shake' it down dragline

 shake' it down dragline





                 This one is a line from one of the best films of the 1960's with everything you could ask for in terms or cast, script, score and cinematography. It featured the great Paul Newman at the peak of his career and a once in lifetime performance by George Kennedy as Dragline. It is set in a miserable Florida prison but the focus is on the brotherhood that forms around one Lucas Jackson who galvanizes the barracks full of hopeless criminals sentenced to hard labor. It was a movie we all saw more than once and quoted repeatedly for the next few years. Strother Martin was brilliant as usual saying "what we have here is a failure to communicate" that stuck in the public consciousness as a motto for a generation. Somehow the film seemed to be anti-establishment which is why it appealed to us so much at that time of our lives. Jackson just will not give up trying to escape while out on the road gang and asks to go relieve himself in the bushes. He is told to keep shaking the bushes to show where he is at and the "Man with no eyes" shoots with his rifle close to his bush to keep him shaking. However, Luke has attached a string to the bush and has made run for it. In other scenes he and his goof buddy are  laughing about the trick it is stated "shakin' it down dragline" The saying survived with the fellas and was sometimes used when one needed to visit the bathroom when it would be stated "shakin' it down dragline" Just one more great line from cinema that enriched our young lives.





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