip). :Bavaria Commercial with Lee van Cleef - YouTube

 

[Chicago]

Very very cool !

 

[Major Dad]

Very, Very cool, indeed! Kinda reminds me of Colonel Mortimer in "For a Few Dollars More." My first exposure to Lee was when the movie opened and Lee, mistaken for a Bible-reading preacher on the train, lowered the Good Book and coldly contradicted the limp-wristed guy: "This train will stop in Tucumcari...." Has it really been 24 long years since Lee left us? I still miss him so. Great job on the Bavaria commercial, DP, and thanx for the memories!

 

[Chaffee]

When I was a kid my mom bought me the vhs tape of "For a Few Dollars More". I watched that movie 4-5 times a week, so much so that I had every line memorized. My favorite scene is the encounter between Van Cleef & the Hunchback in the Cantina.

HB: "Well, well if it isn't the smoker.....well......remember me amigo?"
VC: no
HB: "Sure ya do......El Paso"
VC: "It's a small world"
HB: "Yes and very, very bad.......now go ahead, you light another match"
VC: "I generally smoke just after I've eaten.......why don't you come back in about 10 minutes"
HB: "10 minutes you'll be smoking in hell! On your feet!"
And so on.........I haven't watched this film in years & can still remember.

 

[DawnPatrol6]

I recently saw a Rifleman episode early 60s where Lee was a gambler and gunfighter. You thought he would go up against McCain. But it turns out he sides with McCain against three other miscreants and the resulting shootout with Chuck Conners lever 92 on full auto. Lee had a lot of dialogue and and the menacing persona but then he turns out to chose the "right" side. I will have to look up Lee's IMBD to find the episode but its a great showcase for LVC. "Death Never Rides Alone" 1962

 

[kenhwind]

For awhile I was watching "Lawman" reruns on the Western Channel and there are several episodes that Lee Van Cleef was in, also was Lee Marvin's sidekick in "Liberty Valance"

 

[Holdin McGroin]

That's really funny 'cause that's how I open my first beer on Friday after work.