I noticed in the preface that the story, "Nevada Smith" was taken from/ based upon the "Carpetbaggers". I didn't see anything even loosely close to a part of the Carpet Baggers story. What did i miss?
shareI was wondering the same thing. The both have characters named Nevada Smith and Jonas Cord but how could they be the same people Jonas Cord is played by a middle aged looking Brian Keith in Nevada Smith and a young Looking George Peppard in The Carpetbaggers and the Carpetbaggers story so obviously takes place AFTER Nevada Smith. I'm confused.
My vote history link:http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=5504773
The George Peppard character in the Carpetbaggers is Jonas Chord JR.
And just as a piece of trivia; I've heard that the Jonas Chord Jr character is a thinly veiled portrayal of Howard Hughes.
The Jonas Cord in this film would be Jonas Cord Senior, who dies early in THE CARPETBAGGERS. George Peppard is playing J Cord Jnr in that film, who has always had Nevada Smith as an alternative father figure in his life.
shareThe Nevada Smith story is based on a section of The Carpetbaggers novel. Loosely based as I recall, but I haven't read the book in over 40 years.
As others have pointed out, the novel was a roman a clef about Howard Hughes, not to be confused with a biography or even a historical fiction about him.
Alan Ladd played the Nevada Smith character in the 1964 movie. The only reference to the Nevada Smith story line in that movie, which I also haven't seen since it came out, is that Jonas Cord, Jr (George Peppard) used it to blackmail the Alan Ladd character. In the original novel they end up making a movie about Max Sand/Nevada Smith, with no one but Smith knowing about his expert knowledge of the subject.
Thanks everybody for those tidbits of information.
My vote history link:http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=5504773
There is a chapter in the Carpetbaggers dealing with Smith. Later he is shown as a movie star who plays a cowboy for Jonas' studio. The movie "NS" is a prequil to "the Carpetbaggers". I have a copy of the book & if anyone is interested I will supply more detail.
shareBy now you know the connection with the Carpetbaggers, but the Nevada Smith character in the book is very different from this movie. All they did was take the character's name. The character in the book was based on the first great cowboy hero William S. Hart. In the book his story is something like the actual person, but the movie character was completely different. I don't know why they changed it so much, but such is the way of moviedom. Come on boys, let's ride!
Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.
I thought the Nevada Smith character was based on Tom Mix because Mix worked for RKO.
Where are the flying cars? I want my flying car!
Wrong movie--you're thinking of Sunset...
shareI have read Harold Robbins based the character on Tom Mix as well.
As a renaissance chick, I paint, write, and sing loudly off-key.
Here's my attempt to clear up how the second film relates to the first:
In "The Carpetbaggers" the character of Nevada Smith (played by Alan Ladd) is a broken-down old saddle tramp who was given the task of raising the boy Jonas Cord, Jr by the boy's father, Jonas Cord, Sr. After the boy takes over his father's business and diversifies by buying into one of the early movie studios, he puts his former wet nurse to work in a series of cheap westerns. Smith becomes a popular star in the recurring role of Max Sand; Sand is Smith's own real name, which he has not used in decades. In "The Carpetbaggers" there is a vague dialog reference to the shady past of Smith's youth in a scene between Ladd and George Peppard, who plays Cord, Jr. It isn't much to go on, but it's obvious the older man prefers that it not be brought up. This part of Smith's past is the basis for the storyline of the film "Nevada Smith."
In this film, we find that Jonas Cord, Sr. (who dies fairly early on in "The Carpetbaggers" in which he is portrayed by Leif Ericson), is now played by Brian Keith, and is the first man to befriend and help young Max Sand after the brutal murder of Max's parents by Tom Fitch and his gang. As we all know, young Max (he is supposed to be about 16 or so, and a half-breed, so McQueen is obviously far too old and blonde for the part - perhaps a better choice for the role might have been the young Kurt Russell but it's doubtful anyone would have paid to see him at that age - I think he probably had the chops to play the part, though) takes the vengeance trail and by film's end has dispatched Fitch and his two accomplices. The audience is allowed to make the easy inference that Sand (now Smith) and Cord at least renew their acquaintance after Max leaves Fitch for dead, even if they don't reunite immediately.
End of synopsis.
There is quite a large reference to the past of "Nevada Smith"/Max Sand in THE CARPETBAGGERS. Jonas has compiled a large dossier on Nevada's past which he has locked away and presents to Nevada when he hints he wants to leave the organisation. Nevada thinks this might be a blackmail attempt that will come back to haunt him, as it seems he has killed in the past. Later, when Nevada has become a cowboy movie star, Jonas realises that Nevada's first movie is based on his own earlier life as the half-Indian, half-white Max Sand.
Basically in THE CARPETBAGGERS, George Peppard as Jonas has a scene where he basically reads out the plot for a prequel (NEVADA SMITH).
THE CARPETBAGGERS pushed the envelope for sex in modern fiction when it was published in 1961. It became one of the bestselling novels of the 20th century. Though the sex scenes may seem a bit tame today, for sheer narrative drive, storytelling and readability, nothing in today's market can touch it. I last re-read it nine years ago and enjoyed it very much. The movie, by the way, was a shambles. The ideal format for it came along decades later: the television miniseries.
In my case, self-absorption is completely justified.
The Carpetbaggers seemed to have a first part that was vim and vigor, and lost it in the second part--once Alan Ladd and Carroll Baker leave the movie the film flops!
shareI will try to elaborate a bit from what other people have said..In the novel, THE CARPETBAGGERS, each of the main characters was given some separate treatment in individual chapters for each character. To some degree the book was written sort of like a flashback in a movie. Nevada Smith had been orphaned, as a young, young man named Max Sand, when would-be robbers killed his parents (a white man and Indian woman). When the parents were killed one of the killers mutilated the mother and made a tobacco pouch from one of her breasts, not her dress as shown in the movie. So, in the later 19th Century he went on a trail of revenge and killed all three murderers (I believe...it has been nearly 50 years since I read the book.) He was a true "cowboy" and gunfighter. He was long time friends with Jonas Cord senior and his employee. He became an employee of Jonas Junior and was made in to a cowboy movie star, Nevada Smith. He took the pseudonym earlier in his life because he had been a wanted man. The book is an epic sized novel and I found it quite enjoyable when I read it. I do not know if I would enjoy it today but you might like it. In any event this movie is a spin-off from THE CARPETBAGGERS.
sharei read the book decades ago but this character in the book seeks revenge for the death of his mother . The tobacco pouch is made from her actual breast apparently great for keeping the tobacco from drying out . He kills one of the murderers by an old Indian method pretty gruesome if i remember right .Its a good book something to get your teeth into .
shareIt's the backstory of Nevada Smith who was a character in the novel, The Carpetbaggers. It was probably not mentioned in the Carpetbagger movie.
shareYes it was. Did you even watch the movie The Carpetbaggers?
Cord SR dies while arguing with Cord Jr at beginning of movie.
Cord Jr is taking over his father's assets/ companies etc. he is leaving for Germany to learn plastics the day after Dads funeral when Nevada comes in to give his resignation.
He sits down with the man who by his own words was "his real father" Nevada Smith. He was nanny type companion to Cord Jr growing up. Nevada says he is quitting, moving on and wants to go work for one of the Wild West Shows.
Unbeknownst to Nevada, Cord Jr has been collecting information on his nanny (just in case because he is ruthless)and has it all in a manuscript type-- he tells the story of a man who parents were killed who seeks the killers out (can't remember exact words), spent time in Calvary, killed so and so many men, and is wanted in 6 states.
Nevada asks are you going to use this against me at some point (they go back n forth over this issue several times) and Cord Jr promises he will not.
Nevada over the years becomes cowboy movie idol through working stunts etc and comes to help Cord Jr with his movie studio. When they need to produce some fast cheap movies Cord Jr tells Nevada to make movie based on the dossier/his life to give the studio some low budgets hits.
That was all in the Carpetbaggers. There is plenty more I just didn't want to cover everything.
The movie is a camp classic I love it.
As a renaissance chick, I paint, write, and sing loudly off-key.